A few years ago during brunch, I overheard a guy tell one of his friends that his company (a major investment firm) tends to hire “ugly women” so that they don’t get sued for sexual harassment.

I think it was the only time I didn’t want to finish my hash browns since I wanted to HURL IT ON HIS SMUG FACE (and I loooove hash browns so you know I was seriously furious).

As much as we want to believe that appearances don’t matter in a work environment, a recent Newsweek survey found the following:

• 13% of women and 10% of men said they’d consider cosmetic surgery if it made them more competitive at work
• 57% of hiring managers said that qualified but unattractive candidates are likely to have a harder time landing a job
• More than half of these hiring managers advised spending as much time and money on “making sure they look attractive” as on perfecting their resume
• 61% of these managers said it would be an advantage for a woman to wear clothing showing off her figure at work
• Asked to rank employee attributes in order of importance, managers placed looks above education

What??!!!

I don’t know what’s more shocking – my naivety that looks really do matter in the office or the fact that the hiring managers surveyed were actually honest about their interview process.