Did being unattractive hurt your career?

Nurses Career Support

Published

While I'm not trying to be a troll, I sometimes feel that for me, that may be true.

It's not my weight, it's my face mostly. I have had coworkers and pts complain about my face, saying I looked mean. One just told me I was ugly. I don't purposely look mean, it's just the way my face is.

I'm thinking I have a neutral face, but apparently it looks mean to others. One time, I had an interview at a ltc facility and the nursing supervisor came out, looked at me, and went back into his office. No hello, nothing.

Specializes in LAD.

I really only feel ugly once a month. You think breakouts would be gone by now.

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i have trouble with people thinking I am under 18 years old......they always ask me "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I may appreciate looking younger someday, but just not at the moment :wideyed:

That and I had an elderly male patient who happened to have a sports illustrated swimsuit edition calendar in his room....and while doing his assessment, he politely asked me if my butt looked like hers....while pointing at the calendar. :bag:

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.didn't quote.

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Specializes in LAD.
i have trouble with people thinking I am under 18 years old......they always ask me "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I may appreciate looking younger someday, but just not at the moment :wideyed:

That and I had an elderly male patient who happened to have a sports illustrated swimsuit edition calendar in his room....and while doing his assessment, he politely asked me if my butt looked like hers....while pointing at the calendar. :bag:

OMG me too! A lot of older people treat me like I'm in high school still. They'll come to me and ask, "What grade are you in?" Back when I was student teaching for my first degree, another teacher told me to go back to class. LOL it's so embarrassing, but I kind of like it because one day when I'm 40, I might look 30:)

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I'm like that too. I'm 30 but look 21. I get 40 year old women saying, O you're my son's age! lol I also get younger kids talking to me like I'm their peer.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, LTC, Psych, Addictions..
I'm not unattractive but I understand what you mean. People are always asking me what's wrong or if I'm ok and if I'm having a bad day. For some reason my blank face looks like I'm mad or sad and ppl always ask. I've been dealing with it all my life. I just try to fake smile as much as possible. I dnt think that being ugly hurts people's careers but I do believe that attractive people have a easy time in life in general.

When I meet other nurses, if I feel appropriate, will tell then I suffer from "***** face".... and explain that I look upset when I'm not smiling and not to take me that way. They laugh and say something like "oh I thought maybe you were hardcore" or "I thought you looked angry". It helps letting people know. It eases their minds.

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The sad fact is. If you are an unattractive female.. it's like being a guy... you are just going to have to work for the rest of your life.

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Specializes in CVICU.
The sad fact is. If you are an unattractive female.. it's like being a guy... you are just going to have to work for the rest of your life.

Shouldn't you want to work anyway? Who wants to be dependent on another person?

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ugh... the mean face or smile more nonsence....nothing to do with being ugly or unattractive... both types of women get that. do men? are these stupid, obnoxious comments made to men whose neutral face looks less than chipper or just to women? only certain people get these comments even some that never smile don't get them. when theytell you to smile either glare at them or reply , " say sething amusing!"

THANK YOU! I too have the "resting b**** face" and I get comments all the time. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when a male stranger, co-worker, acquaintance, etc. tells me to smile. This is how my face likes to look. It's comfortable. There are way too many other things in the world to worry about for me to focus half my energy on smiling.

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Shouldn't you want to work anyway? Who wants to be dependent on another person?

You're kidding, right? I would LOVE to have a sugar momma take care of me.....

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While I appreciate your post, OP, you really should check your grammar and sentence structure. Posting as though you're texting gets old.

There is nothing in this original post that would warrant that nasty comment.

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Unless someone looks unhygienic or too obese to function well, I've noticed that in general teachers, employers and other nurses are less threatened by and competitive with nurses who are not super attractive or are somewhat over-weight,

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