by Beks
In my business dealings, I’m used to getting comments about my age.
‘Beks won’t understand this reference, she’s too young’
Or
‘You are doing this project all by yourself?’
I feel like saying, ‘Yes, and those crazy folks at the DMV let me drive without parental supervision too!’
I keep my mouth shut, work hard, and let them re-evaluate their opinions based on my performance.
Today, someone fairly high up made a comment about ‘kids born in the 90’s like Beks’ and I thought I’d cough up a lung.
I’m all about looking young. I’ve thought about Botox as ‘preventative maintenance’ for crows feet. But now I’m worried I won’t get taken seriously without a few wrinkles.
I know. Complaining about not having enough wrinkles seems silly, but it gets old having to prove myself over and over again.
But…
I’ve learned to work harder than I should have to work and maybe that has made me a better employee. Maybe prejudices have pushed me to push myself to prove folks wrong.
Guess I’ll skip the Botox for now… but if I’m feeling lazy, I guess I could always spend more time in the sun and damage my skin.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
I’m pretty sure that I get paid less than I’m worth because I look young. I am young but I look even younger than I am. When I go back to work after my mat leave I will have a less physically demanding job and I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to wear really professional clothes to try to make myself look older so I can make what I’m worth. 🙂 No botox for me!
Lie up about your age – it shuts people up. Seriously though my husband and I are very young (compared to most in on industry) and the proof is in the results.
I know how you feel. The first 10 years or so after I started working professionally I was constantly assumed to be a college intern. Drove me insane. I am now 38 and while I still look younger than my age, I am no longer carded or mistaken for a student intern. I admit, I miss it a little. However, now I look the same age as my much younger (turns 30 next week) significant other. There are advantages to looking young!
I am totally with you! I am very young looking, and sometimes comments that people make really irk me. I am a teacher without kids, so a lot of my students’ parents feel the need to inform me of things that I am *obviously* too young to know or understand.
One thing that really drove me crazy was when I was reading a book with one of my small groups. I had a parent volunteer in there at the time. The story had a typewriter in it, and I asked the kids if they had ever seen one. She walked by me and asked if I had ever seen one, and told me that I was probably too young to. Come on, give me some credit! Yes I have seen a typewriter.
I look about 10 years younger than I am, so I’ve gotten those comments, too, but not work. I’ve gotten them at church, where if you’re single and young looking people assume you’re too young to know anything. It’s incredibly irritating, so I started slipping comments into conversation that would indicate my age.
Oy, this happens to me all of the time. When I began my current job, I kept dropping references to my prior job to kill the assumption that I came straight out of school. A blazer helps, too.