Discrimination

I was with a group of my friends this past week. Collectively we did a nice job of representing the entire spectrum of attached status; single, married, and separated. We got to talking about things and someone mentioned that they felt that their recent marriage has given them a renewed feeling of respect and prestige in the office. He went on to say that his colleague have actually started to put more faith in him now that he put a wedding ring on.

He's only been married a 3 weeks!

So the theory plainly stated is that married people (or is it just married men) get more respect around the office. Furthermore, being married adds unsubstantiated legitimacy to you and your work.

I couldn't agree more.

As a young professional in a service industry, I am constantly judged on appearance and performance which is totally normal and acceptable. In business, you are selling a product and the image that surrounds it. In a service industry, you are that product and thus you are the image. Fine. But what has caught me off guard is that being married or wearing a ring is part of that. You are discriminated against for being single.

But what's the thinking behind it? Are you demonstrating commitment and people assume you are willing to "go all the way"? Is it a maturity thing - where your marriage connotates your heighten understanding of "things"? Or is it that misery loves company and fellow married people are all memebers of a club that the singles don't "get"? Or does this get filed into the unexplained file to be solved later?

Regardless of why or how, single people should just resign themselves to the fact that if and when they get married they too will judge single people and do everything they can to trample on them, steal their ideas, and make their lives miserable. That's cool.

Misery really does love company.