So, I was scrolling through stuff the other day and saw people going on about tall guys versus short guys again. It’s wild how worked up folks get about a few inches here or there. Makes you think, right?
It actually reminded me of something that happened a while back. Wasn’t exactly about height, but it was all about snap judgments, which feels kinda similar.
My Little Adventure in Freelancing Hell
Okay, so a couple of years ago, I was trying to pick up some extra work. You know, side hustle stuff. I landed on this potential gig doing some online organizing for this dude. Sounded easy enough – sorting digital files, basic admin tasks. We’d only messaged back and forth, seemed alright.
Then came the video call. Just a quick chat to supposedly ‘finalize’ things. Now, I work from home, right? So I wasn’t exactly in a three-piece suit. Just a regular shirt, sitting in my home office. The moment the call connected, I could feel the vibe shift. It was weird.
This guy, who’d been perfectly normal in text, suddenly got really stiff. He started asking all these kinda personal questions, not really about the job anymore. Like he was trying to suss out if I was ‘legit’ or something. Kept hammering on about needing someone ‘super professional’ and ‘detail-oriented’. Bro, the job was basically dragging files into folders.
- He asked what my main job was.
- He asked why I needed extra money.
- He even commented on my room background, like it wasn’t ‘corporate’ enough.
It felt like he took one look at me on video and decided I wasn’t the ‘type’ he wanted. Maybe I didn’t look like his idea of a serious worker? Who knows. Maybe he expected someone taller? Haha, just kidding… mostly. But seriously, it felt like he judged the book by its cover, big time.
The call ended awkwardly. He said he’d ‘be in touch’. Yeah, right.
Ghosted and Moving On
Predictably, I never heard from him again. Ghosted. For a simple file-sorting gig. It wasn’t a huge loss, money-wise, but it really rubbed me the wrong way.
It just drove home how quick people are to judge based on stuff that doesn’t matter. Height, looks, the background on your Zoom call… it’s all superficial nonsense. You get sized up in seconds, and sometimes that’s it, decision made.
Anyway, I dusted myself off. A few weeks later, I found another small project. The person just cared about whether I could do the work. We barely even emailed, just got it done. Much better experience.
So yeah, this whole tall vs short thing, it’s just another label people use to make quick, often wrong, assumptions. Best thing you can do is just be yourself and find the people who look past that stuff. Took me a bit to learn that, but it sticks.
