The Young Aide

Heightism at work really frustrates me. Short men are not respected and when they are passive they are literally pushed out of the way and when they are aggressive they are laughed off as another "Napoleon" with a short man's complex. At the end of the day they are rarely treated with the same respect that a tall man is granted innately.

Recently, a co-worker and I had a meeting with a man who was about 5'9-5'10". This is the first time this man had met either of us. My co-worker is a muscular man of about 6'2" tall. My co-worker and I are equals in rank at our position. Anyway, this man completely ignored me throughout the meeting and spoke mostly to my co-worker. He frequently referred to my co-worker as Sir, in an obvious attempt to show his esteem and respect for my co-worker. I kid you not, when he finally turned to speak to me he told me that I needed to do something for him in a nasty tone as if I were merely my co-worker's young aide. This was so blatantly obvious that my co-worker mentioned it after the meeting and found it quite amusing. A frequent response to heightism despite the implications of such a phenomenon.