Maybe a makeover should be suggested more often in job search advice? Work on your hair and diet for a few months before you jump ship and you could have better luck.

Commenter A (esp. often a woman, though of any age): I lost a lot of weight and people treat me radically better. I did not change my behavior in a way that explains this; it seems like stigma / prejudice.

Commenter B: I have never met you but it is probably the case that stigma is not relevant and in fact you did somehow become more confident or otherwise start behaving differently in ways that mean your prior and current experiences of the world were somehow deserved.

Which is kind of wild!

One key point:

> Nor do I find evidence of upward job mobility among incumbent workers. Already-employed women do not increase hours, income per household member, or job-to-job moves. If anything, employer changes decline, possibly due to a desire to retain access to health insurance that covers these drugs. These null effects help distinguish a new-match channel from a general productivity or well-being channel

This complicates the idea that it’s just people treating lighter people better. It could well be that a lot of people who take GLP-1s are obese enough where it affects their ability to go out in the world and do stuff, and losing the weight enables people to work.

Someone who is able to getting and sustaining a prescription for GLP-1 is likely in a higher income bracket than one who does not.

Given typical social prejudices, I would not be surprised if the height effect was greater for men and the weight effect was greater for women. GLP-1 drugs seem to provide a (relatively) painless way to control the weight effect; the corresponding treatment for control of height[2] is much more painful, risky, and expensive.

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[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/standing

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/height-surgery-limb-le...