Today a new hire started working with me. To replace the horrible person who just walked off the job a few months back.
Industrial controls is a predominantly male field. In the eight years I've been doing it, I've only met two women, both of which were not "on the floor" types, but more research and design types, reps from other companies who I worked with on quotes and designing new equipment. The new hire is a woman in her late 30s (judging by her appearance, not something I would ask her). Her previous job involved designing, building, programming, troubleshooting of controls. Pretty much everything we need in a worker. I'm really hoping she works out.
Now on to what makes me a bad person. I'm secretly happy that she isn't super attractive. I'm not saying she's ugly, just that she's not drop dead gorgeous. I think I would have a hard time working closely with someone who was distractingly beautiful. Obviously a fault of my own and not one of the would be person. I do feel bad because I know I wouldn't care what a male looked like if I were working with him. But then again, my brain wouldn't think of a male in terms of attractive/unattractive...