IN THE LEAD: Top Executives Chase Youthful Appearance, But Miss Real Issue
WHEN THE EXECUTIVE in the adjacent office returns from a two-week vacation minus any bags under his eyes or deep lines around his mouth, forget what he tells you about a certain Caribbean resort. Chances are, he has been under the knife.</br></br>Cosmetic surgery, botox and other de-aging skin treatments are becoming de rigueur for baby-boomer executives of both sexes who fear being judged as over the hill. For many, including some top CEOs who haven't yet gone public, plastic surgery is the next step in their rigorous fitness and beauty regimens that include several hours a week at the gym, expensive personal trainers and diet consultants, and hair treatments. "I can't tell you the number of men I know who no longer are gray or who have covered bald spots with hair transplants," says Pat Cook, president of Cook & Co., a Bronxville, N.Y., executive- search firm.</br></br>In addition to vanity, these executives are driven by job insecurity. They believe that looking older in business now means looking vulnerable, not wise and experienced, as might have been the case in the past. So many 50-something managers have suffered layoffs and early retirement that survivors in this age bracket feel pressured to look and act as young as possible to hang onto their posts. And even 45-year-olds who are unemployed in today's tight market worry that wrinkles will cut them out of the running.</br></br>They ignore the financial expense (work on eyelids costs $3,000 to $6,000 and facelifts, $15,000 to $25,000) and the medical risks (Novelist Olivia Goldsmith died last month at the age of 54 during a chin-tuck operation).</br></br>A RECENT SURVEY of senior executives by ExecuNet, a networking and job-search service, found that 82% consider age bias a "serious problem," up from 78% three years ago. And 94% of these respondents, who were mostly in their 40s and 50s, said they thought age had cost them a shot at a particular job.