Best thing I've ever said

My spirits were lifted today by a confidence-boosting moment of self-appraisal.
I had the misfortune to be sitting in the canteen at lunchtime with one of the new ‘graduate fast-track management trainee specialists’ - a pumped-up, pompous pig of a woman called Rebecca. This was only an hour after I had finished my ‘attitude review’ meeting with three people from HR.  Our company policy is that all internal investigations are kept strictly and totally confidential, so obviously every other employee on site knew about the complaint against me. Rebecca looked down her nose at me and asked me how it went; betraying for not one second any real concern for my professional wellbeing, but showing a delivery-truck-sized portion of nosiness and gossip-gathering intent. I offered a reply that gave her as little information as possible, only for her to sneer and say “I’m surprised you didn’t make more of an effort to look good. I’d have thought you’d have wanted to make the best impression possible.”
I took a deep breath, resisted the urge to cave her face in with a pepper grinder, and said something along the lines of: “That’s because you’ve fallen into the stereotypical Western trap of equating looking smart with being smart. You’re conditioned to expect a scruffy person to have a scatty mind. But just because you’re better dressed than me, doesn’t mean you’re better suited to management. And just because I was too busy to pick up a razor this morning, doesn’t mean I’m unable to do my job. Being clean-shaven is not a sign of being clear-headed. While you spent an hour on your appearance this morning, I spent an hour inventing ways to increase our revenue. Don’t ever judge my abilities by my appearance.”
And I left.

The meeting went fine, by the way. No further action to be taken, and apologies for any upset it might have caused me.  

RC 30-9-16