SMILE!!!

[dalesys]

Don't ever tell me to "Smile" unless you're Nat or Natalie. It just ain't Cole.

[EricKei]

Jokes like that are simply Unforgettable Unforgivable...

[cindybubbles]

Someone once caught me smiling to myself on the subway. He mentioned that it's a shame that people don't smile anymore and congratulated me. I thought that, though it was nice, it was also creepy for a stranger to thank me for something that I considered private!

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I guess it would have been bad if you had confessed that you were smiling only because you were picturing the subway train going off the track and bursting into flames... Of course, nowadays you'd probably end up being a suspected terrorist just for saying that...

[bunnyboy]

I'm still under orders to not fake a smile.

Oddly the customers aren't complaining.

[Syriilord]

I despise this demand. I hear the "Smile!" crap every time it's busy. Next time I think I'll quote from Murder on the Orient Express.

Hercule Poirot: You never smile, madame?
Princess Dragomiroff: My doctor has advised against it.

I prefer a slightly modified quote from Futurama: "I'm not allowed to smile. Court order"

[Antisocial_Worker]

Yep. Time to trot this story out again...

Back when I worked in Motel Hell, I got written up once during a visit from our corporate overlords because I didn't show enough teeth when I smiled. It wasn't because I wasn't smiling. I was. It was because I wasn't showing enough teeth. In retaliation, I developed a maniacal, open-mouthed grin that showed all of my teeth, all at once. I could hold it for about forty-five minutes before my face started to cramp. During this time I would point at my teeth to emphasize that I had all of them and they were naturally straight and evenly spaced, not to mention well-maintained.

The corporate overlord didn't appreciate me following her around pointing at my teeth, but I did it all the same.

[morgana]

The corporate overlord didn't appreciate me following her around pointing at my teeth, but I did it all the same.

I luff chu . . .

[Pagan]

Yep. Time to trot this story out again...

Back when I worked in Motel Hell, I got written up once during a visit from our corporate overlords because I didn't show enough teeth when I smiled. It wasn't because I wasn't smiling. I was. It was because I wasn't showing enough teeth. In retaliation, I developed a maniacal, open-mouthed grin that showed all of my teeth, all at once. I could hold it for about forty-five minutes before my face started to cramp. During this time I would point at my teeth to emphasize that I had all of them and they were naturally straight and evenly spaced, not to mention well-maintained.

The corporate overlord didn't appreciate me following her around pointing at my teeth, but I did it all the same.

That is just one of the most utterly stupid things I've ever heard! Love your response though.

I'd be constantaly written up. While I do smile, I rarely show my teeth much because I don't like the way they look. I'm very self-concious of them.

Makes me wonder what they would do if you had a couple of teeth missing....

[Gizmo]

I really can't win anyway. I just have this evil sort of expression 24/7. If I'm not smiling, people think I want to kill someone. If I am smiling, they think I did.

My husband said that you just described me. I do get asked "what did you do" if people catch me smiling.

I did once say to a customer that I didn't look happy today since I was actually unwell and was just finishing my shift before going home to collapse like I had all Christmas. The fact I said this with a sore throat and barely there voice did help. Of course now I think back and realise they probably complained and it was one of the reasons I didn't get asked to stay on after New Year*.

*(as well as being sick and insisting on keeping to the rules of not coming into work when I'd been... unwell... in the last 72 hours. They actually told me I couldn't tell them I wouldn't be in the next day when I'd literally told them "I've got a contagious illness and as per the staff handbook shouldn't come back to work until Wednesday and I probably won't be well enough to do so anyway".)