My shift manager said to just smile bigger when customers yell, guess who got screamed at for 20 minutes straight

Working the register at a diner in Tulsa, my manager Linda told me that if I just smiled wider and stayed positive, angry customers would calm down. Some guy was furious about his cold hashbrowns and I tried her trick, but he took my smile as mocking him and went full meltdown mode for what felt like forever. Has anyone else had a supervisor give advice that backfired this bad?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_patricia1mo ago

Bet that big smile really de-escalated things.

the_riley1mo ago

Ha, no. Actually that's the thing nobody's talking about - sometimes a smile is just a weird reflex when you're uncomfortable. I've done it before when someone's screaming at me about their rent and my brain just short-circuits. It's not a tactic, it's like a nervous tic. Could be they're just as freaked out as everyone else but their face does the wrong thing.