When Smiles Attack: How One Retail Worker Weaponized Grinning for Malicious Compliance
There are few phrases more likely to make a retail worker’s eye twitch than, “You should smile more.” But what happens when a manager makes it a literal rule—“Just keep a smile on”—and their staff decides to take it to the next level? Welcome to the haunted house of retail, where grins go from cheery to chilling, and customer service takes a delightfully creepy turn.
This is the story of u/messyjessie0, a college student and part-time retail hero, who didn’t just follow her manager’s demand to “smile more”—she weaponized it. The result? A week of customer confusion, cult accusations, and a manager who learned to be careful what he wished for.