To not reprimand staff for not smiling?

[squashedalmondcroissant]

I work as a manager in a catering/hospitality business, small local chain.

I had a call from a senior staff member about a negative review we were given online that essentially said they didn’t feel that the staff member on duty (not me) was smiley enough. I have now been tasked with pulling up this staff member on this.

I am very much not someone who is easily offended or quick to jump to misogyny but something about this feels..irritating to me. (The person complaining was a man and all the staff are women). They didn’t say the staff were rude, unpleasant or ignored them, just that were weren’t smiley and ‘welcoming’. I know the staff member and they are always polite and helpful but they do have a bit of a ‘resting bitch face’ when not intentionally grinning like a Cheshire Cat!

Something about this is rubbing me up the wrong way. It seems the main complaint is the staff not smiling while doing her job perfectly competently. Should I reprimand her for this? I understand that when customer facing sometimes you need to fake it a bit but is just her natural face position so offensive to someone that she should be forced to plaster on a fake smile? I’m torn!

Look, you've made it abundantly clear that without even speaking to this woman, the man was in the wrong in your opinion.

So how you handle it is up to you, but imo if you continue to be this biased, it's not very professional.

You should therefore just ask her about it and make your mind up afterwards rather than beforehand.

Exactly.

How often do men walk up to other men they don't know and say "cheer up love"? Never.

OP can use her intuition - she simply questioning it in terms of cultural expectations particularly on women - she wants to be careful and not feed into any internalised misogyny

you could argue it shouldn’t even have come to OP

ridiculous a complaint about “not being smiley enough”

they have excellent customer service - she can rely on that

People can’t smile all day everyday, I have one of those faces like your employee, I could be in the happiest mood but my face wouldn’t show it unless I force myself to smile, it’s tiring, I’m nice and polite that should be enough rather than what my face looks like

She also wants to be careful not to have the man down as immediately in the wrong due to being sexist.

Neutral mind, conversation, make her own mind up then rather than now.

It's that simple and the most professional way to deal with it 🤷‍♂️

😂😂😂

exactly

in my experience they make excuses for them - half the time probably about women not supporting them enough

No I don’t agree - they don’t often get complaints - given the misogynistic nature of leave it and support my staff

you can’t please all the people all of the time and they aren’t going to lose any business given how highly tested it already is

One or two customers and many more that didnt complain or gave positive feed back suggests its a customer problem and not staff. Plus there is no actual complaint more i didnt like her personality. She did her job.

This!

OP is confident t they have a very good service

I hated that when I was working as it usually ended up with everyone but the actual offender raging at the injustice when we all knew who it was about.

Just meant we all lost every bit of respect for the coward who tarred us all with the guilty person’s brush.

Fair enough but I do think you're as biased as the OP.

Considering the female member of staff hasn't had a chance to put her side across.

Reminds me of when I had a Saturday job in a shop. Would be expected to smile (constant stream of customers) from 9am to 5.30pm. If I gave my face a short rest my supervisor would tell me off. By the end of the day my face ached from being forced into a grinning rictus. I did wonder if my smile looked as fake as it was. If so I'm sure it would have been better to serve customers with a neutral face and pleasant tone than a manic looking grin.

it’s more like a shop. Customer interaction (depending on chat levels) is less than 5 minutes each.

YABU

If I walk into a shop or anywhere that I am giving someone my money, then I expect a smile as a bare minimum.
That’s not some internalised misogyny but basic customer service.

I would understand if this was a place where customers were there for a long time and it’s not possible to have a constant smile plastered on your face but I would expect a smiley person for less than 5 minutes definitely.

However, if it’s never been brought up before then I don’t see the need to pull anyone up on it as this customer could just be a twat.

I am wondering if this isn’t the first time they’ve been given negative feedback which is why they’re being so hot on it.

If you think the customer's critism is purely indicative of the customer's own sexism then you could talk to the staff member, describe the feedback and ask her if she recalls a male customer treating her in a particularly misogynistic manner within the time period of the complaint.

Her boss describes her as having a resting bitch face.

We called it smile when you dial. Also grin when you sin.

Well, yes. That’s why the guy I worked with got pulled up. Not everything is sexism although you seem to want it to be

You're very naive if you believe customers don't exaggerate and even lie in reviews, and some people just enjoy looking for reasons to get upset and cause a fuss.

I prefer intuition - I think we are being worldly and realistic - OP has weighed up the complaint In Light of what she knows about the business and staff

don’t forget review on Google are random - the person might not have even been to the place - and we know people hide behind online reviewing

Don’t they just

Intuition is a great word.

However, both you and the OP are coming across as biased.

So you worked with a man giving excellent customer service and another man came back and said he didn’t smile enough

i dont believe you

Excellent take!

You say tomato I say TOM art toe

i trust myself

I think the OP sounds like a great manager