Good Job

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Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here . (It’s anonymous!)

Dear Good Job,

I work in retail at a national chain. It’s an OK job. Before this, I worked in childcare, but I didn’t like it so now retail is what I do. Here’s my problem. My manager will not get off my case about my face.

He says that I’m never smiling. But I just have a “resting bitch face.” My face just looks like I’m unhappy, even when I’m not. I’m polite to customers, I promise. I just look, I guess, kind of pissed off when I’m waiting for people to come to my register. My boss brings this up every time we see each other, either “smile!” or more formally, he’ll be like, “OK, we’ve talked about your customer engagement, I really need you to smile more.” I’ve said I’d try, but it’s really just not going to be something I can do all the time.…