In a male-dominated tech consulting job, a woman is told by her boss to smile more in meetings. Feeling uncomfortable, she asks her coworkers if he's ever told them to do the same. When they all say no, she decides to give her boss a silly smile instead.
Though it's a running joke at the office now, she wonders if she was wrong for gaslighting her boss. Was she the a**hole for her fake smile thing? Read on to find out more about the situation.
In this story, a woman working in a tech consulting job was told by her boss to smile more, claiming that she was coming off as too harsh with clients. Feeling frustrated, she confided in her coworkers who pointed out the double standard and suggested she respond in a humorous way. She started smiling more, but with a pinched, bug-eyed expression, and purposely pulled her chin back towards her neck to give herself a double chin.
Her boss became uncomfortable and questioned her about the face she was pulling, but her coworkers had her back and showed that it was just her natural smile. The woman's boss eventually realized his mistake and admitted that her fake smile was coming off as disingenuous. The incident became a running joke at the office and the woman was given the nickname Nigel Thornberry.
While she feels a little bad for gaslighting her boss, she learned to stand up for herself and confront sexism in a humorous way. Stay tuned for the comments and reactions from Reddit!
