People are sharing the common phrase they hate being asked by strangers
There is no greater bugbear for many than to be told to "smile" by a stranger, no matter the time, place, or location. And one place you don't expect to receive such comments is in a hospital or other medical practices, which was the case for one patient and their partner.
A wife accompanied her husband to a colonoscopy appointment only to be asked to smile by the receptionist. Sharing their story on Reddit, one user penned: "I took my husband to the gastroenterologist to get a colonoscopy yesterday. It was 7:30am, grey and rainy, the waiting room was crammed with people either waiting for a procedure or waiting to drive someone home from a procedure. Christmas music was blasting from the speakers.
"Every time the receptionist walked through the room, she would yell at the whole room full of people, demanding that everyone smile. 'What's wrong, y'all?! Today is a good day! SMILE!!'I can only conclude that it is borderline illegal to look unhappy or tired in public in America, even if you haven't eaten for 24 hours, had violent diarrhoea the night before, and are about to have a camera shoved up your a** to check for cancer."
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But she is not the only one, as other social media users also shared their experience with similar conversations when waiting for important medical appointments and insisted it is worthy of a formal complaint.
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One person wrote: "As someone who had a colonoscopy/endo, she’s dumb and I would’ve 100% failed a complaint. In the medical environment, that bubbly bullshit is not appropriate. They were checking me at age 37 for advanced cancer for god sake."
Another person agreed: "Yeah that's a case where I would file a complaint." And a third user added: "As someone who deals with chronic pain, my patience for people like that is super short."
Other Reddit users revealed they found the phrase triggering even when they weren't in a vulnerable situation. Another user fumed: "I feel like telling random people to smile is inappropriate no matter the circumstances. You don't know what they are going through and it isn't their responsibility to fake happiness just so you enjoy their face more. As someone with a terrible case of RBF (resting b***h face), this is a sore spot for me. I could be in the best mood and have it soured when someone comments on my face. Like good job a**hole, you had the opposite effect as what you intended."
A separate person weighed in: "Telling anyone to smile when they're visiting a doctor seems like a dumb idea. Not exactly a place people go to get good news most of the time. If she's concerned about making sure everyone smiling and having a good time, maybe she she go work as a f**king clown."
Other Redditors shared more helpful and supportive phrases to share with clients, as one advised: "As medical reception, I don’t even say have a good day because imagine saying that to someone who just got horrible news. I just say 'take care'."
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