Not smiling because your passive-aggressive "jokes" aren't funny

[Food Lady]

This just happened. I'm in cafe tonight, closing. A couple ordered a combo, then asked about upgrading the drink. I confirmed what kind, gave the total, and watched them argue (I guess playfully--funny to them, but not me, as there were 3 people behind them.) The hubs said to his wife, "Now you've made her mad, blah, blah"--I missed the rest 'cause I went to get her food while she dug for money. I did catch something like "she won't smile". OK, so he's talking about me in front of me. When I delivered the food, "Still no smile?" That wasn't addressed to anyone, so I ignored it. Yeah, I'm not going to smile when you talk about me to someone else and you don't even know me, then expect me to be amused.

[Bright_Star]

Far too many people mistakenly believe that retail workers can be treated with disrespect & think it's funny & when they don't see the reaction that they want, then they have the nerve to get upset about it. NEWSFLASH:They're not working to humour you!!

[Hyndis]

At work, with customers, I'm absolutely humorless. Reason being is that while sure, 99% of people are okay with some humor, its the 1% who will hand write a letter to a VP or even CEO in an attempt to get me fired because I didn't respond to the joke in just the right way means I'm not going to joke. With anyone.

I am a robot.

If you want humor, go find a comedian.

[notlovinit]

Oh gosh, if someone actually says something funny when I'm working (and they actually MEAN what they said to be funny) then I will laugh, but it is a very rare occurrence. People think they are way funnier than they are.
I always get this particular gem:
I tell them their total (i.e. "Okay, it's $7.30.") and they look at their watch and say, "No, it's not. It's 4:15. Hur-hur-hur."
I used to laugh politely, but now I either ignore it or laugh sarcastically at this or other jokes that are WAY overdone. I don't like to encourage them to do this often.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

My husband is usually pretty good about not being snarky to people who are serving us, but every once in a while he'll get out of line. I'm quick about telling him to shut up and then telling the person serving us what his problem is.

[Iseeyouthere]

At work, with customers, I'm absolutely humorless. Reason being is that while sure, 99% of people are okay with some humor, its the 1% who will hand write a letter to a VP or even CEO in an attempt to get me fired because I didn't respond to the joke in just the right way means I'm not going to joke. With anyone.

I am a robot.

If you want humor, go find a comedian.

Beep Boop.
Talking meat bag's comment: UNKNOWN.
Unknown word: Joke.
Does not commute.
Error.
Begin planning robot take-over of world.
Beep Boop.
Have. A NICE. Day.

[Ree]

I don't know.

As long as the OP was still pleasant and not rude, making the passive little joking comments about her, right in front of her, wasn't necessary.

If I had been in that situation, I would rather the customer just come right out and tell me he didn't appreciate my lack of humour rather than handling it as he did.

I don't see that the customer was treating the OP with disrespect, though.

He and his wife were just having friendly banter and were disappointed the the OP didn't smile or laugh or join in on the fun, so he tried to lighten it up with corny jokes.

There's a difference between just not smiling at corny jokes and being unpleasant to the customer.

Personally, I like to have someone who is pleasant and interacting with me when I am a customer, and I do the same with my customers.

If I get someone who is sullen and barely communicative with me, then I don't bother trying to engage them. I just avoid them as a service person in the future, or I just don't bother going back.

Yeah, we get customers who are like that with us, but that isn't the point.
Just because Customer A was a rude ass and treated us like a mindless robot, that doesn't mean Customer B is going to do the same, so why take it out on him?

I don't think the OP was being rude to her customers.
She just didn't smile on cue.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I used to have this idiot come in on a regular basis that used to make these calendars with a "puzzle of the month" on them. I don't know what you call the type of puzzle...usually an artistically creative way to express a thought or a pun or a quote. I'm not good at these. And I don't care about these. Particularly when I'm busy and working. Which, if you work at Kinko's, you are.

So this asshead would come in and want me to stop and guess his stupid, unfunny little puzzles. Well, I wasn't being paid to play games nor was I getting paid to stroke this moron's ego. I was getting paid to run his order. So he basically wanted me to stop what I was doing, ignore the lines of busy, frazzled, impatient people behind him, and take a break to play with him.

No.

And the more he did it, the more humorless and unmovable I became. When that guy starts sucking down excess time and effort, his orders become less and less profitable. And he'd get annoyed because none of us would pretend he was the only one in the store in order to play a game with him.

And the worst thing was that he just thought he was hilarious. Bottom line was he just thought he was SO FUCKING CLEVER and really just wanted us to understand how fucking clever and hilarious he was.

I'm sure he thought we were rude, too. Whatever.

For what it's worth, we didn't find him particularly fucking clever OR hilarious.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Beep Boop.
Talking meat bag's comment: UNKNOWN.
Unknown word: Joke.
Does not commute.
Error.
Begin planning robot take-over of world.
Beep Boop.
Have. A NICE. Day.

Hypothetical: If meatbag were to get shot through the brainpan from extreme distance, and no other meatbags were around to hear it, do any meatbags care?

[Food Lady]

Well, to clarify, I'm not rude to people. At worst I'm efficient, which isn't super-friendly, and some of our customers have a problem with that. On rare occasions when I have time, I do talk to them/take interest in them. That's extremely rare in the cafe, which I run by myself. I'm prepping, stocking, and preparing food for customers, minding food temps, cleaning, doing closing duties (taking apart and cleaning all machines) and cashiering. I don't have time to joke around. Of course, the customers are oblivious, even though they can literally watch me run.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Hypothetical: If meatbag were to get shot through the brainpan from extreme distance, and no other meatbags were around to hear it, do any meatbags care?

Only the ones that wanted to see the deed done, or do it themselves.

[Ree]

Well, to clarify, I'm not rude to people.

And I never thought you were.

People just have no idea what's happening behind the scenes when they come into a place. They have no idea what the clerk or waitstaff is trying to keep straight in their head.