> Also, I'm German, where all this US "be nice and smile all the time" thing seems at best naive, …

> Also, I'm German, where all this US "be nice and smile all the time" thing seems at best naive, but also a form of torture and company overreach to try to emotion control employees into this drugged up alice in wonderland facade. In my experience, the required performative cheeriness is a feature of newer companies that have over-hired. I’ve worked with several US companies with established international presence where being direct and honest was the expectation. I’ve also worked at smaller startups where toxic positivity was basically company policy. I’ve been reprimanded for my tone not being positive enough in a meeting where we were discussing a serious and urgent issue. I’ve had an employee who couldn’t handle even the slightest bit of feedback that wasn’t glowingly positive. These experiences were rare, though, and they were all associated with companies that had hired a lot of middle managers with vague directives who had little to do other than attend meetings and cheerlead. …