Kind of disappointed by this chapter. Like yeah sure you shouldn't expect the worst from your coworkers, but not wanting someone to intrude on your personal space unexpectedly is an acceptable boundary to put up. Judging by the way the other people acted this definitely wasn't the first time she has acted with a prickly personality to them, the manager knew full well she didn't want to get friendly with the team. Also with how this seems to be a common occurrence, this isn't the first time the manager pushed her boundaries unexpectedly. Idk, these chapters have major "you should smile more" energy to me.
I mean everyone in the chapter already agreed that Yuri should quit. Satou's point was that if she doesn't make an attempt to connect with her coworkers in the future she's just going to be alienated and ostracized.
To be blunt in social situations and environments, you get out what you put in. If you always approach them with a negative attitude (and an indifferent attidue is viewed as negative whether we like it or not), you're going to find yourself alone and everything harder than it needs to be. I say this as the person told to smile more and fix my attitude when I often just kept my distance and was indifferent. I always felt like I was being told that being myself is a problem when I never did anything rude to other people, but the fact is it's just not clear and people jump to their own conclusions about when you don't give them the opportunity to get to know you.
Satou does a good job of being blunt and presenting a path for moving forward here. Yuri doesn't need to change her entire personality, but if she doesn't want the same situation to occur she needs to make some changes. It's as simple as telling people thank you and showing sincere gratidue when they help you. Or her difficulty with men. Instead of being cold all the time towards them, say outright that you feel uncomfortable around the opposite sex but don't mean to make them feel bad.
Power harassment, sexual harassment, and ridiculous gender norms in the workplace being equated to "you should smile more" are times when I feel like the oversimplification of the internet on everything progressive is a major problem. Everything nowadays is reduced to a one-liner even though that doesn't really help understand the reality of situations. There is truth in that body language is incredibly important for close social spaces like the work space. This is especially true in Japan where work relations are incredibly important. Body language is most of our communication and takes precedence even over verbal communication. For example if I say "thank you" with a smile ☺ vs without a smile 😐, there's a clear difference in how the other party will take that.
Smiling is a good way to show the other party you care about what they're saying and that you're feel positively toward them. It can be taken as a greeting, positive affirmation, and so on. Not to mention it physically makes you feel better because SCIENCE. I say this and the way "you should smile more" is reduced frustrates me so much because I have to put all this thought into every single smile. It's really unfortunate how these things get degraded, but I think (and I can't really speak for others), people who social situations come more naturally to or maybe people just misunderstand the reality of the situation, but humans are social creatures. We can't just be islands or act cold and indifferent and expect everything to be peachy. Smiling is not just a way of conveying your own emotions but helps break down barriers with other people. A smile is inviting and helps build trust and new relationships. "you should smile more" is honestly genuinely sound advice that doesn't have much to do with the underlying tones it has when used online. It's a case where the oversimplification is so vast it kinda loses the message entirely and just confuses two different things. "Just stand there and look pretty" does a better job literally just by adding "just" which implies the advice is said to make people feel like their only merit is there appearance.
Again this is a separate issue from the clear harassment and toxicity in the workplace. And the response to that (the chapter give it and it is the correct one) is to just quit. Heck Yuri's even called out when she keeps making excuses for why she can't just immediately resign. Satou's purpose here is clearly in just warning Yuri that she can't avoid reality. If all she does is act cold towards her coworkers and doesn't show appreciate for them or give them an opportunity to get to know her, then she's always going to be alone and she's always eventually be a target for harassment. People aren't mind readers. Her coworkers will either think she hates them or that she doesn't care about them (which sometimes feels worse than being hated). That will always either lead to animosity in return or just general indifference and ignorance and when a bad boss comes around looking to exploit people she'll be the easiest target because she's all alone.
So yeah, she should smile more, because currently she's not doing it at all and to a lot of people not smiling is the same as frowning. That's not even really them being ignorant or bad people. It's just reality. And if Yuri isn't going to smile because it doesn't feel right with her, at the very least she needs to find some way to express her emotions/self and show gratitude when those feelings are genuine. I'd say the premise of the Manga does an excellent job showcasing them. Satou herself found it difficult balancing being herself in the workplace and finding positivity to be social as needed. She chose cosplaying as a method of expressing herself. Unorthodox and against many people's idea of professionalism, but she was a behind the scenes worker (never interacted with customers or business partners) and that led to her improving her relations within the office and doing her job in general. People LIKED having her around and when the company head came and demanded she be fired for her cosplay seeing it as unprofessional, her manager stood up for her and at least tried to get that overturned. When she ultimately was fired, the entire department just quit because they KNEW how valuable she was.
If you act like a cold heartless machine that's how people are going to treat you. We may want to live in a reality where if you don't do anything bad then you're seen as good or where everyone notices your contributions without you saying a word (I know I do), but we don't.
I kind of read the advice more like "be friendly to the people you actually like, so that way when you get in conflict with people who suck, you have allies." Right now, she's pretty much either prickly or cold but respectful towards everyone she works with, which isn't gaining her any friends that would have her back when bullshit like the manager's actions comes up. So not really "suck it up and smile more" but "take the extra step towards the people you want to work with."
Also, she told her to quit her job, so it's not like she said to stay with the shit manager and team.
This. And you say it better and shorter. The power and meaning of smiling is severely underestimated, but you don't even have to smile. But you should make some effort to connect with others in your environment.