So I’ll never forget one afternoon while working in retail as I was doing a floor move it happened…I let out a yawn. Not a loud, obnoxious yawn, just an innocuous one. Yet in that moment my boss said, “Don’t yawn.”
I found that kind of humorous. After all, yawning is an involuntary reflex. It’s like someone telling you not to sneeze…Not gonna happen…
This need to avoid yawning is made more pronounced through my job now. I teach English online to children in China. Apparently, if you dare to yawn, parents will mark you down on your evaluation. Mind you, most of us are teaching at very odd hours due to the 12 hour time difference, so yawns are an occasional occurrence.
The fear of a negative review is so powerful, that most teachers have adopted a scary looking smile yawn…Think Sheldon Cooper’s forced smile on The Big Bang Theory. My main concern is that I will creep someone out in my everyday life if that smile yawn escapes during a standard nonworkplace yawning moment…
Stay groovy…
–Susie
(Copyright 2019 Susie Krivacic)
Harmonious Groove 