Curmudgeon warning...

As an ex-pat living in Finland, I have always respected and appreciated that service sector workers here have in general no need to paste on a phony smile. Simple attentiveness to customers, accompanied by courteous-enough "hyvää päivää" and "kiitos", have generally been just fine.

The times are a-changing though. American-style forced smiles and performative cheerfulness are invading unevenly -- inexorably?

(I recall Monty Python's "Happy Valley" skit, where an offender is sentenced to hang by the neck until he cheers up.)