Smiling All Day, Only Letting Herself Be Tired at Home
7/15/2026
2 min read
#OnMaTuTu
“Thảo, a 24-year-old customer service rep, has to smile through six hours of calls a day — even when customers yell at her — and only lets herself breathe once she's back in her rented room.”
— Smiling All Day, Only Letting Herself Be Tired at Home
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6 p.m., and the moment Thảo walks out the office gate, the headset comes off. For the last six hours, her face had to hold one expression: smiling. That's the job — customer service. Doesn't matter if a customer yells straight into the phone, doesn't matter how sharp the voice on the other end gets, she still has to say "dạ," still has to keep her tone soft and even. Six hours a day, five days a week, eight months straight.
On the bus home, Thảo doesn't touch her phone. No texting anyone, no scrolling. She just sits and looks out the window, letting her face finally relax for the first time all day. Some days, right after a customer finishes yelling, she still has to say "I'm sorry, sir/ma'am" and pick up the next call, like nothing happened.
Back at her rented room, she closes the door and doesn't turn on the light right away. She sinks down onto the floor — not because there's no chair, but because right now she just wants to be as low, as small as possible. No crying. Just breathing. It's the first breath all day she doesn't have to control the sound of.
Thảo doesn't tell anyone about this, not even her roommate. But tonight, for the first time in weeks, she lets herself stay sitting like that for fifteen more minutes before getting up to cook dinner.
"You've been holding it together all day. Tonight, let yourself be tired."
How long have you been holding it together before you let yourself really breathe?
How did this story make you feel?