I have this problem. I do have an attitude.

I've been told that some of the people at work are scared to talk to me, in fact my wife tells me almost everyday that she thinks I'm always angry.

But here is the thing, I am almost never unhappy. I never yell or demean people, I try very hard to communicate empathy and understand things from other people's point of view. Yet I am still stuck with this label.

I really think it's my facial expressions people are picking up on because that's what my wife tells me. "You look so angry" "Why are you mad?" "Is there something wrong?" but almost never am I really angry or mad.

I used to try and fix this by forcing myself to smile in situations, this was both uncomfortable and exhausting. Should I be uncomfortable and exhausting all the time just because people might perceive me in a different way? Why am I being held accountable for a facial expression with no context?

Humans are messy, sometimes you gotta dig a little deeper and not take things at "face" value. (That was a pun)