my boss doesn't drink anymore

so, my GM, who i'm pretty sure i talked about a few posts back...the one who's resigning and all that drama has recently decided to quit drinking.

he says that he was drinking too much too often and that he's about to get married and wants to settle down. how nice, right? WRONG...

because he's not drinking AT ALL anymore...he's super grouchy and always tired and as we get new beers/liquors that come into the bar practically every day...he makes whichever bartender he's working with (typically me) taste everything and tell him what it tastes like so we can recommend/explain it to patrons as they come in.

if i have to taste one more nasty dark winter lager beer wtfever i think i might die...there was one shift where i tasted so many kinds of beers and liquors that i was almost drunk! which he thought was hysterical, of course...and was extremely annoying to me.

i know you don't drink anymore but c'mon! i'm trying to work here!

inter-bar romances

as i'm sure you can imagine, there is a lot of boozing and partying and whatnot going on at The Bar whether i'm there or not...roughly half of the staff are college students, the other half are just working and there are a few who are just lifers (life time service industry workers)

so because of the plethora of booze and the collection of babes who work at the bar and the small number of dudes who work there, all the gals are constantly fighting over the attention of the like...5 guys who work there. All of the guys EAT UP the attention (because in almost any other setting, they'd just be typical bros who work in a bar...i.e. nothing special) but because of the low male population, the bar's girl workforce is out of control obsessed with gaining their affections.

this, of course, leads to lots and lots of drama. "well he and i went out together on thursday" "well we went out on wednesday" "well he said he liked me and you're supposed to be my bff" etc etc.

all this drama is a big deal for like...2 days and then of course fizzles as most of the girls i work with are really young and pretty resilient as far as "relationships" go...however, relationships in the bar are not particularly encouraged...like we can't get fired for it but it's definitely frowned upon.

there was one particular couple who used to work with us who started dating after they met at the bar and it was ALWAYS dramatic..."why are you talking to that guy?" "why are you flirting with that server?" blahblahblah and it made for a very annoying and stressful workplace...#gofigure

oh yeah!

so i told my manager that I've been writing about our bar in my blog (that presumably the only person reading it is DQuack) and he was...not pleased to say the least.

"don't talk about our bar, are you using our name? what are you saying? have you used anyone's name? i dunno if that's allowed" shit like that where basically i was like "uhmmm i thought it was funny and now i feel like i'm in trouble, grrrreat"

so pretty much, my GM informed me that i'm not supposed to use the bar's name, any of our employee's names or owners' names just to keep myself safe and not get anyone in trouble...

really?? it's a blog...so that's pretty much why i refer to my bar as The Bar or My Bar or My Restaurant or whatever...how annoying

our work shirts

(not gonna lie, i'm just talking about random things about my job just cause nothing else interesting ever happens)

SO we have these really horrid work shirts that we have to wear. basically they're the cheapest cotton ever, really low v-neck with cap sleeves. they're black, brown or red and they're really uncomfortable and they shrink if you dry them and the color fades really quickly so we keep having to buy more shirts...(theres a whole drawer in my nightstand dedicated to my work shirts).

so, for girls like myself who are very tall and very thin, these shirts cause a problem because they aren't long enough to begin with and they shrink. so my best friend and i have been hassling the director of operations at our bar to buy larger shirts (they only purchase them in mediums and smalls for some bizarre reason) and my boss says that they're not going to order any more large shirts because they "don't want large girls working there" UUM WHAT?! i'm not "large" and neither is my bff...we're TALL and there really is a distinct difference.

after months and months of us bitching and complaining, my boss finally caved and agreed to order new shirts for us. hoooraayyy! we're so excited, we get ugly shirts that fit! WRONG! our bosses had been designing and buying the cutest colorful, patterned tshirts that don't require a double D bra-size to fit them and make them look appropriate! the shirts are crew-neck, (no cleavage, woohoo!) and long enough and have funny sayings and images on them...so much better!

how lame that i get excited about the silliest thing...but realistically, considering i only work on the weekends and i'm BROOOKE, my bar is the only place that i can afford to shop hahaha

talking about my job is boring

when i first started this blog, i was thinking about all the funny things that happen at my bar when i work. there's always some bizarre character in there drinking and being really funny or obnoxious and i thought i would never run out of things to talk about!

WRONG

my job is pretty mundane...there's always the occasional funny thing that happens or weird person who comes in or some drama to talk about...but it's difficult to relay how unusual my job is to someone who doesn't work there...all of the girls i work with and i are all so ridiculously close, we're more like a family than co-workers. and when i say that to people they're like "you work at a bar, get over yourself" and i can see myself saying something like that to someone who said that to me.

but in all honesty, that's exactly what it's like. when one girl breaks up with her boyfriend, we all sympathize and take her out and bring her flowers and candy to work the next day just like sisters would do. we all talk about our families and meet each others' siblings and it's such an unusual dynamic of people that would never have known each other if we didn't work together.

it's so funny how people get to know each other.

scheduling

when the bar manager (who, i'll say...nicely...is a...difficult woman to work for) makes our bar schedule, she usually makes it in a way that suits her. she likes to work as manager with particular bartenders and she likes to have her favorites close with her so that she only has to deal with people she likes...which i can understand. i mean, honestly, i get it. HOWEVER

it really irritates me that I've put in my work and tried really hard and i like to consider myself to be a good employee and an efficient bartender and yet she really doesn't care for me for whatever reason...i can't figure it out. i'm good at my job and i like it. i have fun doing it, i don't mind coming in to work and i get along and am friends with everyone who works behind the bar.

whyyy don't you like meeee???? is this a typical high school mean girl kind of bullying? i don't get it! grow up and schedule me like i deserve to be scheduled!

drinks i hate making

our bar is typically a beer/whisky/sports kinda bar so it's generally pretty low maintenance to work there as far as drink-making goes.

for any of those who have bartended before, waited tables etc, you understand what it's like to ring in something complicated, make something complicated etc.

one particular night, i was at the bar alone, working for last call (which is usually the busiest part of the night because everyone wants to get their final drinks before i collect everything and everyone gets kicked out) and some dude orders a Sex with an Alligator shot...

NOW i understand that most people don't know what that means...but basically it's one of the most complicated shots anyone can order. ever. it's a layered shot, meaning that there are multiple shots within one shot.

the main middle part of the shot is a combination of 3 kinds of liquor and pineapple juice (and of COURSE the bottles of liquor i need to use to make these shots are all spread out over the bar #annoying) the top layer of the shot is Jagermeister (sickkkkk) and you have to pour the liquor at an angle and really slowly over the surface of the shot already in the glass so that it rests on top and doesn't mix together. after pouring the Jager on top, you have to pour raspberry shnapps underNEATH the two other layers. so again i have to pour it to the side really slowly. the final product looks like a layered cake, pink on bottom, green in the middle and brown on top.

essentially it takes me like...FOREVER to make these shots and of course people order them at the very end of the evening when everyone else wants to order their own drinks. like seriously? wtf?

Servers VS Bartenders

Our bar is very big and very busy (we call it "high volume") so we have an enormous staff. something like 10 bartenders and roughly 20 servers on the payroll at any given time. this is not to say that we have every single staff member on all the time...we typically on a weekday evening have 2 bartenders and 4 servers.

generally, staff is hired as servers first and then some are promoted to bartender and some continue to be servers. the reason bartending is considered a "promotion" is because you make 3 times the amount of money as the servers, there is more responsibility and more priveleges as well. i worked at the bar for about 6 months before i was offered my promotion and i happily took it. it was a huge transition going from no responsibility and decent money to what i do now. (not that i'm complaining).

BUT it's always so funny to me to watch servers (particularly ones who haven't worked at a bar/restaurant like ours before) fumble and stumble all over their serving responsibilities and then ask to be promoted to bartender. this is just NEVER going to happen.

because of the disconnect between the servers and the bartenders...(we really dont interact all that much and the bartenders are ALWAYS busier than the servers so we almost never talk to the them) there has recently become a sort of "we bartenders" and "you servers" which has created a little bit of tension between those of us who are still really close with the servers (like myself...my best friend is a server)

it sucks that this tension exists between the staff because last year we had a totally different vibe in the bar. granted we had a totally different staff (our "turnover" rate for staff is out of control...most of the girls we hire work there for 2 months or so and end up quitting...there are a fair few who end up staying for more than that...and we've all worked there for over a year)

i miss the way things used to be but i'm hoping that this tension doesnt continue forever...maybe it's just a bump in the road?

music at the bar

so, ive noticed recently that the music at the bar changes periodically throughout the day and depending on what day it is.

for example...during the morning/lunch shifts when we only have one bartender on who takes care of the bar top and all of the tables in the restaurant, the music is typically like Bad Company Radio, Robert Earl Keen Radio or Beatles Radio (we use Pandora music stations). Generally calm, bluegrassy, background noise for the daytime patrons who typically aren't boozing real hard (or at all, for that matter). A calmer choice for the calmer lunch crowd. HOWEVER when you work 7 or 8 lunch shifts in a row, you can practically predict what's going to play next and honestly there are only so many versions of Hey, Jude I can listen to before i want to rip my hair out.

so after the lunch shift when the happy hour shift starts and the nightttime bartenders start to filter in, the music shifts to a more 80s hair-band type of music...more White Snake and Aerosmith and things of that nature. a little more rockin, but nothing too intense. people who like to drink, but want to be done early cause they have kids or they're younger married couples etc. people who like to sing along to Journey because they feel like they're probably the ONLY people who know the words to the songs (give me a break).

after happy hour ends and the people who've decided to power through happy hour on to a later drinking or younger kids who dont even go out till 10 or 11 start to get ready etc the music shifts yet AGAIN to a rap/hiphop/clubmusic sort of situation. lots of Usher, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna etc...you get the idea...lots of people who THINK they can drink and hang out and dance but really they suck because they're high maintenance and dont tip worth a damn.

ANOTHER music change happens after the bar closes and those of us who are still working/cleaning/closing up are there. it's typically 2 bartenders and a server and a manager so it's much emptier and calmer...and our favorite kind of music to listen to while we clean is 50's pop music...like the Chavelle's, Splish Splash, The Four Seasons etc.

such a bizarre collection of musical genres that happen in the same bar in the course of one business day...

work, jerk

one particular evening at the bar, my co workers and i are just milling around, not doing much of anything because it was super slow and my boss decided to have us take EVERY mug out of the GIANT cooler we have there...

bear in mind the cooler is about 6 feet tall-ish, 4 feet wide and about 5 feet deep...it has 5 shelves and every shelf is so full of beer mugs that often we can barely shut the door. when we ask why we have to empty the cooler, our boss says that he just wants us to clean it out...grrrrr

so all the girls and i are hauling mugs out of the cooler by the handful and trying to find places to put them all so they're not obstructing anyone all while also working at the same time. the bar isnt busy at this point so it's not a HUGE deal and honestly it gives us something to do.

but of COURSE...as soon as we're finally making progress on this idiotic task...the bar EXPLODES with people...it's like everyone said "oh, i think the staff at the bar is in the middle of a stupid project that takes up a ton of space and uses an enormous amount of glassware...maybe they'll run out, let's go!"

so naturally, the girls and i are trying to use the mugs that have been out of the cooler for like 20 minutes before we use the other ones so that they dont defrost too much and make the bartop all wet and slippery and people are bitching about how their mugs aren't cold enough and all kinds of stupid BS that always ends up happening...

this is a perfect example of how murphy's law controls every aspect of working in a bar like this one...the second you order food, sit down to smoke, go to take a break, come in late...everyone and their mom wants to come drink

NEWS

SO as i'm sure everyone can figure out...any job always has gossip/drama/news but it seems like at my job (perhaps because so many people work there) the drama is multiplied 10fold...

the latest news is that our General Manager is leaving our store and there's all kinds of drama surrounding this news because he's worked for the company for so long, the owners of the bar loooove him, he's a great boss and the news kind of came out of no where with no warning...

well of COURSE when someone got the news, a flood of text messages bombarded my phone "what happened? what do you know? have you talked to so and so? did he get fired? but what are we going to do? who's going to be the GM now?" etc etc etc...

the way that rumors spread so quickly is so dangerous because it can really damage someone's reputation but it's also so intriguing to me how everyone (myself included) LIVES for the drama and we'll probably be talking about it until something more interesting/newer happens.

But, to say the least, the entire staff is so sad to see our GM go. On the bright side, an old manager from our store is coming back to be our GM which everyone is oh so excited about.

funny how so many things can change in a little over a year since i've worked there.

this weekend

SOOO i finally went back to work this weekend and not a whole lot to report, to be honest.

i had a great time working with my friend Ashley cause it was just the two of us behind the bar doing the UT game so we were kind of hectic but she and i always work so well together...but we were both deliriously tired so we kept making jokes that didn't make sense to anyone except us and we were practically falling on the floor laughing while we were so busy. one particular joke that made us both DIE was when i was pouring tequila shots and Ashley was nearby so i hollered at her to hand me some limes so she came and put the wedges on the actual shot glasses and she goes "We're so teamwork-y today" and it was so random and funny...

Ashley has a real funny personality cause she's from a really small town so she has a super country accent and she gets all in people's faces and stuff about the most random things like how many lime wedges people need for their beers and whatnot. She's also the CLUMSIEST girl i've ever met and she's always dropping and breaking things or running into people and it consistently makes me laugh so hard.

Pretty dull weekend at work but it was still fun nonetheless.

as of late

recently, i haven't been working much since school has been taking up so much of my time. it's nice to have a break but lemme tell ya, my bank account is SUFFERING...

i go back to work this weekend and i only work for the UT game on saturday so hopefully it'll be an eventful shift so i'll have some funny stories to tell..

till then!