About bartenders

I spent 10 years behind pub counters. And actually in front of the counters as well. During this time I had a lot of experiences, I have bad memories and good ones too. There were funny stories and scary moments, unbearable and friendly bosses.

For all my bad memories, I miss this job. I really liked being a bartender. Many people think a lot of bad about bartenders. And besides the malicious remarks, there are plenty of sentences I’ve heard about a thousand times.

“It doesn’t work, anyone can do it, open a bottle or fill a pint of beer, talk all day.”

Well, that's not true, especially if you work in a small pub where you or the entire staff work in a shift. So in addition to the all-day conversation, you have to write down the goods order, pick up the goods from the supplier and pack them in the warehouse. The goods received must be checked on the invoice, paid to the supplier, documented on the inventory sheet and the goods must be packed on the shelves and in the refrigerators. Warranty periods must be constantly monitored. The glasses should be washed and the tables kept clean. At the end of the shift, an inventory should be made, which should be accounted for with income. In case of shortage, you have to pay. Eventually, the whole pub needs to be cleaned, yes, the toilet as well.

But what’s really hard about this job is that you have to patiently listen to what everyone has to say, even if someone has already told a story many times. You have to laugh at jokes, give advice in difficult situations, comfort in sad moments. People need to be reassured if they clash with each other in the pub, ultimately throwing out the troublemaker.

So I wouldn’t say it doesn’t work and that anyone can do it. I taught a lot of new employees to work or just tried. And no, not everyone can stand it.

“Every bartender is a bitch!”

What do I say to that? There are as many whores among the bartenders as there are among the clerks or the cleaning ladies, the teachers. Of course, the guests courted us many times, more precisely, they wanted to take us to bed many times. Yes, married guys too. But that doesn’t mean they were successful either. In fact, there is nothing surprising about this, there are the guys in the pub, there are few women there, the men are drunk, the bartender is nice to them (because you have to be nice) so they try to seduce the bartender. Don’t think that a bartender has every desire for a drunk dripping saliva guy to take her home.

“Every bartender is an alcoholic”

Well, there's something about that. I don’t know a bartender who doesn’t drink alcohol. It is also allowed to drink alcohol here at work, of course not officially. But most pub owners allow the bartender to have 1-2 drinks with guests if they want to have a drink with the bartender, or toast or something. And frankly, some alcohol makes it easier for the bartender to endure the guests as well. Of course, you shouldn’t be drunk. But alcoholism is an exaggeration. I worked as a bartender for 10 years, yes, I drank alcohol many times. But if I had become an alcoholic, I would still be drinking. But I don't.

“You are for me”

Guests often utter this sentence. This is one of the sentences that could have angered me the most. Yes, the bartender is there to fulfill the wishes of the guests. But not all! Such guests think that whatever they can say and do, the bartender should endure with a smile. No no! There are limits. And I've always told that to guests like that. The bartender is also a human being, not a dishcloth, not a guest doormat. He who cannot behave normally leaves the pub. That's it.

Finally, a few more sentences that guests use when they want to be humorous. On the one hand, these are not very funny at first, and on the other hand, when a bartender hears them for the hundredth time, they are downright boring.

“Is there a non-alcoholic beer?

Yes.

Then throw it out, then give me a normal beer.”

Seriously? How funny this is! Oh, it's not. It’s worse when the guest waits while I take the non-alcoholic beer out of the fridge and only then tells me to put it back because he just said it as a joke.

When to pay the bill: "God pay it"

When you arrive early in the morning in the last minutes before opening, but some guests are already waiting outside the door and saying, "Afternoon shift?" And you're not really late.

Closing thoughts

So in a nutshell, it’s like a bartender’s life, and you have to hear those sentences over and over again.

It’s not as easy to be a bartender as many people think. It is also physically strenuous to some extent but it trains the nerves the best.

And what about the funny or scary moments I mentioned at the beginning of the article? I'll talk about them in another article.

images source: pixabay