A quick note to anyone who goes to bars, restaurants, etc. [View All]

Just got home from my night job, and wanted to share a thought...and a request.

Short back-story: I've been working for Truthout for almost ten years now, it's a non-profit organization, and we got creamed when the economy tanked. We rely 100% on donations to operate, and when the economic shit hit the trickle-down fan two Decembers ago, the donations pretty much evaporated completely. I volunteered to take a savage pay cut to help keep the place afloat, and in order to make ends meet, got a night job as a bouncer at a downtown bar. For the record, matters have improved, my salary has returned to almost what it was, but I've held on to the night job because the extra scratch is tremendously helpful, and because I actually enjoy the work (mostly).

Tonight was not enjoyable. We were packed-to-the-rooftop busy all night, thanks to a Red Sox double-header and a big convention across the street. Everyone I saw was either half in the bag or fully gone, I mean like staggering too-much-gravity-out-here blasted, and it falls to me to keep those people out. If someone has 15 beers at some other place, manages to get into my shop, has one beer, and then kills someone with their car, we are liable for that disaster because they got in...so I spent my night convincing shitfaced droolers that life was better elsewhere. It never got physical, but I got cussed out a few times, and one guy flicked a butt at my head when I bricked him at the door...and then ran away, of course.

None of this deals with my point, which is this: in the hierarchy of my bar, I am the lowest man on the totem pole. I am, in fact, the part of the pole that's underground; I have the simplest job in the joint - card people, roust drunks, bar drunks from entering, sweep butts off the sidewalk, haul trash and bottles out after closing, fill the bins with ice, etc. - but what I do is vital. If the bottom of the pole isn't stable, the pole falls over...so if I'm not on point and let drunk idiots in, there are fights and pools of vomit and a general mess.

But it's easy, compared to what the floor servers and bartenders have to do. We do drinks and food, so the servers and bartenders have to sling pints and plates all night. The kitchen is the size of two phone booths, so the cook is going at top speed in a closet all night, and thanks to the stoves, it tends to be 140 degrees in there. I take my door job very seriously for one reason: to make their lives easier, to keep them from having to deal with shitheads who shouldn't be there, but to let enough people in that they make their money. It's a tightrope act most of the time; tonight, for example, the double-header meant game 2 didn't start until 10pm and didn't let out until 1am, and thanks to the two games, the whole city had been drinking since noon.

We did OK, for the most part. The place was packed all night, there weren't any fights or idiocy, and the place made money. BUT...and this is a big BUT...but for whatever reason, this was one of those nights when people tipped a quarter every three beers, complained about everything when nothing was wrong, and gave the servers and bartenders no end of grief. The ones doing this weren't rag-ass students or starving artists, mind you; they were the suits with the gold cards in their wallets, and they were assholes because they could be.

There is a certain breed of cat who goes out to an establishment and enjoys giving the people working there a hard time, who short them on the tab and the tip, and who take apparently endless pleasure out of making someone miserable...again, because they can. Two of my servers ran their asses ragged tonight and barely had cab fare to show for it at the end of the night, and we were busy, so they should have done well, or at least better than they did. It sucks.

I have the easiest job in the place, and I consider it my duty to make the servers and bartenders lives easier...and it makes me want to maim and slaughter when they get screwed. People who work in the service industry - *especially* when there is booze involved - run a marathon every shift. They work so hard for $2.65 an hour plus tip, and it blows my mind how often they are disrespected, taken for granted, and fucked over.

So, my point: when you go to a bar or a restaurant, treat your servers with respect. Tip them well. Don't take them for granted. If the rest of the industry is anything like my shop, the people working there are hanging on by their fingernails; the most stressful day at my place is the day before rent is due, because everyone needs to make their nut, and if they don't, if they get hosed on tips, it's an ugly scene.

Sorry for the long rant. It was a bust, but shitty, night. Treat your servers well. They work so goddam hard.