Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Past

Since I am not dressing up for Halloween at the Bar, I thought I would share some of the crazy costumes I had to wear in the past for serving jobs.

When I worked at a college sports bar it was mandatory to dress up. We had themes for the first two nights leading up to Halloween and could dress however we wanted on the actual day. The first day was "cops and robbers". Rather than have the bartenders be robbers, as the waitstaff thought, they wanted to be the cops and got their way. We all thought it would be nice to dress up the bar like a jail, but instead, the cops were stuck in the box of the bar while the robbers ran around free. Even customers commented on how funny this looked. The costumes for this night were ridiculous. All the bartenders dressed in dark blue or black slacks and blue button-down shirts with cardboard badges. Some had handcuffs, but most did not. The waitstaff's costumes were even worse. Most of us dressed in all black. A few went out and bought orange jumpsuits or stripped costumes, but most did not. All night we were asked what we were supposed to be.
The next night was pirate night. Unfortunately I was not scheduled to work that day. I would have preferred it to cops and robbers night for sure.
On Halloween night we were allowed to dress how we wanted, as long as it was "sexy". Basically this meant we had to shop at Lovers Lane for the costumes. There was a Raggety Ann, a butterfly, a Lion, Dorothy, Rainbow Bright, a girl scout, football player, and of course a cheerleader. Dressing up was fun, but I was so self conscious the whole time. If you have ever seen costumes from this store you would know that there is basically nothing covering you! Thankfully we had 9 bouncers scheduled that night because we needed every one of them. I personally had someone slap my rump, try and pull parts of my costume, lift the skirt, and even spill a shot on me as he was trying to place it for an unauthorized body shot. Despite the customer debauchery, there was great camradery between the staff. We were all watching out for each other and having a small party of our own.

Most recently, I worked at little dive that was having a "party" for Halloween and required all the staff to dress up. I was tired of the sexy garb, so I chose to be a zombie. I wore the obligatory short skirt, though not too short for comfort, a ripped and "bloodied" shirt, and used makeup to make bruises all over myself. One of the cooks got freaked out when he saw me, forgetting it was Halloween, and thought I'd been in an accident.

This year I am not obligated to dress up. Since I am working the day shift and will be the only employee there, I will not be. This will be my first Halloween off in 4 years. Part of me misses the fun of dressing up for work. Part of me is happy I will be getting to come home and pass out candy to the little kids that come to my door. That has always been my favorite part of the holiday anyway.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Nothing spectacular

Things at work have been so slow lately that there is nothing really to post about. No annoying customers, fights, running the server, bad tippers, or management mistakes. Nothing that sticks out in your mind at the end of the night.
Maybe something will happen this weekend. It will be Halloween after all...

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sometimes Bosses can be...

Ridiculous. They can. We all know it.

I was tending bar on a night we host karaoke. Although this event can bring in good business, ours attracts people who nurse one beer or try to get a glass of free water for the whole evening. I had the pleasure of serving a couple who spent a total of $15 on drinks and bought one small app in the 6 hours they were there. They spent less than $4 an hour. Not a huge deal. Whatever, right? Would have been except they ordered a "bucket" of beer. Bottled beer put in a bucket with ice. We've all seen this right?

The bucket they ordered was split; half one type, half another. One of the beers was on special if you bought a bucket of it. I charged them full price, $1.50 more than the special price. They didn't order the special, right? They come in every week. The specials haven't changed in the two years I have worked there.

They complained to my boss. About $1.50. He bought them both a beer. He bought them both a beer because they felt I overcharged them.

Am I the only one who sees the issue with my bosses reaction? I can understand wanting to keep customers happy. Really, I do. I want them happy too. I think buying one of them a beer would have been good enough for this situation. Basically, he bought them the equivalent of about 1/3 of what they spent all night.