Solutions, Type-A Heart Attack Job

Okay, you're a bartender. You have a pretty good boss, but once in a while you have a customer that gives you a problem, take the matter up with your boss. Maybe he isn't aware of a problem, or he, himself, hasn't had any problems with the customer. The first thing you should do is to enlist your bosses help with any problem, no matter what it is, as long as it deals with his business. Don't consult your boss about your personal problems, and do leave them at home. Do as your boss suggests, if possible: if it isn't possible, explain to him why it isn't possible. Try to work out a satisfactory solution with your boss, then follow through with his advice the next time the problem arises. The second solution is to ignore the customer as much as possible, and that includes service to him, to try to dissuade him from coming in the business when you are working. Try to encourage him, in every way possible, to go somewhere else with his language or whatever. The third solution. if he is drinking mixed drinks, is to over-pour liquor in his drinks, so that 2 or 3 drinks will send him home or elsewhere in a coma. The object of these last 2 solutions is to either change his behavior or to discourage him from coming in, and if that fails, to get rid of him as quickly as possible. If your boss hasn't had a problem with a particular customer, he may think it's your fault, when in fact, you may be following your bosses orders to the letter, and if that is the case, there is one final solution: bring a tape recorder to work, and let your boss hear exactly what the situation is when he isn't there. Then he will be forced to come up with a workable solution.

The only other major pitfall is that it's a type-A, heart attack, stressful, job. Most people, man or woman, are just not cut out to do the job, and that includes many bartenders that have been bartending for many years. Just because you have the title of bartender doesn't make you a bartender. It takes a certain type of person to try to make every day New Year's Eve, and to enjoy the hustle of trying to make everyone have a good time whenever they go out on the town. It takes constant promoting by the bartender, not just for your employers net profits, your wages and your tips, but promoting a clientele, offering something that another place doesn't have, and having a personality that is somehow unique enough to generate a trade following of your own, so that you are an asset to whatever employer you happen to be working for at the time. If you plan to be a career bartender, you must have a following, and continually generate a new following as the crown changes. Bartending is a profession that is transient, that is, the turnover rate is tremendous, not only in trade following, but in bartenders. Perhaps the job itself makes bartenders become bored with a particular job, and wish to change jobs frequently, or perhaps the professional bartender chooses the profession, consciously or unconsciously, because it is a profession that allows him to change jobs frequently, and have a lot of variety. Whichever is the case, promote your customers to follow you as you change jobs, so that you will always be an asset to whatever employer your are currently working for. You only have to start from scratch once, and that is the first job of bartending you have, and from then on, you will have a following, whether large or small. You must keep promoting your clientele, so that you can eventually name where you want to work, and be reasonably confident that when an opening is available, you will get the job. If the aspect of frequently changing jobs, being unemployed and out of work because of new ownership, etc., isn't exciting to you, choose another profession.