I think I set a new record tonight.

[munchingfoo]

Andy - thats a great idea - but a similarly good one would be to bring back the bottle bars they had in my first year. Bottle bars are the way to go when your main bar can NEVER keep up with demand. It takes about 10 seconds to serve someone at a bottle bar and when its busy people really will drink anything if the service is quick.

[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[Steveo]

Even after working 8 hours solid serving a sell out 1,000 people at home (I only left the bar to change barrels in the whole 8 hours, and the venue was full for an all day music festival) I can tell you, I know what I'm on about. I've been working in bars now for 5 years.

The union bar is massive, no matter what the bar staff say, and should have more than 6 people on that I saw on Friday. You'd need more than 10 people on that bar for it to be counter productive if there were more tills and pumps it'd be fine.

More pumps - more and better tills - more staff.

Try serving to a packed venue on a bar that is tiny by comparison, was built in the 60's, with 6 staff on it and gas pumps which are slower than all holy hell and I'll still run rings round the lot of you.

[hr]

Set your goals way too high so I can laugh when you fail.

[Dom]

Quoting paw paw from 18:31, 12th Feb 2006
i dont work for the union but i can tell you that even on a busy night i wouldnt be working at the speed of light just so that i could get through the work a little quicker...

People like you should never work behind any bar in the world.

[undisclosed]

What about re-arranging the bar so that the tills aren't against the back wall, but are nearer the customers? That way, the staff wouldn't have to trek over to tally up, trek back to tell the customer of the price, then go back and forth once more.

Or maybe better tills are in order - all linked up together so that a barman can log up the order on one till, and then pay money in at another till if the first is busy?

But whichever system is in use, customer service is key. On the whole though, I've found the staff to be polite, friendly and efficient.

[Rennie]

Like someone said earlier, this is going off subject. No one is really saying that it's the barstaff's fault. They're paid pennies anyway for a hard job. The fact is, the main bar has much more capacity than is being used, and this is the real problem why it takes so long to get served.

I can't really understand the logic myself behind not serving people as fast as possible. The only reason I can come up with is that the union want a sober crowd, but it's not like drunkenness is a problem there anyway. The only other reason is that they do want more staff, but they can't get them.

Although the till idea mentioned on the thread is a good one, it would cost the union money, something they're not willing to do. However, hiring more staff and simply putting up the shutters on the bar would mean more revenue in. There are optics and beer pumps that are just not used at the moment as they are too far to the left of the main bar. Everyone knows that you have to go at least to the middle of the main bar to even hope to get served, as only half the bar is ever used. Whether the beep pumps on that end don't work, I'm not sure, but it seems like a real waste to me.

Why doesn't someone in the union, sabbatical or otherwise respond on this thread and say the reasons behind their logic? As I've said before somewhere on the Sinner, the sabs and staff at the union read the Sinner, so they have no reason other than being too embarrassed to admit that they are wrong, not to reply on here.

Last time, Oli recommended that I e-mail the union asking them directly. It is now 2 months or so later, and I've received exactly no response on my questions. I think I even forwarded it to Oli himself - I definately sent it to Chris Marks. Why aren't people arsed in replying??

[munchingfoo]

Personally i find the only person who ever replies to any of my e-mails is Ben, who replies very promptly. I don't quite understand what everyone else's issue is.

[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[barbiedoll]

regadless of what anyone syas the people who work in the bar work as hard as they can. More mployees won't help and if people want to complain well so be it. The staff turnover ratio at the union is so high because of the fuckwits who complain and the staff can't hack it anymore. Quite frankly i have never had a more thankless job in my life.

[hmmmhaveabanana]

Rather than moaning about bar staff, the union blah blah blah lets look at this objectively.

The fact is, that 30-45 mins to be served for a drink is totally unacceptable whatever the reason is behind it. A lot of people will simply just go elsewhere.

So what can we do? More staff and enough taps,tills and optics for them to use.Simple.

[Dom]

Then go and work somewhere where everyone tells you how wonderful you are.

[Rennie]

Barbiedoll, please explain to me, without saying that it would get too crowded behind the bar, why more staff in the union wouldn't help.

[flarewearer]

Perhaps then less staff would make people get served faster? It seems to be official union policy anyway.

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/elgar.png

[barbiedoll]

Quoting Rennie from 11:59, 13th Feb 2006
Barbiedoll, please explain to me, without saying that it would get too crowded behind the bar, why more staff in the union wouldn't help.

because there is four taps for tennents behind the bar, three guinness and three stella i think? so say there are 12 staff on and if they are all serving customers what if everybody wants tennents or even if half of the people want tennents, there would be queues of staff waiting for the taps. then there would be more moans from students about staff who were standing around doing nothing when actually the staff would eb waiting to serve customers.

[munchingfoo]

well yes, I guess if you look at in a narrow minded way like that then yes more staff would not help. I on the other hand have already suggested one great way to speed up the process, bottle bar, which would not be effected by your stated problem and there are a number of other solutions, such as buying new pumps, which would also help.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"

You cannot seriously think that the current state of the union bar is actually acceptable?

[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[Rennie]

barbie, potentially, I guess that's possible. However, it's quite unlikely. If you also split the bar into a spirits/bottles section and a beer section, would this work?

[ClaireyMoo]

If you employ more staff the prices would have to go up to cover the costs of wages. Then that'd give you all something to complain about.

[munchingfoo]

That's utter crap. The union barstaff get paid pennies. As I have stated in previous threads like this I tend not to buy anything if the bar is too busy thus my custom is lost. Provided the amount of staff was such that the bar never got busy but the staff always had someone to serve this would only increase the profits made by that bar.

[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[barbiedoll]

right i am not arguing the point anymore, people can moan if they want to. And munchingfoo you say that you leave the bar so the union loses ure custom however look at all the other students who are willing to wait in line so one lost customer is not that big a deal. basically if people want to get served faster a total re-arranging of the bar is required and a new bar layout with more taps and whatever else. maybe that is what people should ask for, put the idea forward, instead of moaning about the supposed incompetence of the staff. plus if people don't push in then those who have been waiting longest will get served quicker...

[munchingfoo]

Deary me - only one person complainned about the bar staff in this thread (i did too but only after you defended all of them which is utter nonesense)

This thread was about the shitness of the bar and you took it upon yourself to do the usual DON'T BLAME THE BARSTAFF pish. So please don't say that we are "moaning about the supposed incompetence of the staff.", i did giggle at the supposed bit though, when this thread is solely about the fact that it took Duggeh 40 odd minutes to get served and something HAS to be done about it.



[hr]

Tired Freudian references aside - your mother played my mighty skin flute like a surf crowned sea nymph trying to rouse Poseidon from his watery slumber!

[Dom]

Quoting barbiedoll from 14:27, 13th Feb 2006
And munchingfoo you say that you leave the bar so the union loses ure custom however look at all the other students who are willing to wait in line so one lost customer is not that big a deal...

And you work for the Union? Do you think your employers promote this same message? This is EXACTLY why service at the bar is shite.

[groovy]

Quoting Dom from 03:04, 12th Feb 2006
The queues for the main bar on Friday night looked terrible, so I queued at the bar in Venue 1 instead. There I scrummaged for between twenty and thirty minutes in a desperate attempt to reach the front. There were at least five bar staff *working* at the time, although I obviously use this word loosely. Urgency was completely absent behind the bar.

The attitude of the staff, although friendly, was so casual that they might as well have been pouring a pint in a quiet pub on a Tuesday afternoon. I wouldn't have minded the long wait if I'd seen the staff trying to get through the queue as quickly as possible, but they weren't. After all, I've worked in a pub, bar and nightclub myself. Granted, they must be accurate with drinks and cash, but I have never been to a bar or nightclub where the staff have been so laid back.

Is it an inability to work fast under a slight bit of pressure? If so, you're in the wrong job. Let's face it, if you find bar work too stressful, God help you for the rest of your life.

I do not agree that the Union should employ more staff. They have enough. If these people practised good customer service skills, for which they are paid, we would all be happy campers.

How dare you!

I was working venue1 friday night and from what I seen everyone that was working along side me worked as hard as they could have.

There was 5 of us behind that bar. Although personally I can't vouch that the other 4 were working as hard as they could have (they certainly looked like to me that they were doing their absolute best), I was doing my fucking damndest to make sure everybody got served as quickly as they possibly could..

To say otherwise is just plain ignorant

[hr]

Remember now, there's a big difference between kneeling down and BENDING OVER!