Barstaff Rant

[Al]

I think that information has been pulled from the "Big Bumper Book of Made Up Stuff"- the main resource for many when it comes to posting facts on The Sinner.

[Guest]

I believe it is due to the fact that the union is a 'Social Club' and not a bar. Hence the lisecning law becomes slightly more wierd and wonderful.

[Fawksie]

No, it remains almost entirely the same. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 says that if licensed premises are used primarily for the purposes of a club, certain provisions of the Act do not apply. There's no addition of spurious regulations concerning standing at a bar, or anything else of the sort.

[Abserdman]

Just to add more fuel to the fire:

1. Don't stack the glasses. You may think you're doing us a wonderful favour but actually the glasses tend to shatter when stacked as it puts pressure on the rims and weakens them. You may not see this happening, as it generally happens as they go through the dishwasher, so you'll just have to believe me that it does. Some glasses (Tennants and plain pints) you can get away with stacking 2 high, but I'd still rather you didn't as they can get stuck together.

2. Don't put chewing gum inside the glasses. If we don't notice it before it goes through the dishwasher then it gets sticky and stretchy and we either have to pull it out with out fingers (not nice!) or throw the glass away (expensive). I'm not suggesting you leave the chewing gum on the table but there is actually a bin in the bar. It's by the side of the steps up to the raised seating area. Please use it!

3. Don't break the plastics in the Bop. They may be worthless to you (other than the nice crunching sound they make) but they actually cost around 30p each. That may not sound like much but when you consider we generally have to open AT LEAST one box of 100 before EVERY bop that starts to add up.

4. Continuing with the breaking things theme... If you break a glass in the bar please tell someone. If you can find a glass collector, great! If not tell one of the doorstaff or barstaff and they'll pass on the message to the next glass collector they see. Please don't sweep the galss under tables, chairs or sofas as then we won't see it and it won't get cleaned up. Please don't try and pick it up yourself, we have brooms and dustpans for that. And, please, please, please don't stand on it! It just makes more mess! Also, if you see a glass collector trying to clean up broken glass please move out of their way. It's hard to clean up glass when people won't move their feet!

5. Please move away from the area in front of the bar, not just away from the bar itself. We have to move through that area with arms/trays/crates full of glasses and trying to push through a crowd of sweaty people with it just makes it harder. If you have your drinks then it's easier for everyone involved if you move back into the actual seating area. It means you'll actually be able to see where the queue for the bar begins as well!

6. If you see the glass collectors moving towards the doorway to behind the bar with the big blue crates of glasses then please move out of the way. Those things can be heavy! If you're standing near the doorway and hear someone shouting "Excuse me" behind you it may well be one of us trying to get through so please turn around and see. If shouting at you doesn't make you move I may be forced to push you in the back with the crate, which just makes you upset! Unfortunately I don't have the time to stand around waiting for you to finish your conversation and notice me.

7. At the glass exchange outside the Bop door (where you change your glasses for plastics) there are piles of CLEAN glasses and blue crates of DIRTY glasses. Please do not put your dirty glasses on top of the clean ones, as that then means I have to wash extra glasses. Please do not put your dirty glass down on the table next to the clean ones. The crates of dirty glasses are right there. Please put your glass upside down in an empty slot in the crates. If the crates are full then I'm not doing my job properly and you can then put your glass on the table! Also, bottles go in the red bottle crates the other side of the table not in the blue glass crates.

8. When sitting on a large table where we can't easily access all of it (for example, in the alcove in front of the large screen, on the sofas by the large coffee table, in the "snug" by the american pool tables) it would be nice if you could move the empty glasses towards a place where we can easily reach them. It takes an extra 2 seconds of your time and saves a lot of ours!

9. And, finally, please notice us every now and then! We do a rather thankless job and it is nice to be smiled at, acknowledged, thanked and appreciated once in a while!

[Animal]

Seems like a hell of a lot of stuff to remember.
If people continue to get in your way as you're carrying heavy stuff, maybe you should be using a trolley, or perhaps the bar is badly laid out.

Maybe the glass crates need to be better labelled.


Maybe The Sinner isn't the avenue for venting these gripes, and perhaps your enthusiasm should be directed more towards your employer, to ensure that they change the way things are done to provide a better service for the customer, and a better working environment for the staff.

[Trixy]

To add even more fuel to the fire, spare a thought for the cleaners who have to clean up the carnage that you have so thoughtfully left the night before!

1.If your going to throw up then please make sure that you aim directly into the bowl rather than all over the walls/ floor- better still don't into such a state in the first place!

2. What's the deal with wrenching the toilet seats off and throwing soggy bit of tissue around the place?- ladies I have to say that your the worst offenders for this!

3. If you decide to get amourous in the toliets, then please don't leave your 'afters' drapped over the tissue holder etc- its totally disrespectful and also a very serious health hazzard!!!!!

[munchingfoo]

Also, bottles go in the red bottle crates the other side of the table not in the blue glass crates.

REALLY??? This is my 7th year of union based drinking and bopping and I have never heard that before. Is there a sign? Has there always been a sign? I don't think it's very clear if there is.

[munchingfoo]

What's the deal with wrenching the toilet seats off and throwing soggy bit of tissue around the place?- ladies I have to say that your the worst offenders for this!

The reason the toilet seats end up on the floor is because they are not attached to the toilets very well. Sometimes it can be a balancing match to ensure that you don't castrate yourself when sitting on those things! Talk to your boss about that, not the users. Why would anyone in their right mind manhandle a filthy toilet seat to deliberately place it on the floor?

In my experience, wet toilet paper arises from cheap toilet paper in cheap toilet paper dispensers. When you are trying to get toilet paper out random bits fall out (it rips in two places, or one of the two plies parts from the other). This then ends up on the floor. The floor tends to be wet. In the toilets the water pressure in the taps and toilets is so high that when you turn the water on it spills out over the recepticle that it was designed to end up in (sink/bowl). There is an additional reason for wet floors in the male toilets, but you can guess that.

[Abserdman]

Also, bottles go in the red bottle crates the other side of the table not in the blue glass crates.

REALLY??? This is my 7th year of union based drinking and bopping and I have never heard that before. Is there a sign? Has there always been a sign? I don't think it's very clear if there is.

No, there's no sign.There's no signs about anything, so it's completely unclear! Hence why I thought I'd clear up the confusion and maybe make my job slightly easier!

[Glasgow]

Working as I do in a bar with a bit of an identity crisis, my jobs emcompass waitress, barmaid, glass collector AND cleaner at the end of the night. I agree with most points especially that curiously the ladies toilets are usually much messier at the end of the night?! The one I particularly agree with is making a huge fuss to get my attention at the bar, giving me your order, and when I give you your drinks and ask for the amount you start searching through your bag, wallet etc for the money; when the bar is really busy (as it often is on my shifts on an infuriating bar not really designed to cater for huge quantities of people) it is hard to describe just how annoying this is, it breaks my serving flow and pisses off all the other people waiting at the bar which is just not cool. Also, when I'm giving you change or your credit card reciept, I'm obviously going to be about 30 seconds at the most, be attentive, please don't turn away and begin an obviously very important conversation, ignoring me and my attempts to get your attention and give you back your change/credit card etc. I really hate barstaff or customers that put the money on the bar, just because I conside rit quite rude and dismissive, but if i'm forced to do it I will. If you spill your drink right after I serve you, there is no way in hell I'm giving you another for free. Would you ask for another if you had already stepped away from the bar? I doubt it, it's YOUR fault. Suck it up and buy another. Wow this went on a bit, and I do really enjoy working on a bar, it's usually fun.
To the girl commenting about measly tips in St Andrews, I totally agree, especially when the people eating in my bar this week have mostly been eating for free! And is it really too much to ask you to buy a drink (at the most £1) when your lunch is free?
Ok that's enough

[Glasgow]

Oh and I was just wondering, why does the union have a kind of glass collecting 'station' away from the bar, would it not be easier to have this incorporated onto the bar so the glass collectors wouldn't have to push through crowds of people? Or would this cause too much congestion at the bar.

also, having now worked on a bar, I would just like to take this oppertunity to apologise to every member of barstaff who has ever dealt with me, I realise now that before, even unitnentionally, my manners and attitude at the bar were completely abrasive and ignorant. I am probably most guilty of this towards the union staff so I would just like to say you guys do a tremendous job putting up with so much shit from people and I hope people like me are in the minority.

[Abserdman]

Oh and I was just wondering, why does the union have a kind of glass collecting 'station' away from the bar, would it not be easier to have this incorporated onto the bar so the glass collectors wouldn't have to push through crowds of people? Or would this cause too much congestion at the bar.

Well we'd still have to push through the crowds of people, we'd just be doing it with armfuls of glasses rather than a crate of glasses. It's a case of do we do one trip with 25 glasses or several trips with less? Where it is means it's closer to where the glasses are (with the customers) and you're making less trips into the kitchen. It's actually easier where it is because at the end of the night you can have one person up on the main seating area collecting the glasses and putting them over the railing to the station and one at the station putting them away. You can also do that in the middle of the night as long as the table at that place is empty.

[beeny]

To the girl commenting about measly tips in St Andrews, I totally agree, especially when the people eating in my bar this week have mostly been eating for free! And is it really too much to ask you to buy a drink (at the most £1) when your lunch is free?
Ok that's enough

Thank you At least someone gets my point, that if you can afford that lunch, you can afford some small amount of tip, if only as recognition that you've had someone chase after you. And believe me, students here are generally rude AS HELL to serving staff.

[Jono]

No, it remains almost entirely the same. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 says that if licensed premises are used primarily for the purposes of a club, certain provisions of the Act do not apply. There's no addition of spurious regulations concerning standing at a bar, or anything else of the sort.

My god! Are you telling me that the Union license actually has restrictions? I was under the impression that the bar ran on some kind of magic power, which allowed us to serve anything we want at whatever time we jolly well please!

1. If you have been served at a bar, move the fuck away from the bar, especially if there are people behind you wanting a drink. I don't mind people leaning on the bar when the place is dead, but show some courtesy to your fellow drinkers.

Stand at the bar all you want. It blocks off a large section of the bar so that there are fewer customers for me to serve. Customers will move to another bar (or another section of same bar) to be served quicker because it looks like there's a long queue. Win for me

Under the unions license you are not allowed to drink at the bar, hence why we have the notice that once you have been served to move away from the bar.

And the reason for that sign is because... oh god, I can't bring myself to explain something so banal. Look at the state of the queue this evening, then you tell me why people have to move away from the bar!

[Stu le taxi]

No, it remains almost entirely the same. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 says that if licensed premises are used primarily for the purposes of a club, certain provisions of the Act do not apply. There's no addition of spurious regulations concerning standing at a bar, or anything else of the sort.

But presumably 'micro-management' of the type mentioned would be contained in Fife Council's conditions of license rather than in the Act itself, which presumably just provides a broad legal framework for local authorities to work under?

[Stu le taxi]

I agree with OP's comments and would like to add my own as a waitress AND bar maid (lucky me):

I know you're a student and want your wee cheapy lunch but when I see you pay for a glass of tap water and a burger with a £20 note AND you don't leave a tip even though it's quite obvious I'm also an impoverished student (hence the part time job) it's just plain rude.

I know tips are optional but it's really just common courtesy, especially if I have to run around like an arse because you can;t ask for ketchup, mayo and vinegar in one go, prompting me to make 3 trips to your table. If you can't follow restaurant etiquette, eat at home - it's even cheaper, you tight-arse.

Well if you get uptight about not getting tips then for goodness sake DON'T DRIVE A TAXI IN ST ANDREWS!

Had a good one recently; three females, splitting the fare and taking longer to get the money together than on the actual trip

One said she was going to give [20p more than her share of the fare] while another underlined to her that she only had to contribute her basic share. Of course, it wasn't said explicitly, but the point being made was that I shouldn't get a tip

[Unreg Bob]

And, finally, please notice us every now and then! We do a rather thankless job and it is nice to be smiled at, acknowledged, thanked and appreciated once in a while!

Seriously - get another job!

This University needs to recruit more Indian students that fail at communicating well with British students. These types of people actually enjoy glass collecting, so they say, although I think they simply can't find anything better.

Apologies if you are one of these fail english Indian types lol

[Duggeh]

And, finally, please notice us every now and then! We do a rather thankless job and it is nice to be smiled at, acknowledged, thanked and appreciated once in a while!

Seriously - get another job!

This University needs to recruit more Indian students that fail at communicating well with British students. These types of people actually enjoy glass collecting, so they say, although I think they simply can't find anything better.

Apologies if you are one of these fail english Indian types lol

Racism is AWESOME!