There is one big drawback to working in bars and nightclubs; you will generally be working nights and nearly always working on a Friday and Saturday night. Now at first this may not seem like such a big issue, until you realise just how much you will miss out with people that work Monday to Friday 9 til 5 jobs.
Slowly the people that you work with will become close friends for the simple reason that they are available to do things when you are. They will be up for going for an after work drink at 3am, they understand that when you say meet for breakfast you mean after midday, they are free to go shopping on a Tuesday. Working in bars and nightclubs is really a lifestyle. Understandably they is a high chance that you will end up hooking up with one of your co-workers; here are my top 3 tips to avoid it getting messy.
1. Let Go Of The Jealousy
It is a bar, there are drunk people looking to hook up, staff will get hit on. Let it go. It is not the other person’s fault that they are being chatted up. Similarly, they are not being polite because they want to take the drunken fool up on the offer, rather because the nicer they are, the more likely they are to get a bigger tip.
2. Think Before You Speak
Most people would suggest not talking about work after work hours, but like I mentioned before, it is nearly impossible to do. Instead, think before you speak. If you would say what you are thinking to anyone else at work, then by all means open your mouth and speak away, but if you wouldn’t then shut it. If you are bitching about someone and wouldn’t be comfortable saying it to their face, then don’t say it at all.
For example, hospitality is a people business, you could be mindlessly talking to someone that could be in a position to do something about what you say. So if you are saying that Jane Doe is rude to patrons and is turning people that she doesn’t like away, be prepared for the possible reprimands that may come. If Jane got fired because of something that you said out of context, you need to be able to deal with that. Just because you didn’t mean something that you said and were bitching isn’t an excuse.
3. Don’t Use Your Pillow Talk To Your Advantage
This is a big one if you happen to be sleeping with one of your supervisors or bosses. No one likes the person that got ahead by sleeping their way to the top. Don’t use your private time to complain about other staff, to ask for more hours or weekends off; you get the picture. It is hard to make a living working casually in bars and nightclubs as it is almost seasonal work. Shifts during the winter will be hard to come by and to book a weekend off and get the weekday shifts instead, you need to put notice in months in advance. So it is really annoying if it starts coming up roses for the boss’s special friend. Like I said before, the rest of the team will be your friends, so don’t screw them over.
By following these three tips, you will have a much less complicated relationship!
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