Need advice re: unsafe work environment.

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DoomAndDarkness**

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Basically, without giving away too many details, I work in a bar that is closing 'soon' according to the owner. As a result, the rats have started jumping off the sinking ship. We're down to a skeleton crew. Me and 1 very part timer in the kitchen. I do everything. And 1 full time girl out front, 1 part time girl and 2 people who help out once a week. We are situated in a rough part of town.

Tonight when I went to the bar to lock up, there were 30 drunk as fuck people in there and one 23 year old bartender and an 18 year old server. Both female. No manager, no bouncer.

I plan on telling my boss tomorrow that I won't work there any more unless he gets a bouncer or ensures that someone with more experience is there to supervise. I don't feel it's a safe work environment and I'm not the kind of guy who 6 months from now can be OK with it if something happens to one of these girls and I didn't say anything when I recognized the workplace had become unsafe due to lack of staff.

Am I over-reacting? How would you address this with your boss?

I have a lot to lose including a prominent position at his new location that he's opening, but truth be told, I can get a job anywhere in town in one day. I'm sticking around as a favor to the owner and the manager.

I worked a 12 hour day today an went home for a couple of hours before I went back to lock up. Otherwise, yes, I should just watch over the bar myself. Which tonight I had to do.
 
take a shot here and there, then you your worries go away
 
DoomAndDarkness said:
Basically, without giving away too many details, I work in a bar that is closing 'soon' according to the owner. As a result, the rats have started jumping off the sinking ship. We're down to a skeleton crew. Me and 1 very part timer in the kitchen. I do everything. And 1 full time girl out front, 1 part time girl and 2 people who help out once a week. We are situated in a rough part of town.

Tonight when I went to the bar to lock up, there were 30 drunk as fuck people in there and one 23 year old bartender and an 18 year old server. Both female. No manager, no bouncer.

I plan on telling my boss tomorrow that I won't work there any more unless he gets a bouncer or ensures that someone with more experience is there to supervise. I don't feel it's a safe work environment and I'm not the kind of guy who 6 months from now can be OK with it if something happens to one of these girls and I didn't say anything when I recognized the workplace had become unsafe due to lack of staff.

Am I over-reacting? How would you address this with your boss?

I have a lot to lose including a prominent position at his new location that he's opening, but truth be told, I can get a job anywhere in town in one day. I'm sticking around as a favor to the owner and the manager.

I worked a 12 hour day today an went home for a couple of hours before I went back to lock up. Otherwise, yes, I should just watch over the bar myself. Which tonight I had to do.
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There should be someone to call if people won't leave. But it's really about the crowd and the staff. I've seen girls command the bar and clear out drunks. If they're violent then you got issues same as anywhere but plenty of pubs don't have a bouncer. Every situation is its own thing. Only you can really judge.
 
Phlog said:
There should be someone to call if people won't leave. But it's really about the crowd and the staff. I've seen girls command the bar and clear out drunks. If they're violent then you got issues same as anywhere but plenty of pubs don't have a bouncer. Every situation is its own thing. Only you can really judge.
Click to expand...

Well that's the thing. The two girls I would trust to clear the bar both left because they weren't making enough money. These girls working tonight are a fucking joke. This is a new problem. The last really good full timer left last week. This was the first weekend without her. Pubs that don't have bouncers on a friday night don't have a bouncer because they can't afford to pay a bouncer. When we were booming we had 2.
 
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Yeah my gf used to work in a pub exactly ad you described. One night she was alone in the bar when a fight broke. She said it just escalated and escalated with more people joining in rather than try to break it up. She couldn't do shit about it obviously. She was not in danger but i made her quit anyway.
 
DoomAndDarkness said:
Well that's the thing. The two girls I would trust to clear the bar both left because they weren't making enough money. These girls working tonight are a fucking joke. This is a new problem. The last really good full timer left last week. This was the first weekend without her. Pubs that don't have bouncers on a friday night don't have a bouncer because they can't afford to pay a bouncer. When we were booming we had 2.
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Yeah, sounds like a shitty situation. You could tell the owner that if trouble breaks out you'll not step in. Your not paid to do that after all. Really there's very little chance of anything coming back on the staff. The toughest will likely be getting people out. Worst case there would be a call to owner or cops and a late night. Sounds like a shitty situation dude.
 
Do you train? Why do you feel so inept as a man that you feel you need a bouncer hired to protect you?
 
You started looking for another job?
 
DoomAndDarkness said:
Well that's the thing. The two girls I would trust to clear the bar both left because they weren't making enough money. These girls working tonight are a fucking joke. This is a new problem. The last really good full timer left last week. This was the first weekend without her. Pubs that don't have bouncers on a friday night don't have a bouncer because they can't afford to pay a bouncer. When we were booming we had 2.
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The owner sounds like a guy who doesn't care about his business. Why is this place going under and what makes you think his new venture won't suffer a similar fate?
 
Keep a mace on you and walk as soon you find another job.
 
You'd have a tough time arguing it's an unsafe work environment if no one is working alone. If the girls are not comfortable, they should speak up, and be ready to walk.
 
Phlog said:
There should be someone to call if people won't leave. But it's really about the crowd and the staff. I've seen girls command the bar and clear out drunks. If they're violent then you got issues same as anywhere but plenty of pubs don't have a bouncer. Every situation is its own thing. Only you can really judge.
Click to expand...

I got asked to leave by a female bouncer once, threw me off gaurd
 
johnyboy said:
I got asked to leave by a female bouncer once, threw me off gaurd
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Female bouncers are often the most useful members of the team. Older women especially.

They get men out without any fuss and can work the support role in a forced eviction incredibly well.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I am working in half an hour, I am going to talk to the owner when I see him. He just said to me last week if I had any concerns to come straight to him. I am doing that today. I don't believe the staff he has at this point can safely operate a bar. They aren't experienced or smart enough to pull it off. With the departure of our last few experienced people last week, that was the nail in the coffin.

I'll see what he says. I could be unemployed in 6 hours when I get off. Because I'm not going to be a part of a place where the staff are put at risk like they were last night. And I can't be going back at 2am every night to babysit for no pay because he has inadequate staff watching the bar.

If he doesn't trust these girls enough to have their own keys, then imo he doesn't trust them to close a bar down by themselves.

At the end of the night we had 30 people banging on the doors trying to get back in and then they mobbed around the door for 20 minutes refusing to leave before they finally got tired of it.
 
DoomAndDarkness said:
Basically, without giving away too many details, I work in a bar that is closing 'soon' according to the owner. As a result, the rats have started jumping off the sinking ship. We're down to a skeleton crew. Me and 1 very part timer in the kitchen. I do everything. And 1 full time girl out front, 1 part time girl and 2 people who help out once a week. We are situated in a rough part of town.

Tonight when I went to the bar to lock up, there were 30 drunk as fuck people in there and one 23 year old bartender and an 18 year old server. Both female. No manager, no bouncer.

I plan on telling my boss tomorrow that I won't work there any more unless he gets a bouncer or ensures that someone with more experience is there to supervise. I don't feel it's a safe work environment and I'm not the kind of guy who 6 months from now can be OK with it if something happens to one of these girls and I didn't say anything when I recognized the workplace had become unsafe due to lack of staff.

Am I over-reacting? How would you address this with your boss?

I have a lot to lose including a prominent position at his new location that he's opening, but truth be told, I can get a job anywhere in town in one day. I'm sticking around as a favor to the owner and the manager.

I worked a 12 hour day today an went home for a couple of hours before I went back to lock up. Otherwise, yes, I should just watch over the bar myself. Which tonight I had to do.
Click to expand...

taffer2.jpg
 
So for anyone who's actually interested. I spoke to my boss today and he basically agreed with me. Tonight there is an experienced girl who used to work there coming in and next weekend we will be bringing in some kind of hired gun to either run the bar or bounce. Glad I said something.
 
You have any buddies you could get to work door for a little extra scratch?
 
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