March 5th, 2021
Well.
That escalated quickly.
So. I head in to work. This Friday, I have the service bar. I notice I have it next Friday as well, which is a little weird because with a 3-person rotation that shouldn’t really work out like that, but then I see our third night barkeep is on PTO for her birthday so okay. That makes sense, fine.
I go get my money and head to the bar. One of our supers catches up to me over there to have a look and see what our new day barback did to stock the bar. Said supevisor had asked one of our day side supers if the new barback had visited and was assured that he had. Any guesses as to what our new bar back did? Spoiler alert : Jack shit.
Greeeeeaaaaat. Another lazy asshole who just says he does shit and really doesn’t.
Why break with tradition, right?
Seriously. Our day supervisors just don’t care enough to check, and let them get away with it, and you can’t tell them anything past that after that point. It’s half pointless.
ANYway. So that reflection over, I get a pad of paper and start making a stocking list to get the first cartload brought over before I open the bar proper. While I’m doing this one of our long-time cocktail severs comes by to do the usual info-dump on break schedules and asks if I’ve heard about the news?
…. nooooooo….. I have not.
And then I get a… bombshell… dropped on me.
As of the first of May, the casino is going back to 24/7 operations.
“Ugh”, I think to myself. That’s gonna suck.
And they’re going to let smoking back into the casino.
“….. thefuck….?” I think to myself
In the lower third of the casino.
I can only listen with mouth slightly open at this point.
And in the lounge.
At this point, I actually paused her and said. “Wait, what. IN the lounge?”
She reaffirmed this.
I responded with a pithy, succinct, and very likely OVERLY loud “FUCK!”
I rarely loose my composure like this at work. No guests commented on it. She just said “Yeah, I know….”, and scooted out rapidly.
Dear Gods, I got hot. I -wanted- to just throw my badge over the nearest slot machine light and walk the fuck right out. I did not. But I did not have long to wait to vent. The supervisor from earlier came back with my requested list of stuff. I asked for clarification from him on the aforementioned news, because that’s just wise. He affirmed it, and then I pretty much let him have it with both barrels. (Verbally).
Not directed -AT- him, mind you. But the anger needed to get out, and it did not need to be in a guest’s face, and I know he’s cool enough to listen to -what- I’m saying without taking it as a personal attack.
He did have to get back to where he was and get stuff done, so he scooted out also. I now have a huge cart full of beers and alcohol and a bar open. I know this is not a good combination in normal cases. With me being livid it was an even worse one, so I flip over the closed sign and get to work stocking my coolers and ignoring random passersby who somehow think the sign shouldn’t apply to them.
About 5 minutes into that, I realize I’m not gonna be able to sit still on this, so I go pick up the radio and (fairly politely) requests the presence of the bossman at the bar when he has time.
To his credit, he showed up pretty quickly. I’m on the floor shoving beer into a cooler and when he asks what I need, I again get confirmation from him about the nonense. I just looked up at him. I know he could see where my head was going because we’d already discussed that we’d be talking if smoking came back into our venue.
I simply said, “You know you’re going to be needing a new bartender then, right?”
Well, okay. I lead with that, and then I let -him- have it with both barrels too.
Now – context for readers here. I’m 47. So far, after working in smoke about 11 years, I’ve lucked out by not getting COPD or lung cancer or any other smoking type malady, which is good, because as a non-smoker myself I certainly don’t want them when I’m not even doing the crime, so to speak.
The big issue here is my eyes. I wear specialized (expensive to me) contact lenses. Without them, the world is a hard-core blur. With them, I can see like I was in my early 30s. I started wearing them a little over a year and a half ago and wore them for a while in the smoke, so I have some data points on this. In short – horible. The smoke and crap getting along the edges of the lenses irritates my eys and I have to give them a break, which means I’m taking a break from being human whenever that happens, and in smoke it’s not a rare thing. It’s 2-3 days out of every 7. When they casino shut down? My eye irritation problem all but vanished. In the past year or so, I’ve had to give myself an ‘eye break’ maybe twice. The smoke was the culprit. Clearly. I’m not doing it again. (Nor am I ever cleaning up someone’s disgusting dirty ashtray for them ever again too. Fuck that.).
Long story short – smoke comes back, and I go away.
My boss – looking pained – listened. Asked a few questions. Went off to talk to -his- boss. I finished stocking and very reluctantly opened up the bar, ‘cuz I wanted to just fuck off and leave.
So I worked. The night was obnoxious, the people were obnoxious, and I was mentally telling every single soul that walked up to my bar ‘FUCK OFF’, as they walked up.
To his credit, my boss caught up to me on my first break and made a few suggestions. Only work on my service bar rotation nights. Work down at the sports bar 2 nights out of the week (Though the shift would be short, ‘cuz I can’t come in when they’d want me to.). Work the banquet bars as they re-open. (Let’s see. huge crowd gatherings. Gonna pass on that, kthxbye.)
15 hours later I”m still furious. If I didn’t need the money, I’d just call in and point myself out of a job. wouldn’t take but a few shifts to do it. I feel… ugh. Betrayed feels too strong. Not that. Disregarded, maybe. Not given a shit about. I don’t know.
What I -do- know is that my boss’ suggestions probably aren’t gonna do it. Definitely not all by themselves. Which means I’m going to need to find a new job, that fits with my school schedule, that pays …. somewhat okay… -while- I’m in the middle of a busy school semester and trying to concentrate on my studies. Thanks SO much, assholes. That’s a point of stress I did -not- need.
I managed to calm enough by my second break that I could get back to my homework at least. Tips were shit, though, given that the people were shit, so hey. it matched at least.
It’s completely destroyed any interest I have in going to work now, though. Fuck those assholes who made this decision. Fuck every last goddamned one of them. Sandy vaseline time, as far as I’m concerned.
Ugh.
Take it easy.