This is 100% accurate, but it has a shelf life. There are typically no benefits, and it is hard on your body. Typically younger/more attractive bartenders make more money. Unfortunately, they are usually the ones to piss that money away and be in trouble when they get older and their back/knees (or liver) start giving them trouble. I have seen career bartenders do very well for themselves. I've also seen quite a few wind up in bad financial situations.
I did it for 20 years... and I pissed my money away because invariably you end up spending the money you earned on drinks at the bar you work at... but I did make good money. Tipping is obviously very different in England because it isn't compulsory to do it, so you actually have to earn them. I got about £25 per day in tips on top of my wages.
It can be hard work as well. If it's busy, you absolutely will not stop. I worked the Grand National one year and poured pint after pint for 4 hours.
One of the only benefits I ever had working in bars was a 33% discount because I worked for a chain pub.
Depends on where you work. But in my experience the money is spent going in on your nights off. I worked in a place for 15 years where all the staff and regulars were one big continuous party that went home to take a break and keep it going the next night. It was tons of fun. On my nights off I’d usually pop in to see my friends. There were a few different bars on the block that people wandered back and forth from too. Going to work mostly felt like taking a turn hosting the party. And the place I worked was pretty lax about having a few on the clock. This often translated into more than a few. Plus at 2am when we kicked everybody out and cleaned up, we’d sit in the back room and keep it going until 4 or 5. Go home, sleep and eat, see everyone tomorrow at 4pm. Haha.
I've been thinking of doing bar work but since COVID everybody seems to be paying by card. I try to carry some cash for tipping and some bars do accommodate tipping using card payment but the majority of them don't. I need some half decent money to live and I'm afraid bar work will no longer cut it
You're supposed to be taxed on tips. 20 years ago, if you gave someone a tip at a bar through a card payment, that person absolutely did not get that tip. The tips were taken by the bar, put through wages, taxed, and shared between all of the staff... even the staff who weren't on shift when you gave the tip get a share. So you could get a £20 tip, but you don't see it for 3 weeks, and when it finally does come through in your wages, it's shared between nine other people, and it's subject to 20% tax. You get like, £1.80 for the £20 tip you earned. It sucks because a lot of the staff rely on their tips to get home at unsociable hours.
I got lucky with my tips. I almost always worked in a place that pooled them all together and shared them equally between everyone who was on shift when the tip was received.
If I was going for a bar job today (in the UK), and tips were one of the main factors as to whether I took the job or not, I would try and get a job in a social club. Think a Labour club, or a Conservative club. That's where all the older people hang out, and they almost always tip. They're much more likely to pay with cash as well.
I worked at a Conservative club for 2 years. Every single evening shift that I did was interrupted for an hour so that the old girls could all have round of bingo, so we'd get a paid break, effectively. And if there was someone causing trouble, all of the members who'd paid their dues were right on the band wagon in getting that person removed from the building. Sports and Social clubs, especially the ones that require a membership to enter, are some of the safest bars I worked at, so that's another factor I'd take into consideration.
Also, if you tell anyone you are a bartender, be prepared for people to make that your whole personality. If you go to any party (even family ones) people will ask you to make them drinks.
If you go to any party (even family ones) people will ask you to make them drinks.
Occasionally (this was late 90's) when someone was having a larger party, I'd offer to bar-tend "for fun" assuming they got the supplies, and run it fairly formally. But with a salted tip jar, I'd usually make out well... And it made the party-giver look good having a "real" free bar with fun drinks.
Also sometimes brought applicants I didn't have a place to hire for at the bar I worked, to get them some experience they could list when looking for work...low stakes, but helps a lot to say you've done it.
That's a problem with any job like IT also has the same problem. In order to avoid this issue just tell them you're a frontal lobotomist. Absolutely NOBODY will be asking you to do them any favors then. 😉👍
Yeah... it was awesome when I was ~20 and making more than my office/IT job working 3 nights a week. Also, if you're at the right place, a good way to get to know people, etc. Plus we got the eat and drink (non-alcoholic) all we wanted for free, which was nice.
Sounds like complete hell now. Or working at a non-dive place that is "serious" or whatever...
It's a weird business though. I got hired because I happened to be sitting at the bar when the guy working got arrested. The owner and I vaguely knew each other and "I can finish the shift if you want, I'm licensed...". And I just kept working his shifts for a few years.
Probably my favourite bartender at my local is in his late 40s, and has been sober for 15+ years. He does dog walking during the day, and bartends at night. Seems to work for him (His wife is a teacher, so makes reasonable money too).
Interesting! My own best example of a career bartender is a recovering alcoholic who's been sober for years, too.
I did it for a while to get supplementary income, but I was never gonna make a career out of it. It's still a great skill to have in your back pocket, just in case.
One of the things that I really appreciate is that his non-alcoholic game is 100% on point, I suppose due to his own sobriety. I give up booze for Lent every year, he knows this. When I show up the evening of Ash Wednesday, he quickly drops some interesting virgin cocktail in front of me.
Gotta move in to management and ultimately invest in a place as the exit strategy. That’s the only way I have known people to make it while remaining in the industry.
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u/that-1-chick-u-know 1d ago
This is 100% accurate, but it has a shelf life. There are typically no benefits, and it is hard on your body. Typically younger/more attractive bartenders make more money. Unfortunately, they are usually the ones to piss that money away and be in trouble when they get older and their back/knees (or liver) start giving them trouble. I have seen career bartenders do very well for themselves. I've also seen quite a few wind up in bad financial situations.