But not really…
I used to work at a pretty well known private members club as the head bartender. Most of the clientele were in the influencer business, or celebrities.
Basically I was hired before the location opened, and there was only one person above me in my department, the bar manager. Upon opening we immediately found ourselves completely unable to keep up with all the bullshit going on around us. Every single day we were forced to work over hours, with not enough staff, and had to bend the rules constantly. Even if one of the members was abusively rude to us, we had to just take it and move on.
The club consisted of 6 bars over 3 floors. Normally we'd have a minimum of 2 bartenders per bar but after a month the upper management forced us to downsize and many of the bartenders were made to work on the floor as a waiter instead. This meant that often times me as the head bartender would have to not only work the entire day on one bar, but to save hours for the staff beneath me, I'd have to close two or three bars at the end of the night and do all the restocking and cleaning. Sometimes my shifts would be as long as 20 hours. Keep in mind I was on a salary so I got a fixed amount every month.
Many of you probably wondered why I would even bother putting up with this. I was told at the beginning of my employment that if I went “above and beyond”, there was room for relocation, and potentially a bar manager position in one of their new clubs. So I put up with it for now.
One day my bar manager quit, he just had enough and it had only been 2 months since we had been open. He literally just said “Yep I'm out by the end of this week, I can't do another month at this place”.
This meant I was going to have to take over his position. I was actually ecstatic because I knew I could do it. I had all the same knowledge as him and I had been his right hand man since the beginning. He'd even come to me for advice frequently.
Well here's where things go from bad to worse. I was told I'd be taking over the bar managers position, but rather than being promoted to bar manager, I'd be promoted to senior head bartender. This meant that I'd be scheduling, interviewing, doing stock take, orders, event management, as a position below what I was entitled to. But they told me if I hung on until after Christmas that I'd get the bar manager position, so I said sure, I'll prove myself worthy.
Two months go by, and I have been working myself to the point of breaking. The bar was running amazingly but I had completely burned myself out. I had gotten kidney stones, and had lost more than 10 pounds since I had been “promoted”. I felt like shit but the light at the end of the tunnel was my promotion. I'd be getting 2700 euros a month instead of 2100, and I could finally add this huge achievement to my Resume.
I'm called into a meeting with my club manager and general manager a few days after new years. I'm genuinely super excited, and I've overprepared with figures showing staff retention and speed of service improvements.
From the second I get into the meeting I know it's not going to be good. During my meeting it's obvious they've never seen any of the hardships I've been through nor do they give a shit. One of them leaves the meeting twice to take a phone call from her boss. I am told that I'm not getting the position and instead the head barista will be given the position because “she's better at making schedules and she's incredibly proficient with excel”.
FUCK. You're kidding me right? She has never worked on a bar in her life, and she's literally only been a barista for 2 years. I don't get it. She doesn't even know how to hold a shaker let alone order spirits. Fuck this.
I waited one week after having her as my manager and gave her my resignation letter. She was super upset and I could see that she was panicking because I was essentially supposed to be her helper since she knew jack shit about managing a bar.
Two weeks later and I'm gone. I never looked back and I literally seperated myself from working in hotels and clubs entirely. I started working at a Mexican restaurant as a freelancer, and often get booked for gigs as a freelance bartender. I went from getting 2167 euros a month before tax to 5000 euros per month after.
I couldn't be happier. So when I saw my old boss come into my new work I wasn't really excited to serve him but what choice did I have.
He said he was happy to see me, and asked how I was liking my new gig. We had a little chit chat and at some stage I asked him how the members club was going.
Apparently the girl they hired as the bar manager lasted exactly 1.5 months and resigned. About 75% of the other bartenders there also resigned and wrote absolutely terrible reviews on glassdoor and similar websites absolutely reviling the place. All around town everyone knew that this business was an absolute hell hole to work at and the final thing he told me was that they actually had to shut down half of the club and the entire restaurant because they needed to hire 56 staff members.
Our team was originally 75 so when I heard this my jaw hit the floor. They're screwed, and I thought I'd feel really happy about it, but I didn't.
Before I could even stop myself I said “Well I guess that's what happens when a barista runs a cocktail bar”. He just smiled at me and said yeah, we're sorry about that. Probably not our best course of action”.
I genuinely feel for the guy but this all goes to show, never go above and beyond without compensation or a promise written on paper.
TL:DR – I was undercut for a position I was entitled to and it backfired in a major way. Feels good/bad man.