Message 8221 of 39188 in General Discussion

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Sounds like there's a little personality play going on there, but in ANY 
industry the professionals are the ones that can work through it. 
And professionalism is what we're all about here :)

Some bosses, mostly the smaller independant ones, have a way of doing thing 
that is so ingrained they can't imagine someone not doing it that way. An a 
touch of that can be cultural, however I don't think checking the CO2 falls 
into that category!

ANYWAY...

Starting up a shift:
Think it through - 
Do the BACK OF HOUSE tasks first!

Loading in any deliveries,
Rotating beer kegs if needed,
Gas checking (I guess, tho' I admit I seldom cared until it went down - we had 
it serviced externally)
Post-mix box rotation,

... stuff that requires abandoning the bar for a noticable length of time.

Then the stock-up, which requires one eye on the crowd (if anyones' turned up 
yet), whilst you note what you still need to fetch.
Ice stocking, or anything that needs to be brought from the kitchen.

... things that keep you moving from front to back

Then medium sized jobs, any significant cleaning, Orange squeezing, garnish 
prep, pour spout rinsing.

... things that you can do while serving, although it's a bit of a hassle to 
start & stop

Finishing of course with the lightweight stop-start stuff like dusting, 
wiping, and the classic bartender-doing-nothing : glass polishing!

Things you can drop without being interrupted.

You should notice that as your shift begins, you are able to dedicate more and 
more of your time to looking up, paying attention, serving, and even chatting.
This (for an opening shift at least) corresponds with the time customers will 
take to drift in.

You should see that duties that require going out back for 5 minutes are best 
done when there's no-one in the bar, not once it's all underway.
 
Even at a shift change-over, you should use the time when the bar is 
temporarily over-staffed to disappear out back, to ensure you don't have to 
once alone.

Getting the bar 'set up', especially the cocktail goodies for a day shift, is 
sometimes best done on an as-needed basis. Saves spoilage. On a slow day it 
can save doing it at all ;)
You can often move around and grab stuff while shaking or blending, so there's 
no real delay there.

This, as a general, but (IMO obvious) rule is often the best argument if 
anyone takes issue with 'the way you do things'.

There's thousands more guidelines of course, but this is a start. 
Yes, there's a chance I would have agreed with your boss ;)

.dan.