Message 6815 of 22774 in Behind the Bar

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I was reading through a few of the old barback threads, and had a few 
questions.

I'm fairly new to the service industry, and have only been barbacking for a 
few weeks.  I can't expect myself to be perfect - I bust my ass the whole 
time, and in reading some of the threads, I can't help but wonder if it's me 
that's coming up short, or the bar.  My main concern is picking up the little 
stuff - noticing when ice/liquor/beer tubs are low, and grabbing those before 
they run out, as opposed to having to be notified by the tenders.  I don't 
have the time to notice, because after 45 minutes of service, we generally run 
out of glasses.  Like, literally run out of everything - talls, mids, rocks, 
everything (pardon me if I don't have the full terminology in my lexicon yet). 
 I generally spend 80% of the night reminding the waitresses to bring glasses 
back to me so I can keep them moving, and I still generally have to make 8-10 
glass runs a night, as the only active barback (we have a second barback who 
mainly functions in making drinks for the waitresses).  This is in a bar that 
generally does $2000 per hour when we're busy - so it isn't the fastest bar 
out there, but we're not exactly slow either.

Am I falling short, am I 2 steps behind because I'm new, or is the problem 
really just that the bar does not have enough glasses, and the waitresses are 
too slow about bringing them back?  Right now the boss is talking about either 
moving to acrylic disposables, or hiring a busser, either one of which would 
take the load off my shoulders completely for this one - but at the same time, 
add to our costs, which I'd like to avoid.

On top of this - is it common for the tenders to have to ask me how to make 
drinks?  I have NO formal training, I've never been to school for this, and 
I've never tended myself.  I'd think that the tenders should know the drinks - 
at LEAST the common ones.  But still, at least once or twice a night, one of 
them needs a recipe from me.  Is this common, should this be expected of me, 
or is it on their end?

They keep assuring me that I'm doing a great job, but I have to wonder - 
especially when I saw the tipping thread and I saw that a piss poor barback 
generally gets a 10% tipout, and that's what I've been getting so far.  I just 
don't see myself being THAT slow - and I can say without a doubt that I'm NOT 
slacking, I generally end a shift drenched in sweat.

Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.