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Subject: Re: Are bars that rip off their bartenders common?
From: Chris Milligan
Posted: Fri Mar 4. 2011, 16:52 UTC
Followup to: "Are bars that rip off their bartenders common?"  by TheNewbieBartender  (Fri Mar 4. 2011, 16:22 UTC)
> Hey guys, let me start off by saying I'm a new bartender. Also, sorry 
> for such a long post.  I feel I need to be thorough though.
> Anyway, I landed my first job in this profession randomly about a 
> month and a half ago and I've been loving it so far.  My customers 
> and the people I work with are great and besides the distance and the 
> fact I have to work The Oregon Lottery, it's the perfect job for me 
> while I try to save up to go to grad school.  
> Lately, however, I've heard and experienced things that I've found 
> troubling to say the least. My bar has the very unusual practice of 
> not requiring it's employees to count out  their till at the end of a 
> shift.  This is because we don't always get physical slips to account 
> for lottery money.  That's all collected by the accountant in the 
> morning.  In any case, over the last couple of weeks I heard about 
> what happened to the guy who I replaced.  Apparently, he had a 
> thousand dollars missing from one of his tills.  The thing is, a 
> number of my regulars have told me that they were there while this 
> guy was counting his money before his shift and that he called my 
> boss to tell her that a thousand dollars was missing.  She said it 
> was fine and to just let the accountant know the next morning.  The 
> next day she ends up accusing him of stealing and fires him.
> Obviously, a lot of stuff is spread around in bars that isn't true.  
> However, my one coworker who worked at my bar the longest just 
> recently quit out of the blue.  A week goes by, everyone knows she 
> quit but no one knows why.  Last night she walks into my bar while 
> I'm beginning to close expecting to see someone else working.  She 
> starts talking about a lot of things but one thing that stuck out was 
> when she mentioned that when the bar wants to get rid of a bartender, 
> they'll start telling them that their tills are short.  She said 
> she's seen it happen to multiple bartenders.
> The next day I get a call from my bar and they tell me my till is a 
> hundred dollars short.  Let me tell you, I personally find this to be 
> impossible.  The night was so slow that I had enough time to and did 
> count back my money 3 times. But since I don't have the materials to 
> count back my till for the night, there's no way to be sure.  
> This brings me to my question: is it common for bars owners to be 
> crooked?  I talked to one Portland bartender about it and she says it 
> that she's been hearing more stories about similar things happening, 
> especially with bars dealing in the Oregon Lottery.  I hope more than 
> anything that I'm just being paranoid and that the people who used to 
> work at my bar are just disgruntled, but I feel that this is 
> impossible to ignore.  I want to move up to a better bar, but in 
> order to do that I need a good reference and I obviously can't get 
> one if I get fired for being accused of stealing.  
> Thanks to those who read this monster of a post. Sorry for it being 
> so all over the place.  I was trying to be as concise as possible.  
> On a lighter note, if you have any advice for a novice bartender, I'd 
> love to hear it.  And any references to bars in the Portland area 
> that might be hiring would be great as well.

No.  It is not common.  It happens but it is not common.

PS find a new job
-- 
Chris 
www.santafebarman.com
http://blogs.forbes.com/chrismilligan/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1298351116


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