In spite of what you as a bartender may feel, some managers are there to help. Some have no formal or informal managerial training whatever and have absolutely no clue what they’re doing, possess no common sense, and if they were in charge of a horse drawn carriage would drive the poor horse to death and leave it feet up on its back in the hot NYC streets because they thought it was some sort of self contained machine requiring nothing to work endlessly at peak efficiency. I bring this up because I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The same kind of people also manage people sometimes.
Let’s assume the manager you’re working with has half a clue, because most of them actually do.
The first place I walked into for a bartending job hired me as an assistant manager full time, and manager part time on weekends, for special dance parties, and for German tour bus brunch groups on Saturdays. I also got to finagle my way into tending bar a few days a week and for the parties “just in case not enough bartenders showed up” (I did the scheduling so that was never a problem).
During day to day operations I had 12 wait staff, three cooks, two dish washers, a salad man, and two bartenders. Corporate dispatched security as needed.
I was young, and I had no management experience.
What I did have was experience riding multiple trail horses. A trail horse is one that takes people on rides through the woods along trails. They’ve been trained not to deviate. As a matter of fact they’re very difficult to make deviate if you want to take them off of the trail. Almost impossible as a matter of fact. I’m glad I remembered that when I took over managing this restaurant in my early twenties.I decided it would be much easier to let 18 of them plod along following along on their own well known, well worn beaten path then for me to struggle with each and every one of them individually. It was easier for one person (me) to learn their ways than for me to change all of theirs.
What I gained in exchange for that was phenomenal. I gained their trust, their confidence, their respect, their willing assistance in everything I undertook, and I made clear to them that I was there to help them when a customer became illogical about something that we could easily work out in the customer’s favor to prevent the waiter from being reported to corporate. (NYC’s 8,000,000 people has it’s fair share of con artists who have no problem whatever screwing over a waiter for a free meal).
There are all sorts of management styles from to “top down” where the manager makes all the decisions and rules to “bottom up” team style management where employees contribute ideas freely during meetings to identify their productivity problems, suggest ways to repair those problems, vote among themselves which ideas seem best, implement them and then in the next meeting refine them until things are running just right.
But there’s also something called loyalty based management, and I believe in loyalty management where if I’m loyal to you and make you look good all I require from you is that you be loyal to me and make me look good.
What does making me look good mean? It means making sure the sales are up, that inventory shrinkage is down, that in general you don’t give me any problems and I don’t give you any problems, and in return I’m the buffer between you and customer problems being escalated up to higher management where they’ll most likely to get everyone into more trouble than it’s worth.
The more you know about how to manage, the better you’ll be able to work with the house to accomplish its goals, meet its numbers, create a profit, and become a team player. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a union where you’re getting guaranteed benefits or not, if you’re working for a business, your loyalty is to that businesses’ bottom line. If they fail, union or not, you’re going to lose your job because they’re going to go out of business.
So get a few good Bar Management Books – Look through the offerings and decide which ones will help most accomplish the goals you think your establishment will most benefit from. You can also look at general “how to manage a restaurant and bar” books, and “how to manage bottom up“.
While you’re at it take a look at the books and other items available at KegWorks.com and subscribe to the KegWorks blog. Pretty cool stuff for both bar managers and bartenders. Check out this link for another great site for bar products and books.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of bartending and bar management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown clubs and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa in Exclusive Platinum Service Awards Clubs, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
