Blacklist

Over the years I have worked with a few bartenders who were basically alcoholics that indulged their thirsts on the job. I have noticed a trend develop with this type of non-professional bartender. At first, they will drink just a little…testing the water…as time goes by and they get more comfortable…they drink more and more…until that fateful night comes when they get so visibly drunk…management has no choice but to fire them. At which point word spreads quickly around the bar scene and they will find it difficult to get another gig tending bar in the near future. Would you hire a pharmacist known for stealing and eating oxy cotton on the job? So tonight…around nine…I noticed Bart was completely fucked up once again. He was breaking glasses and glassy-eyed, swaying and slurring, forgetting cocktail orders and cocktail recipes, etc. This put me in an awkward situation. I like Bart and don’t want to see him lose his job but at the same time, enough is enough. Get a grip butterfingers. In an effort to push the ugly scene under the radar, I told him to go home and appointed a cocktail waitress to do his paperwork. Unfortunately…or fortunately…management caught up with him before he could make his drunken exit and the events of night became well documented. They sent him home in a taxi. I am interested to see…in their vast wisdom…what they decide to do about Bart. He is good worker when he isn’t inebriated, however he obviously has a problem that requires an immediate solution. It would be nice if they put him on suspension, made him attend some AA classes, and let him return when he cleaned up his act. But in all reality, Bart will be shown the door and added to the local blacklist of bartenders not to hire. Don’t drink and work.