Categories
pubs

Men Behaving Badly

Sunday night. The three 18-25 year-old barmen, hard to tell apart, have been left unsupervised.

There is a constant background hum of their snickering. Every time a young woman enters, they nudge each other in the ribs, leer and mutter. Fingers are held up — marks out of ten.

When there is a gap in the rush at the bar, they gather around the TV and watch the Paralympics. At the sight of limbless athletes, they suffer an infectious fit of giggles: “That’s sick, dude.”

We feel a bit like we’ve accidentally turned up at their shared house demanding pints and that they’re humouring us by letting us stay.

Of course, we know plenty of 18-25 year-old barmen who are very nice and very professional, but there’s something to be said for a bit of diversity behind the bar: the presence of older people and women can prevent the otherwise inevitable Men Behaving Badly effect from kicking in.

5 replies on “Men Behaving Badly”

It’s a trend, isn’t it? You feel like you have entered a private party and at the same time are expected to pay.
I think the blur between work and leasure is a challenge for quite a few under-25s. That makes it imperative for any employer, in a pub or elswehere, to be explisit about the role you are expected to fill during working hours. And if you have an uneasy feeling, send a friend along as a mystery shopper to check how things are.

Comments are closed.