The streets are lined with fairy lights, each front window revealing elaborate Christmas trees and festive decorations. The smell of mulled cider and frost is in the air and an all-round sense of well-being and celebration has overcome us all. I'm talking, of course, about the festive period in which we take the time to indulge in traditions, make time for family we rarely get to see and celebrate the holidays with plenty of food, wine and presents.
Working in a pub, this festive period becomes a time when the people that rarely go out for a drink are suddenly the life and soul of the Christmas party. We often get tipped well, work harder and sacrifice parts of our holidays to be behind a bar serving the people that have managed to find a job that inhibits a two-week leave to celebrate the holidays. 9 times out of 10, the atmosphere of the pub is more electric and buzzing with positivity. People sport their best and worst Christmas jumpers and, to put it in layman terms, are generally just more up for a laugh. However, the 1% of people out there like to use this time to remind us that we are working during the festive period and that they, the supposed superior, have been allocated the time off. They ask questions such as "Why do you even work here?", "Surely you're better than this?" and, my person favourite, "Working much over the holidays?" To which I politely reply: "To make money. Why yes, I probably am. And yes. All of it". There is also the small percentage of people that like to treat us like servants and indeed ask many irrational questions as though to test our knowledge. For example, a customer recently asked for a bottle of Corona and as I presented the bottle, FROM THE FRIDGE, the customer then sneered and asked me to "make sure it's a cold one next time", as though the bottle hadn't been stored in a monitored fridge for at least 24 hours. I guess the point of my story is to remind you fellow members of the public to appreciate the staff giving up parts of their Christmas, whether that be in retail or customer service, and treat them with a little more respect.
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Part-time student/bar-associate |