A Day In The Life..

Its no surprise that alcohol and substance abuse is a major problem that is overlooked within the hospitality industry. I wanted to share with everyone what a typical shift could look like for a hospitality worker so someone outside of the business can get a real picture of what’s truly going on.

You get to work 15 minutes early for your 4pm shift and attend a team pre-shift. During this pre-shift you assist your manager in making all of the new cocktails that you’re rolling out this evening so that the staff can try them all and be able to sell them. Once everyone has tried all of the drinks, its time to start your 10 hour shift. As a bartender, you will quality check (sample) all of the new cocktails as they go out to ensure they are perfect. By doing so, this helps you maintain a steady buzz throughout your shift. Later in the evening, some of your big spender regulars arrive and want you to do shots with them. You think to yourself, the more they spend the more they may tip so you entertain them and take a shot or two with them. You spend the majority of the late night rush getting screamed at by intoxicated guests. Finally when the last call is finished and all of the guests have left, your manager locks the doors and offers up rounds of free drinks to say thank you for a great night. This is then followed by a major vent session between the entire staff during their cash-outs. Now that everyone is riled up and have had some final drinks at the restaurant, someone offers to host an after party at theirs. Someone calls for liquor if there isn’t already some ready to go and the team bonding continues. The following morning you wake up with a vicious hangover, but meet some of the team for a boozy brunch because the hair of the dog will help soothe the hangover. Shortly after you get ready and head back into work, slightly buzzed again for another long shift. And the vicious cycle continues….

My industry friends know this cycle all too well. Now, this may not apply to everyone but a great deal of people in the industry will have lived this very cycle on multiple occasions. The restaurant/bar industry is accompanied with easy access to alcohol, then you add late night hours, long shifts without meal breaks, and dark rooms filled with people drinking to get wasted. It’s shouldn’t be a surprise that this environment nurtures addiction. When the day is done and the adrenaline rush is over, we need something for ourselves to make it all worth it.

The hospitality industry taught me everything I know but it also sucked the life right out of me by the end of my career. I believed in the “work hard play hard” mentality whole heartedly and boy did I follow through. I busted my ass and worked crazy hours for years, so it only made sense that after work I deserved to go hard and take up all the offers to drink for free with regulars or the team.

It is clear that there is a real substance abuse problem within this industry and it has become part of the “culture”. People get sucked in because this kind of lifestyle is glamourized.

Something needs to change…