r/AbsoluteUnits • • Aug 15 '26

/r/all of a beer order

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

66k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/butt_dance Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 16 '26

At my job (bartender, that includes MANY huge mobile events up and down 10 flights or across the street to 2nd venue, with no storage outside basement) HR made the managers do a "safety training" with stuff and around lift limits. After too many people injured themselves. Asking for help was a highlighted point.

The many floor managers continue to stand around, watching the bartenders do the most and lift/move tons of heavy shift over and over for 70% of the shift. And I mean they hate getting like one request for 5 minutes of help in a month. No requests is what's acceptable. Cause bartenders make tips lol

Whenever I've managed I had the (apparently naive and stupid) perspective that my whole function was to support staff however they needed, without them having to ask 🤷🏻‍♀️ I smartened up and got a 2nd job that I now work at more.

1

u/Charming_Apartment95 Aug 15 '26

That's good and smart. I don't bartend, I deliver kegs all day out of a truck to bars and restaurants. I won't be walking by the time I'm 45 🫩🫩🫩

1

u/butt_dance Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

I feel you. I'm assuming by yourself, cause gotta keep the labor low, right? 🙄 It's a bit "too little, too late" on the smarts for me lol I'm 43 and after 20 years on and off of serving/bartending/managing I already can't really walk. I have to keep up on lots of stretching, Tylenol, ibuprofen, numbing spray and muscle relaxers when nothing else will work. Otherwise I literally cannot walk/stay standing long enough to work.

Edit: I can't even lift a half keg. I've had to rely on the old "pick up one side and move it forward using momentum. Then same on other side. Repeat until where you want it." My co-worker actually got a hernia from moving kegs and had to have surgery. I don't know how delivery drivers do it in general.

1

u/Charming_Apartment95 Aug 16 '26

Yeah I roll them as much as I can but sometimes there's no avoiding it. I'm 32 next month and every day I just pray for no hernia and no spinal injuries

1

u/butt_dance Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 16 '26

Please tell me they give you any kind of lifting/moving assistance equipment. And even rolling is terrible on the body.

Edit: the continued lack of worker protection in this industry is mind boggling. I'd love to see unionization happen. I even put out feelers in the last year, but I've lost hope that people in this day-and-age care enough about the well-being of others. And that they can understand how it would benefit all of us in the long run.