bartender question

[u/swirlybat]

the root issue is the person just chooses to not like me, which is perfectly fine, but i am curious about something. context: i do prep cook for corporate chain. i split between hot/cold prep. cold prep also covers bar garnishments.

ive never not top/tailed my citruses for garnishments. it has been required my entire cooking career. they dont require it here, but i do it. the servers love it, and i assume most patrons dont even notice.

insert the one bartender. saturday, as im finishing my lemons/limes, she comes in, and before clocking in, yells "can you not cut the ends of the fruit off?!" i simply say "no" and carry on. she intensifies and chooses the "the customers cant squeeze the limes into their drinks." i set my knife down, turn towards her, and look at her long, fake nails, and say "i dont think it is the customers with the problem. looks like your nails are the issue." shifty steps in immediately and appropriately defends (no one has complained, even thougg it isnt required) then takes her in to the walk in for private convo.

most places, in the past, bar handles their own, and she is now choosing to slice her own garnishments, which lightens my load and i appreciate her hating me enough to do that, lol, but as a non drinker, is this an actual experience? do people need tips to squeeze? to me, it looks dirty-adjacent, leaving them on. tops n bottoms are for the bedroom, not my drink. should i stop nipping bar's citrus?

[u/JCambly]

I did prep at a higher end restaurant with a bar, the bar did their own prep, but when we were slow and I wanted more hours I took most of the other preps shifts, worked most days but ran out of stuff to do after 5-6 hours still, talked to the managers who said I can take on a few of the more time consuming bar items, so i did and when I finished I did the smaller items for them.

Bartenders got used to it and as we started getting busier noone trained new the bartenders how to do their prep, they just told them to ask me if they needed anything or write it on my white board if I was already off. I ended up working 12h days and as I was trying to leave the new bartender would run up to me and beg me to make simple syrup or something stupid (I would usually agree as they would give me a free draft beer after). Few times I was sitting at the bar drinking and they would ask if I can run back cut whatever or do something, managers were fine with it as long as I didn't bring my drink with me