The Lonely Bar

My thoughts on the service industry, a brief take.

I can’t imagine how tough it is right now. I quit my job because of it. For whatever reason the employees originally wanted or applied to work at the bar, there’s some enduring quality that keeps them there. Maybe it’s necessity, meaning money reasons, but there’s something more. There is clearly something more as right now bars are dead, but cling on they do. There isn’t enough good money to keep there them there, but there is still some money. And what more motivation to get out of a job than a lack of money and motivation in the industry. I’ve been there. I’ve been there on the nights where you just stand around, waiting to go home, desperate to leave, but disappointed in the tip revenue you know you ain’t gonna get. So what is it that makes you stick around, especially now? With Covid? You know that it won’t be busy, so what’s keeping you there? Maybe there isn’t work elsewhere, and that is a valid reason right now, but it’s something else. The good company that used to flock to your bar seems to be coming around less and less. The kitchen, not as busy at it once was, mulls around until the stagnant order comes up. That gets annoying. The fun stories and new adventures with fellow employees? Gone. I mean what’s knew? Who’s done anything special in this extraordinarily boring time? But you stick around. You cling to it, and it clings to you just as fiercely as the grime and gunk that pulls at your shoes as you walk on the rubber mats behind the bar.

Sometimes the people you work with really do keep you there. Friendships you never really knew you needed nor expected to happen in the first place. In a come-and-go industry, those who stick around long enough become your family, and the bar, your home. It’s almost inevitable, no matter how slow things get, no matter how rundown the place becomes. And sometimes talking to someone random about the things that really matter to you or how you’re really feeling feels a lot better than talking to your friends about nothing at all. In the end, it’s comfort.

It isn’t the drinks that keep bringing people back, that’s for sure. Those never change and hardly ever get better. For whatever it’s worth, good or bad, at least it shows resilience.