Happy Hours have shown to be beneficial for businesses. Restaurants discount alcoholic beverages and sometimes food to get customers in during normally slow times. Most people go after work for a few drinks with co-workers but sometimes people over-indulge. Lauryn Near, 24, has been in the restaurant business as a server for six years. The following story is from Lauryn’s one year working at Fort Collins Country Club. Over lunch I asked Lauryn to share with me a time that someone had too many drinks at a Happy Hour and during the process learned about a new, and more serious, aspect of Happy Hour.
Q: Why did you decide to go into the restaurant business?
A: It was good money. I don’t really like it that much.
Q: What are some challenges in being a server?
A: It’s hard to be pleasant all the time with customers even when they’re rude.
Q: Yeah I bet. People can be really cruel.
A: Yeah, it’s also a challenge when you mess up someone’s order because sometimes they get really mad or refuse to pay for it and then it comes out of my pocket so that can be frustrating.
Q: Are Happy Hours a challenge to work because more people come in?
A: When I was new to serving I would’ve said yes, but because I’ve been doing it for so long it’s not stressful.
Q: Do you think Happy Hours are a good idea?
A: Year, for business and making money.
Q: Do people tend to tip more because the drinks are cheaper?
A: No because they view it as a smaller bill so the tip is smaller. But, more people come in so it works out.
Q: Can you tell me about a time where someone drank a bit too much at a Happy Hour?
A: Oh, I can tell you plenty. But there was this one at the golf course that I vividly remember because I was so scared.
Q: What do you mean scared?
A: So there were these guys on the golf course and they were obviously wasted but I didn’t serve them that much. I just thought they were lightweights. It got bad though, like they were throwing golf clubs and yelling a lot.
Q: Oh wow. What did you do?
A: I went to go get my manager and by the time I was back they had flipped the golf cart and it was on top of one of the guys’ arm.
Q: Yikes. That escalated quickly. Was your manager mad?
A: He was more scared for me and for the golf course because the guy could sue us for serving him too much alcohol. The golf course would lose their liquor license if that happened and I would have to pay a $2,000 fine as well as anything it cost me to go to court if they took me there.
Q: So what happened?
A: Turns out the guys had snuck in their own alcohol and just ordered a few drinks from me to make it not super obvious. So, the guys didn’t threaten to sue or anything because they brought their own and he wasn’t hurt badly.
Q: Well that was good for you. But that’s terrifying that people can sue you if they get in trouble after leaving the bar. How do you know when to stop someone?
A: In training you learn if their eyes are glazing over, slurring their words or getting angry that they’ve probably had too much to drink. A lot of times they start getting weird to other customers too but at a golf course they’re normally playing with their friends so that’s harder to gauge.
Q: It sounds like that can be tricky.
A: It really is. We’re supposed to offer them food to sober them up or offer them water but a lot of times they say no. But, if they grab their keys we’re supposed to call them a cab but if they refuse then I call the police because I don’t want to get in trouble and lose my job.
Q: But I feel like people still get really drunk at bars but no one tries to stop them. What do you think about that?
A: Well customers can get as drunk as they want if they have a sober ride and they’re not disturbing other people. It’s only if they try to drive that we have to intervene.
Q: Oh I see. Do you think if more places served discounted food as well as drinks people wouldn’t get as drunk?
A: Yeah I think that’s a really good idea and more places should do that because it would take the pressure off the servers to be watching customers so much because we have a lot of other things to do besides babysit our customers. I guess it’s just all part of the job.
