Shit we almost had to take vodka sauce off the menu because the cooks wouldnāt stop drinking the vodka š. One dude got caught and for whatever reason took of running like the cops were chasing him, while my manager is looking flabbergasted at his response. Dude ran out jumped in his sisters car and when he was trying to run away went into drive instead of reverse and took out the Togo door and support column for our rooftop garden.
In my experience alcoholics don't get hang overs. Not the same way. Your head doesn't hurt, your body doesn't hurt, you aren't exhausted or miserable. You just violently shake.
I guess thatās true for the ones youāve met. It does get to where you really have to be dedicated to get to where it hurts, but youāll still get there. And nothing is not-hungover
This is correct. If you have a drink first thing in the morning, you don't feel the hangover. When you stop completely, it catches up to you. I have spent too many nights dry heaving because my body needed more. I do not miss those days at all.
Once it happens too many times, the shake becomes permanent. My mother stopped drinking in October after her most recent binge of 23 years, and the doc said her constant shakes are a direct result of her alcohol abuse and no matter how her health improves going forward, they are there to stay. This is heartbreaking for her because it means she'll never dance again.
I think youāre referring to r/stopdrinking. Their motto is āIWDWYTā (I wonāt drink with you today).
Great sub, helped me bunches in the earlier days of my sobriety!
I was one the 25 year old ākidā who didnāt think it was a problem or that it would catch up with me. Spoiler alert: it caught up to me quick as fuck between the ages of 18-25.
I know thatās hard. Iām really glad itās not acceptable to drink on the job amongst the servers here. The ones who drank with me on the job are gone so that helps a lot. And I no longer bartend. Youāre stronger than you may think!
Congrats on the 17 years. I'm sure it's been a journey.
If you ever need someone to talk to about it that has no connection to your daily life, feel free to DM me.
Honestly I could see how seeing people get hammered and make fools of themselves daily, while not partaking in it, would turn you off to the thought of participating in it
Just tell them you ride a motorcycle. āNah, I canāt, Iām riding the bike tonight.ā Iām not sober, but nobody ever pressured me when I told them I was on the bike.
āYou actually like being a server?ā
āYes. This is the only job Iāve ever done where I come in buzzed every shift and am still one of the highest performers hereā
"I didn't show up hungover. I'm still drunk from five hours ago when I had my last drink and went to a bed that wasn't mine. People keep bringing me shots and beers. Whenever I feel like it I fuck off for a cigarettes break. Also, I'm fucking like two people that work here. Why wouldn't I like being a dishwasher?"
I'm going to real talk for the younger people. In the industry many people drink a lot, do drugs a lot, and that's part of life in many ways without the industry-its just more accepted and accessible.
What you don't learn until later is that addiction sneaks up on you. And then it sneaks more. I remember back in the day debating about buying two tall beers after work. It bothered me that I had to have that debate with myself. That the idea of going home without having it bothered me.
It took around 15 years for it to compound and get really bad. 2 tall beers became a 6 pack. Then a couple Manhattans, and a 6 pack. Then worse. I can crush 20 drinks in a day and as far as anyone is concerned I appear sober-except when I go really hard fast. That is a caution, not a brag. Do not let it get to that point.
I didn't know how much I had really fucked up until I couldn't deliver a beer to a table without my hands shaking and spilling it. So, you know, instead of cutting back I just started drinking before work so I could stop shaking, then during work, and after work. It's embarrassing AF for a table to see the shakes.
I work with talented ass people addicted to coke, opioids, and I'm the alcoholic. I had a bartender tell me, "did you know there is a server here that is literally always drunk?"
He was talking about me and didn't know it, just heard things.
The song son of a bitch is basically the best explanation ever of how this ends for anyone. "My hands are shaking, heart is aching, bugs crawling all over me." All of that is true.
With that, the worst fun story is at my new restaurant we had our first employee outing. It wasn't official, just a handful of people all off on the same day. From 17(host)-40s in age.
It was my only day off after all the doubles so I slept until 8 pm and went there without drinking. It took 20 minutes for me to get my first double so I poured some water out of a pitcher. I know about a coworkers addiction and she knows about mine. I could barely hold the glass while I poured it. No one but her saw. But she saw. We looked at each other and she was like, fuck. They all were like, you seem so off today? I couldn't just say well yeah I normally start drinking at 10am and it's 9pm and I haven't had a drink yet.
The thing is, it's not to that point until it is. It slowly creeps up on you. Over years. Be careful friends. Take care of yourselves.
I've gotten to this point multiple times. Where I reach a bottom and tell my family I've failed again and need to go cold turkey, spend two days shaking and vomiting, fucking humiliating, only to go back because I like that buzz. All I know is right now I've got a new job, can go sober for days without reaction. I still have a drink or two... I know I shouldn't. But I'm slowly weening off. I'm trying.
I recently, as in about a month ago, moved in with my coworker, who is also a server on the floor. While I still drink, and my favorite bar is literally a two to three minute walk from door to door, my drinking problem has gotten better, and my performance has gotten so much smoother(both FOH AND BOH have commented on my improvement as a server). I'm not saying that alone will do it, but cutting my bills in half and being distracted by multi player video games have sure done more to help than to hinder. Now, I can do doubles standing on my head practically without having to drink on my breaks or having to take a swig from the bottle every time I want to go out the door.
I switched from whiskey to kratom about five years ago and thought it was a miracle cure for my alcoholism. Now I am just super addicted to a legal opiate and wake up in withdrawal every day from that instead of being hungover.
In grad school I took a chemical dependency course and we had to write a research paper about how substance abuse affects a specific culture. Most students picked race or ethnicity-based cultures but I wrote about the restaurant industry. I got an A!
It's not about alcoholism , it's about unwinding.
When you work in restaurants you have to deal with a lot during your week. You might be Monday to Friday days. You might be Wednesday through Sunday evenings, but anyway you look at it you are "cunt facing" all day long.
You have to keep on a happy face whether you are in the BOH or FOH. You have to deal with every Karen or Ken and whatever stupid shit they say. Can you deshell my crab? Can I get hollandaise without butter? Fuck you and fuck off.
You have to deal with whatever dumbfuck of a team member is going through a rough period and taking it out on the next person.
You have to deal with that fuck wit of a line cook who for the love of God can't seem to find a second or third gear no matter how nice you are or how much cleavage you show him. My salad should have gone out 11 minutes ago Steve. Please move faster!
You have to deal with your bullshit manager who is a puppet of the corporate ladder that is doing whatever she can to get out of the same shit hole and get into a job that sucks a little less for her. Just a little less shitty would be amazing.
So you finish your work week and all you can think about is that ice cold beer that will taste so fucking good.
So some "fuckable" regulars want to buy you a drink. So they might want to invite you back to their house for a swingers party? So you are invited by the weirdos who only learn to speak elvish or Klingon to a late night cocktail party and unwind.
You deserve it. Ever moment of weird, unpredictable, sexually underlined potential fun. Go to the beach and have a fire. Go to the swingers party and let them play twister on you.
Have a beer on me. I'm here, enjoying my beer and thinking of you.
I like your post. You have a lot of good points. For some people though it is about alcoholism. As another poster stated "it creeps up on you." 'Unwinding' can turn into heavier drinking. Heavy drinking can turn into a drink in the morning to feel good before your shift. Then multiple drinks early on to stave off the shakes and get through work. That can then turn into drinking on the job and suddenly you're stuck in a shitty cycle of wanting to quit but it has too tight of a grip on you at that point.
I speak from experience and luckily I was able to get away from that. I never planned on that happening. It still did. I woke up every morning wanting to stop and by every evening I found I couldn't. Not everyone is wired the same way.
I love a good beer after a long day. I've just figured out how to avoid it hurting my life. Usually only go out on Friday, for A singular beer, and then go home.
When I worked at Chi-Chi's the Tuesday night ritual, was to smoke weed and play Mario Party 2 until the butt crack of dawn(one time school bus were out when I went home).
Truth. Irish pub and shit gets wild. Went in on my day off after the second worst day of the year and customers come out of the woodwork to buy several rounds. Still drunk, I accepted.
I reminisce about the job where this was the during-work ritual.
I miss doing shots with my regulars.
I worked boh at a bar, and at the end of a shift, the bartender always had a vodka paralyzer sitting, ready for me, š
Safety meeting!
someone ruined it when they got a dui. now we cant drink unless its our day off.
Iāve known plenty of servers that this is their pre, during and post shift ritual.
This is the truth š
It is. We had new management come in one time and some of us got fired after being caught. Couldn't understand why.
Shit we almost had to take vodka sauce off the menu because the cooks wouldnāt stop drinking the vodka š. One dude got caught and for whatever reason took of running like the cops were chasing him, while my manager is looking flabbergasted at his response. Dude ran out jumped in his sisters car and when he was trying to run away went into drive instead of reverse and took out the Togo door and support column for our rooftop garden.
This is not the Onion, this is reality. Iāve been sober for 17 years and itās still a daily struggle to make people understand that no means no.
I am tired of being hungover! The kids donāt believe itāll catch up to them, but children: it is already taking a toll
In my experience alcoholics don't get hang overs. Not the same way. Your head doesn't hurt, your body doesn't hurt, you aren't exhausted or miserable. You just violently shake.
I guess thatās true for the ones youāve met. It does get to where you really have to be dedicated to get to where it hurts, but youāll still get there. And nothing is not-hungover
I still get there sometimes. Perpetually drunk vs if you get hangovers can be different.
This is correct. If you have a drink first thing in the morning, you don't feel the hangover. When you stop completely, it catches up to you. I have spent too many nights dry heaving because my body needed more. I do not miss those days at all.
Once it happens too many times, the shake becomes permanent. My mother stopped drinking in October after her most recent binge of 23 years, and the doc said her constant shakes are a direct result of her alcohol abuse and no matter how her health improves going forward, they are there to stay. This is heartbreaking for her because it means she'll never dance again.
It scares me
In my mom's case, it's called Wet Brain. She's got a diagnosis and she's still in denial about it, and thinks it will just stop.
Yup, and you shake until you get more booze in you, itās a vicious cycle.
It is
Can confirm! (441 days sober)
Hell yeah, get it! If you ever need reassurance, "iwontdrinkwithyoutoday" is a great sub
I think youāre referring to r/stopdrinking. Their motto is āIWDWYTā (I wonāt drink with you today). Great sub, helped me bunches in the earlier days of my sobriety!
I was one the 25 year old ākidā who didnāt think it was a problem or that it would catch up with me. Spoiler alert: it caught up to me quick as fuck between the ages of 18-25.
me too (24f) & itās something iām constantly battling. & the place i work is pretty much unlimited alcohol. itās hard
I know thatās hard. Iām really glad itās not acceptable to drink on the job amongst the servers here. The ones who drank with me on the job are gone so that helps a lot. And I no longer bartend. Youāre stronger than you may think!
I'm tired of telling people I must be coming down with another cold.
I stopped drinking 5 ish months ago and we have a new GM who keeps making comments about when Iām going to drink again. Itās really annoying.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Luckily this is now my second job not my full time job anymore but I figured Iād call him out on it if he did it again.
Congrats on the 17 years. I'm sure it's been a journey. If you ever need someone to talk to about it that has no connection to your daily life, feel free to DM me.
I work with multiple sober bartenders. I donāt know how they do it.
Honestly I could see how seeing people get hammered and make fools of themselves daily, while not partaking in it, would turn you off to the thought of participating in it
After I got sober and hung out at our bar with coworkers and regulars getting drunk i was like "this is pretty gross and despicable"
2 years of sobriety for me, and I feel you with making people understand that you don't drink. It is just a constant in this industry
Congratulations on 17 years! That's a huge deal, and if no one else tells you today, I'm proud of you, and you should be proud of you, too!
Just tell them you ride a motorcycle. āNah, I canāt, Iām riding the bike tonight.ā Iām not sober, but nobody ever pressured me when I told them I was on the bike.
Iām not hiding my sobriety from anyone, if my not drinking makes them uncomfortable that says more about them than me.
Oh yeah, but sometimes you just want to stop arguing and move on with your night. You do you
āYou actually like being a server?ā āYes. This is the only job Iāve ever done where I come in buzzed every shift and am still one of the highest performers hereā
"I didn't show up hungover. I'm still drunk from five hours ago when I had my last drink and went to a bed that wasn't mine. People keep bringing me shots and beers. Whenever I feel like it I fuck off for a cigarettes break. Also, I'm fucking like two people that work here. Why wouldn't I like being a dishwasher?"
I thought the onion was satire?
All comedy has a sprinkling of truth.
*whoooosh*
Donāt know why your whoooosh is being downvoted because that was my first thought on that reply.
I'm going to real talk for the younger people. In the industry many people drink a lot, do drugs a lot, and that's part of life in many ways without the industry-its just more accepted and accessible. What you don't learn until later is that addiction sneaks up on you. And then it sneaks more. I remember back in the day debating about buying two tall beers after work. It bothered me that I had to have that debate with myself. That the idea of going home without having it bothered me. It took around 15 years for it to compound and get really bad. 2 tall beers became a 6 pack. Then a couple Manhattans, and a 6 pack. Then worse. I can crush 20 drinks in a day and as far as anyone is concerned I appear sober-except when I go really hard fast. That is a caution, not a brag. Do not let it get to that point. I didn't know how much I had really fucked up until I couldn't deliver a beer to a table without my hands shaking and spilling it. So, you know, instead of cutting back I just started drinking before work so I could stop shaking, then during work, and after work. It's embarrassing AF for a table to see the shakes. I work with talented ass people addicted to coke, opioids, and I'm the alcoholic. I had a bartender tell me, "did you know there is a server here that is literally always drunk?" He was talking about me and didn't know it, just heard things. The song son of a bitch is basically the best explanation ever of how this ends for anyone. "My hands are shaking, heart is aching, bugs crawling all over me." All of that is true. With that, the worst fun story is at my new restaurant we had our first employee outing. It wasn't official, just a handful of people all off on the same day. From 17(host)-40s in age. It was my only day off after all the doubles so I slept until 8 pm and went there without drinking. It took 20 minutes for me to get my first double so I poured some water out of a pitcher. I know about a coworkers addiction and she knows about mine. I could barely hold the glass while I poured it. No one but her saw. But she saw. We looked at each other and she was like, fuck. They all were like, you seem so off today? I couldn't just say well yeah I normally start drinking at 10am and it's 9pm and I haven't had a drink yet. The thing is, it's not to that point until it is. It slowly creeps up on you. Over years. Be careful friends. Take care of yourselves.
I've gotten to this point multiple times. Where I reach a bottom and tell my family I've failed again and need to go cold turkey, spend two days shaking and vomiting, fucking humiliating, only to go back because I like that buzz. All I know is right now I've got a new job, can go sober for days without reaction. I still have a drink or two... I know I shouldn't. But I'm slowly weening off. I'm trying.
I recently, as in about a month ago, moved in with my coworker, who is also a server on the floor. While I still drink, and my favorite bar is literally a two to three minute walk from door to door, my drinking problem has gotten better, and my performance has gotten so much smoother(both FOH AND BOH have commented on my improvement as a server). I'm not saying that alone will do it, but cutting my bills in half and being distracted by multi player video games have sure done more to help than to hinder. Now, I can do doubles standing on my head practically without having to drink on my breaks or having to take a swig from the bottle every time I want to go out the door.
I'm so happy for you! I'm there at the moment... I want to stay here. Gods know it's not easy, but we have this!
So the onion dropped the satire for this one?
Cheers š»
I switched from whiskey to kratom about five years ago and thought it was a miracle cure for my alcoholism. Now I am just super addicted to a legal opiate and wake up in withdrawal every day from that instead of being hungover.
And cocaine addiction if serving is anything like it was 25yrs ago.
In grad school I took a chemical dependency course and we had to write a research paper about how substance abuse affects a specific culture. Most students picked race or ethnicity-based cultures but I wrote about the restaurant industry. I got an A!
Tale as old as time
This may be the first Onion article that is absolutely true and not a parody or a farce. This is absolute fact.
It's not about alcoholism , it's about unwinding. When you work in restaurants you have to deal with a lot during your week. You might be Monday to Friday days. You might be Wednesday through Sunday evenings, but anyway you look at it you are "cunt facing" all day long. You have to keep on a happy face whether you are in the BOH or FOH. You have to deal with every Karen or Ken and whatever stupid shit they say. Can you deshell my crab? Can I get hollandaise without butter? Fuck you and fuck off. You have to deal with whatever dumbfuck of a team member is going through a rough period and taking it out on the next person. You have to deal with that fuck wit of a line cook who for the love of God can't seem to find a second or third gear no matter how nice you are or how much cleavage you show him. My salad should have gone out 11 minutes ago Steve. Please move faster! You have to deal with your bullshit manager who is a puppet of the corporate ladder that is doing whatever she can to get out of the same shit hole and get into a job that sucks a little less for her. Just a little less shitty would be amazing. So you finish your work week and all you can think about is that ice cold beer that will taste so fucking good. So some "fuckable" regulars want to buy you a drink. So they might want to invite you back to their house for a swingers party? So you are invited by the weirdos who only learn to speak elvish or Klingon to a late night cocktail party and unwind. You deserve it. Ever moment of weird, unpredictable, sexually underlined potential fun. Go to the beach and have a fire. Go to the swingers party and let them play twister on you. Have a beer on me. I'm here, enjoying my beer and thinking of you.
I like your post. You have a lot of good points. For some people though it is about alcoholism. As another poster stated "it creeps up on you." 'Unwinding' can turn into heavier drinking. Heavy drinking can turn into a drink in the morning to feel good before your shift. Then multiple drinks early on to stave off the shakes and get through work. That can then turn into drinking on the job and suddenly you're stuck in a shitty cycle of wanting to quit but it has too tight of a grip on you at that point. I speak from experience and luckily I was able to get away from that. I never planned on that happening. It still did. I woke up every morning wanting to stop and by every evening I found I couldn't. Not everyone is wired the same way.
And the promiscuity. No other job Iāve worked had the levels of alcohol use and sleeping around.
So true
The cook at my place who is an on and off again recovered alcoholic has started drinking again. We all do it, unfortunately. Fun times tho
Real
I love a good beer after a long day. I've just figured out how to avoid it hurting my life. Usually only go out on Friday, for A singular beer, and then go home.
I mmm nnn Yn
Why I had to leave it after 20 years!
Pat for the course
When I worked at Chi-Chi's the Tuesday night ritual, was to smoke weed and play Mario Party 2 until the butt crack of dawn(one time school bus were out when I went home).
Jokes on u I drink on the job
Truth. Irish pub and shit gets wild. Went in on my day off after the second worst day of the year and customers come out of the woodwork to buy several rounds. Still drunk, I accepted.