Just the Tip — Confessions from Columbus’ Service Industry

Just the Tip — Confessions from Columbus’ Service Industry

By Regina Fox, Illustration by Lisa Sterle

“I’d crawl a million miles over broken glass just to suck the **** that f****ed you last.”

Pretty explicit, huh? Yeah, I was 17 — delivering beer to old men on a golf course when I heard that one. You best believe I put the pedal to the metal after hearing it too (top speed on my golf cart was approx. 6 mph). This was my baptization in the vast ocean of being mistreated as a female bartender. The service industry can be a real feeding ground for men. It feels as if the second a girl clocks in and steps behind the bar it gives some men a green light to verbally assault them, or at the very least, make their jobs very uncomfortable.

Becca is a 25-year-old bartender at one of Columbus’ most beloved bar venues. Between 6 second vodka pours & opening Miller High Lifes, I got a chance to ask her about her job and some of the things she had to say could surprise you…that is if you’ve never worked service.

“Generally, the people here are great but sometimes you get those guys who have one too many Jack and Cokes and get to feeling really flirty,” Becca said.

This particular place is as much a bar as it is a concert venue. Its long, narrow layout funnels into a stage up front that puts bands like Sword, Hippo Campus and Metro Station on a pedestal, but it is like any other music venue in the city really.

“People are really excited to see a band they like and get hammered,” explained Becca. “The worst is when people throw up in our tip buckets.”

Besides rinsing strangers’ stomach bile off of hard earned $1 bills, Becca said the bartenders there take a lot of verbal abuse and in some cases, people (specifically men) take it a step further.

“I had a guy acting shitty and I asked him to leave but he wouldn’t,” she said. “Then he slapped my ass. Again, I asked him to leave but he still wouldn’t even though that is obviously sexual assault.”

Becca was nonchalant when she told her story which didn’t come as a surprise to me. As a female in the service industry, I know how mundane situations like this can be. Some clown gets too drunk and musters misguided confidence to make a move on a girl 30 years his junior before leaving a fat tip — as if to say we earned it (whatever it is.) That may be sad or shocking if you don’t have experience slinging drinks but that’s the (often) harsh reality of a bartender.

Frustration comes with the gig though, it’s a job afterall — but it becomes truly terrifying when these kinds of objectifications spillover past the hours of operation. See, Becca had this “weird guy” with her one night who kept asking her out on dates.

“I would tell him ‘No.’ Then he started asking what time I got off.”

Becca explained to the man that she wouldn’t get off until after 3:30 a.m. The man evidently took that as a cue to be…flirty? Romantic? Nah. More like a stalker.

“What would you do if I was waiting out by your car when you got off work?” he asked Becca.

She responded how many of us would, with a kind of passive-aggressive threat, something inoffensive — because the last thing we want is more confrontation.

“…Probably call the cops,” she answered flatly.

If you’ve got stories from your time working service jobs, sound off in the comments or e-mail us: [email protected]

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