There's a Bartender Position open, but I'm not getting it

Apparently, I'm under-qualified for a good bar job in Florida...
Why? Your resume is about the LAST thing they're looking at!
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Hey we finally have a bartender leaving.. moving on to other things.

That means there's a position available where I work, and as you know, I'm qualified!

(Or maybe not, going by the picture!

That IS the problem I ran into when we moved to sunny Florida, btw... All the best bar jobs seem to be awarded primarily to "hawt chicks" who would - for obvious reasons - draw a regular crowd of lurkers to spend their money at a given establishment.)

Not so much the case here in our little corner of Paradise tho.. Being right by The Convention Center, we cater mostly to tourists who probably won't be back - at least for a year. And, our bar-staff is primarily male it turns out, which all things considered should put me in the running.

And with Play-Dough's life taking him elsewhere, there's an opening.

Now, even tho I've kind of thought that I can't wait to get behind a bar again, it may or may not be what I want here. Just in talking to our other full-time bartenders - "Benny and Joon" and "Speed-Gel" for instance - I've learned that switching from "the floor" (waitstaff) to bartending may not be in my best interests. They've all indicated that at this place, they probably made more money as a server here .. so, I've often had to ask myself "Even if a position opened up, would I want it? And if offered, or asked, would I take it?"

Turns out it's not my decision to make after all, this time at least. I'm not being offered the open position, or asked to take it. I might feel a little miffed by this, except for ... Well ...

Here's how it went down, according to Benny, who related the story for me:

Once Play-Dough announced that he was leaving, there was a bar meeting betwixt the remaining bartenders and management. The manager asked them all to submit a name or two, as to whom they'd like to work with, and see moved from the floor to the bar.

My name did of course come up, Benny said. But - according to Benny - here's what "Mike" (the General Manager) said:

"No. He's one of our best servers. I'm not taking him off the floor."

Note that I'm not arrogantly making that claim about myself, just repeating here what I was told.

Perhaps you've experienced this yourself, or heard of someone else complaining about this very thing... In some job situations (restaurant or not) you can actually be denied a promotion because you're too good at what you're already doing! Yuppers, I have a local friend who's told me the same story - that he couldn't move into management at one job he had, because management didn't want to lose him from their sales force - he was just that good!

So in this case, the open bartender position goes not to Guy, but instead to-o-o- ("The Envelope Please...")

Chuckles!

I like Chuckles, and she's a great choice. Altho she has no bartending experience as of yet, she's still a great worker, knows more about our high dollar wines than I do, and makes great conversation with her guests.

She's also fun for me to work with too, as we have quite a few similar interests - we share a love of red wine, chocolate, studying male/female relationship dynamics, and lame jokes. Especially lame jokes. We swap puns all the time. ("Hey, why will you never hear a psychiatrist urinate?" "Why?" "The P is silent! Bwah haha!" Yeh, we're like that sometimes when in the same room. She's the main co-worker here I go to with (and she with me) beginning a a quick conversation with "Hey, you got time to hear about the really stupid (i.e., "punny") thing I just said to my table?" Why if I were a single man, I might just ...
... Creep her out because I'm 20 years older than her, haha!

All told, she has the personality to become a great bartender. It's a different world from waiting tho, and I just hope the stress of it all doesn't turn her head as bald as mine one day.

Best of luck to ya Chuckles!


Anyways, I WILL get back to the tipping thing eventually, it's just that I've been a bit overdue sharing this particular story o' mine with ya, and recent personal developments make it worth throwing in at this point.

Mayyybee you know what I mean, mayybee you don't ;)