I was a pub landlady AMA

[betlynchiamnot]

If anyone is interested, I was a pub landlady until about a year ago.

AMA :-)

@HopelesslydevotedtoGu lots and lots!

@happychange we had more outgoings than incomings because we had to take on extra staff while I was pregnant, made a few bad decisions as a knee jerk reaction. I've learnt that I shouldn't have thought any money made was my own and saved more away for paying VAT bills as that was a real killer. You just need to be really, really on top of your paperwork and accounting, take your eye off the ball even for a couple of weeks and it's so hard catching back up. Also if you're running a pub you need to not have any other commitments such as dc or a really good support network around you, and just forget about a social life!

Did you ever have to kick anyone out for taking drugs? I assume if you caught them you'd have to but if anyone was visibly on something would you say anything? A friends mum manages a pub and says it's a quite a big problem.

@upthetop personally I am really, really anti drugs so that was a tough thing for me to deal with. If I had caught someone taking drugs I would have kicked them out, if I suspected someone was taking drugs I would keep an eye on them, if I wasn't too busy I'd follow them into the toilet or beer garden etc. Just to generally try to put them off, but again it's a hard thing to say to someone who is in a place selling alcohol that you think they have been taking drugs without any proof. I always made it very clear to customers through talking to people and signs in the toilets that I would not tolerate drugs on the premises and I would have no hesitation to call the police.

Unfortunately though it is going on everywhere, in every village, town and city and it's a bigger problem than pub landlords can deal with.

Did you have trouble with staff stealing? I've grown up in pubs and have been barmaiding my whole working life. Every place I lived/worked seemed to have problems with it.

Oh @SharonBottsPoundOfGrapes yes bar staff, cleaner, kitchen staff it makes you so cynical and untrusting of people.

It's as if they think you're loaded and they're entitled to it!