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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Refused service at work.

70 replies

Littlemissgiggle5 · 06/07/2016 22:03

So I finished work (in a pub) and I wanted to have a drink whilst I waited to be picked up. I asked my ass. Manager to serve me and she refused to on the basis that I didn't want to work her close (which would have been an extra four hours) I didn't want to work the close because I don't feel too well. (Recovering from the dreaded summer 'flu') So because I'd said no, she refused to serve me. When she didn't even have a valid reason for not wanting to work...
I guess the real question is is she being unreasonable? Or am I over reacting?
(Currently posting from a different pub holding a nice cold pint!!)

OP posts:
madambutterbean · 06/07/2016 22:26

Yabu. If you're too ill to work then you go home. The fact that you're now in another pub suggests you're not in the slightest bit ill, which I expect your manager knows full well.

Hellochicken · 06/07/2016 22:27

Well if your excuse for not working until close was illness, it is a bit unreasonable to sit drinking a pint . . . especially when you want her to get it for you . . . and then presumably sit and drink it infront of her, when she is working, a bit unfair, not massively, but a bit unfair to her.

Bogeyface · 06/07/2016 22:27

"I cant be arsed" was a perfectly acceptable reason to not cover someone elses shift when I worked at my friends pub/restautant/hotel. And then sitting at the bar while the person who wanted you to cover them serving you was also ok.

The fact is that if she wanted a favour you were perfectly within your rights to say "No, I dont want to" if it wasnt your rota'd shift. Childish behaviour from her and I would be having a nice pass agg word with the manager along the lines of "Is X ok? Only when I said that I didnt want to cover her shift, she refused to serve me and that seems quite out of character for her....." :o

Damselindestress · 06/07/2016 22:28

I can see both sides. Although you only wanted one drink while waiting to be picked up, your assistant manager was probably thinking that if you were well enough to drink you were well enough to work. OTOH you didn't leave your scheduled shift early, you just didn't want to stay and cover hers. At the end of the day, she was probably being a bit U to you because you wouldn't do her a favour, but since she is senior to you it wasn't very diplomatic to say you couldn't work extra as you were ill and then expect her to serve you a drink! Might be best to keep business and pleasure seperate and drink elsewhere in future.

Bogeyface · 06/07/2016 22:28

I think the illness is a red herring.

The OP was ill and doesnt want to work an extra 4 hours on top of her normal shift to do someone else a favour when it could really knacker her out. Working 4 hours is a totally different kettle of fish to spending an hour having a pint.

She didnt say that she was too ill to work at all. RTFOP!

Imnotaslimjim · 06/07/2016 22:33

What does it matter if she was ill or not? She didn't want to work 4 hours more than her own shift with a few minutes notice. I wouldn't either. Sometimes it's nice to help out, sometimes you can't be bothered. I'm sure MNer's have a saying - "No is a complete sentence" that doesn't give manager the right to refuse to serve her.

ExitPursuedByABear · 06/07/2016 22:33

Personally I can't see the problem. You didn't want to work an extra four hours. Fair dos. Fancy a drink whilst waiting for lift. Why not.

Celticlassie · 06/07/2016 22:34

Of course your manager WBU! Assuming you finished your shift, you should be entitled to have a drink after. It's up to you whether you cover hers or not and she should not be able to punish you for not doing her a favour.

Damselindestress · 06/07/2016 22:34

I know it's different. I was saying how her manager might have seen it. I did read the OP, which said she didn't want to work the close because she was ill so if she said that to her manager that's why they might have taken offence to her ordering a drink. I did say that the manager was being unreasonable.

shazzarooney999 · 06/07/2016 22:35

If it was alcholic then I can see her point xx

RJnomore1 · 06/07/2016 22:36

I may have misread this slightly. Did you get asked to cover a shift because the manager wanted to go or stay on to help out cos you were busy?

Different response to each one.

The manager has the right to refuse to serve whoever she wants though.

Bogeyface · 06/07/2016 22:37

If it was alcholic then I can see her point xx

Why?

Wolfiefan · 06/07/2016 22:38

OP is busy getting shitfaced in a rival pub!
Grin

OliviaShoo · 06/07/2016 22:43

err, you don't say you're too ill to work extra hours, but then expect to prop up the bar. Same as if you're asked to come in to do an extra shift, on the off chance you're available- and you then rock up that evening drinking. Bad form in hospitality.

FairyDogMother11 · 06/07/2016 22:49

It's the same policy where I work. If we can't work, we can't go in to drink. Pretty much just how it goes! Yabu, if I'm ill I just want to get home as soon as possible.

JackieAndHyde4eva · 06/07/2016 22:50

Fucking hell. She wasnt expectting to prop up the bar! She was waiting on a lift. Presumably one she had already arranged before her shift and would then have to rearrange if she stayed another 4 hours.

OP finished her scheduled shift. She is under no obligation to cover someone else's hours that they dont want to do. She doesnt even need to be sick to say no. She can just say no. And then she can have a pint. Because its a free fucking country where bar staff dont get to decide that someone is too sick for a pint. If that was the case pubs would not exist.

beetroot2 · 06/07/2016 22:54

Ok the OP said no to working longer, she doesn't have to sit there and order a drink then though does she. It's antagonising.

Celticlassie · 06/07/2016 22:55

You can refuse to do someone else's shift because you're recuperating from illness and still be well enough to drink a small amount of alcohol while waiting for a lift. Assuming drinking in the pub where you work isn't against company policy (and presumably OP would have mentioned if it was) there is no reason why she should have been refused service. The manager was just in the huff.

PinkyofPie · 06/07/2016 22:55

Count yourself lucky. Whenever I ask my ass anything it tells me to "fuck off fatso"

RJnomore1 · 06/07/2016 22:55

I can only talk about Scots law but actually there is no obligation to serve anyone or to have them on the premises at all. Pubs are regarded as private premises and you are there by invitation. No reason needs to be given to refuse service or admission.

JackieAndHyde4eva · 06/07/2016 22:57

she doesn't have to sit there and order a drink then though does she.

No she doesnt need to. Nobody who orders a drink in a pub does it because they need to. They do it because they want to. OP did it because she wanted to.

It's antagonising

No its having a pint.

RJnomore1 · 06/07/2016 23:02

It's really bad form in the industry is what it is.

Pinkandbluemcdonald5 · 06/07/2016 23:04

The shift had finished. Would you say, that a supermarket worker can't shop there after thier shift if they refused to do extra hours?

StickTheDMWhereTheSunDontShine · 06/07/2016 23:06

I am struggling to understand this OP Confused

AyeAmarok · 06/07/2016 23:07

YABU for being ill but still having a pint. That won't help you recover.

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