I have an 8 month old baby and am also doing a college access course Wed-Fri hoping to go to uni next year. I work weekends and some evenings in a pub myself, (my mum is retired and happily has had baby whilst I’m at college and working) which is why I’m so upset as I’d never dream of behaving like this, nor would my managers. My DH is away for 3 weeks in his home country (I had the option to go but on weighing it up me and DH decided I should stay with baby and go to college), hence why I had to bring baby to pub.
Today, I was struggling to focus on my work. Baby was settled but my eyes were straining. I’ve often noticed I get sore eyes if I try and work without going out all day, I have to go on a walk. I think my eyes must get sore from lack of fresh air. At around 4pm I decided I couldn’t face cooking nor eating crap like a pot noodle, so decided to treat myself to dinner at the local pub. I took my laptop along and baby. I knew the pub would be dead as it always is on a Tuesday evening. Baby is very good and sleeps anywhere so I wasn’t worried about her, and if she did persistently cry I’d have prompty left.
Got there, ordered a soft drink, then set up on a table in the corner with a plug socket. There were only about 5 people in the whole pub. Then went to the bar to order a pie. Ate it (it was lovely), gave a nice tip, ordered another large soft drink and let them know I may be ordering a pudding later on. Baby was sleeping or when awake being very chilled, and I got on with my work as happy as larry. I was really liking it, my house is dark and dinghy with terrible lighting and can be chilly so it was lovely being in a cosy pub by the fire doing my work, I was able to focus a lot better. Baby only cried once when she pooed and I promptly changed her, put her back in pram and she fell asleep. I had asked the bar staff (bar was just a few metres away) if they could watch my laptop whilst I was in the baby change, maybe that pissed them off.
After I’d been there about an hour and a half, I noticed the manager looking at me. Then a sheepish looking teenage waitress came over. She said they only allow laptops during lunchtime hours (which sounded like made up shite, if it was a busy quiz night or a weekend night I’d have understood that being there with a laptop is the wrong vibe and I wouldn’t have been there in the first place). I questioned this, and said I didn’t understand what the issue was. I was ordering drinks, had had a meal and was planning on getting a dessert. The other few customers were just having a couple of quiet drinks, I was definitely the customer spending the most money. She said she’d speak to the manager.
Manager came over and said that me working with my laptop wasn’t appropriate in a pub. I told her I work in a pub and we get plenty of people in with laptops and we don’t mind them, they are valued customers who always order a few drinks during their visits like I was doing. She ignored this and said she’d be happy to take my dessert order if I put the laptop away. I told her that wouldn’t be necessary and promptly left.
I was planning to stay until 9pm (if baby allowed) and as I said, would have had a dessert and a few more drinks. I don’t understand why they would turn away business like that.
Did I really do anything wrong?