If Twitter is acting up for you, this is the twitter thread I just linked.
A perspective of the Edinburgh pub/Marion Millar fiasco from 2 experienced bar workers.
Firstly, the person putting themselves forward as the bar's manager has not been particularly specific about what it was that they were doing that was threatening.
(Not sharing screenshots cos I don't want to add oxygen to them, for their benefit: they seem to be a hyper-online person & that is part of the issue of what has happened - more on that in a bit.)
But anyway, "threatening" behaviour & making other guests feel uncomfortable are justifiable reasons to eject ppl.
But the only single action cited was "they left leaflets in the toilet." That's not ok, but in our experience, not something a smart bar manager would eject over.
Rather, we would bring them back to the group & tell them they can't leave it anywhere on the premises; not even anything to do with the content. We don't have other brands, campaigns or anything on display. It clutters the place up & ruins the atmo when ppl are wanting to relax.
This happens all the time, btw. Political leaflets, adverts for new rivals bars, charities, business cards. Some places might have a community board, or allow a local event poster on a toilet door. The bars & pubs I worked in, however, were no soliciting at all kind of places.
The bar manager doesn't specify any other action the group took that would be stepping over a line, however.
If they had been approaching other guests & handing out the leaflets, that would have been immediate grounds ejection.
As would have abusive or aggressive behaviour with the other guests, or (happened to me once) using the busy bar as an opportunity to give what is undoubtedly to their mind a rousing speech, & not shutting up when asked.
Obvious McObvious, but you need good reasons to eject guests.
The guests are there to spend money, you want them there.
Ejecting risks sacrificing the bill. It causes a ruckus, ruining the atmosphere. It upsets other guests, who will leave if they feel unsafe.
If there are a group of guests we don't like, who we detest, we still have to serve them. And you know what, it's not difficult to get over.
Guests won't be there long; a matter of minutes or hours, & then you will probably never see them again.
Police are another level of escalation you really don't want.
Guests are far more put off by a police presence than being solicited for a political cause. They'll leave for a quieter, safer bar. No other guest is going to walk through the door while the fuzz are there either.
Point being: you only eject when you have no choice than to immediately get your undesirable guests out & the short-term stress is worth it, which it barely ever is. The vast majority of the time, we wait out dickhead guests. Simple requests to them to cool it are enough.
Obvious examples where we eject: underage drinkers, people who get violent, people who are physically sick in the communal area, people who are clearly too drunk, people who are clearly high, people who steal others' drinks.
There's another thing about this that really bothers us too.
If I were at head office at @DoctorsBar or @belhaven_pubs, & I found out a worker at one of the units we were responsible for was boasting about ejecting a guest publicly on social media, I would shit.
Seriously. I would lose my fucking head. No anonymity, no caution, just roping our business & workers right into a highly contentious political debate, no qualms about how this will look to outsiders, no qualms about sparking reprisals? And then acting constantly aggressive?
Cannot emphasise this enough. Ejections need to be justified, quick, but most importantly discreet. They should be damage controlled as much as possible to stop ppl thinking you bar is anything other than a good place to have a nice time. You need guests cos they bring money.
It already sounded a shitshow with the police involved. Everyone in the pub would know what was going on, so that's between 30-300 (depending on the size) who have that impression of your bar now.
Tweeting it has upped that to literal millions.
Cannot get over how insanely bad it is to publicise this. It takes a lot for me to side against bar staff, but fucking hell.
It's so inadvisable, I wonder if the person claiming to be the manager, is the manager. Bc no one I know wld dream of posting about smthg like this.
Again, not going to share screenshots or anything, bc whether they really are the bar manager, or just claiming it, the only reason they would be acting as they currently are is bc they are one of those most unfortunate and lamentable people. You know what I mean.
The type who has spent so much time in their Twitter/Only Fans/whatever echo chamber, the principles and ideas of that echo chamber now outweighs their better, more practical & true to life-judgement. That is now drowned out, over the sounds of a few hundred "likes."
Who cares about what immediately makes sense in the moment, when you have those? Who cares about your place of work losing literally thousands in one night, & then 10s of 1000s in the coming months. You stuck it to the symbolic terror of your feeds, as they shuffled in for a g&t.
Neither of the two ppl who contributed to this thread (Oudemia & former colleague) were there last night, & who knows, maybe we would have made the same decision. But especially to call the police, & then post it on social media with mounting antagonism, is blowing our minds.
There is a very good chance that the people who work for publicity & media @belhaven_pubs will have had a panicky phone call on a Sunday, and are now having to figure out how to respond to this shitstorm instead of spending time with their family.
I feel so sorry for all the hospitality workers who are now having to cope with this blowout. It was entirely unnecessary, and so easily descalated, and now the whole fucking shenanigan is being held up for all to see.