On both sides of the bar. Bartenders’ accounts of work-related drinking

Abstract

Bartenders are expected to control guests’ excessive alcohol consumption, but hazardous drinking is also common among staff in the bar industry. This paper explores bartenders’ accounts of work-related drinking and discusses how structural and cultural working conditions may impact drinking practices among staff. The data comprises 21 in-depth interviews with bartenders from different venues in Oslo, Norway: eight females and 13 males, aged 22–36 years (mean age 27). The analyses demonstrated three clusters of accounts of work-related drinking. First, the bartenders emphasised availability of alcohol in their work environment and that they perceived themselves as sophisticated drinkers. Second, drinking alcohol was described as a coping strategy to deal with stressful work and as a way of ‘coming down’ after high-energy work. Third, bartenders talked about their work as part of a lifestyle in which alcohol played an important role and they described intense friendships with colleagues. Occupational identity and identification with co-workers involved norms that encouraged a high level of alcohol consumption. Bartenders’ work and leisure time are closely intertwined and alcohol plays an important role in both areas. Server training programmes should be developed that take into account this workplace drinking culture.

Keywords:

• Nightlife
• bartenders
• work-related drinking
• drinking culture

Introduction

Nightlife settings are associated with drunkenness. Bartenders spend their working hours in intoxigenic working environments in which drinking to intoxication is the norm (McCreanor, Barnes, Kaiwai, Borell, & Gregory, 2008). Staff at drinking establishments work under high pressure, especially during peak hours, when customers require good service, the drinking is fast-paced and the noise and conflict levels are high (Buvik & Tutenges, 2017). For many bartenders, peak hours entail a bodily overdrive with constant exposure to loud music, noise, heat, light shows and drinks being constantly ordered (Powers & Leili, 2016). In these alcohol-saturated environments, bartenders are continuously exposed to heavy-drinking customers (Conway & MacNeela, 2012; Hughes, Bellis, & Chaudry, 2004; Tutenges, Bøgkjaer, Witte, & Hesse, 2013). The working conditions of bar work typically involve busy and long shifts during evenings and nights at weekends and offer relatively low rates of pay (Conway & MacNeela, 2012). Many bartenders are young, they have no employment contract, staff turnover is high and few bartenders are members of unions (Trygstad et al., 2014).

Staff at drinking establishments play an important role in both controlling alcohol consumption and in ensuring the comfort, happiness and enjoyment of customers (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982). Thus, they face competing pressures of meeting profitability goals coupled with their moral and legal obligation to care for the welfare of their customers (Leo, 2013). Despite regulations and server training programmes, bartenders are likely to over-serve intoxicated customers (Buvik & Rossow, 2015; Gosselt, Van Hoof, Goverde, & De Jong, 2013; Hughes et al., 2014; Wallin, Gripenberg, & Andreasson, 2005). Bartenders who consume a high level of alcohol and who are often intoxicated are more likely to serve intoxicated customers (Reiling & Nusbaumer, 2006). Bartenders’ interactions with intoxicated customers are impacted by a work situation that is not tailored to responsible serving, a drinking culture that has a collective acceptance of intoxication and a general resistance to alcohol regulations (Buvik, 2013).

Studies from various countries demonstrate that hazardous drinking is common among bartenders and servers, compared to controls (Frone, 2006; Norström, Sundin, Müller, & Leifman, 2012; Parker & Harford, 1992; Pidd, Roche, & Buisman-Pijlman, 2011; Tutenges et al., 2013). Compared to other sectors, restaurant and bar workers more frequently report alcohol use over the last 24 hours, as well as more binge drinking (Edvardsen, Moan, Christophersen, & Gjerde, 2016). It has been discussed whether high alcohol consumption is a consequence of self-selection, whereby people prone to heavy drinking actively seek such work environments, or whether such work environments and working conditions stimulate heavy drinking (Forsyth, Lennox, & Emslie, 2016; Norström et al., 2012).

In most Norwegian workplaces, drinking during working hours is regarded as a serious breach of company regulations (Nesvåg & Duckert, 2017). Drinking during working hours occurs rarely, also among bartenders. In a recent study of Norwegian bartenders, one in ten reported drinking at work in the last 30 days (Buvik, Bye, & Gripenberg Abdon, 2018), a relatively high number (0.4%) compared to the Norwegian workforce at large (Nielsen, Gjerstad, & Frone, 2018). Studies from other work environments have demonstrated that drinking is frequent in the twilight zone between work and leisure time (Buvik, 2019; Nesvåg & Duckert, 2017); this could also apply to bar workers in Norway.

With some exceptions, the literature on bartenders’ alcohol consumption has been mainly quantitative and few attempts have been made to understand the drinking culture in the industry from the bartenders’ own perspective. A qualitative study from Ireland explored the meaning of bar work (Conway & MacNeela, 2012) suggesting that bar work was the immersion in an intensive lifestyle characterised by heavy drinking and that bartenders had strong affiliations with the occupational identity of bar work, which included drinking alcohol at work, after work and during time off.

The aim of this paper is to explore bartenders’ accounts of work-related drinking and study how working conditions and the workplace drinking culture in the nightlife industry may relate to drinking practices among staff. Factors that may facilitate heavy drinking are of particular interest to the analysis.

The workplace drinking culture

Work-related drinking is the consumption of alcohol among employees in contexts that may be associated with the workplace, work environment or situations in which employees find themselves because of their job (Nordaune et al., 2017). Drinking with colleagues includes drinking after work, celebrations, seasonal parties, work-related travel, customer meetings and so forth.

Drinking may be seen as a communicative behaviour that symbolises social solidarity and the given situation (Ames & Janes, 1992). The classic study by MacAndrew and Edgerton (1969) demonstrates how drinking behaviour and experiences must be understood as learned beliefs, significantly affected by collective norms and opinions about what is proper and what is functional. Socialising with colleagues after work forms an important part of life in many workplaces. Porsfelt (2007) called such drinking situations among colleagues after work or the company’s third space and found that the employees he studied described both positive and negative experiences.

Norms are a key concept in studies that take a cultural approach to alcohol and work (Nesvåg & Duckert, 2017). Ames and Janes (1992) describe how workplace cultures have rules and norms regarding appropriate drinking and behaviour in work-related drinking. In line with this, Sonnenstuhl and Trice (1987) show that colleagues establish norms indicating how, when and where it is acceptable to drink, rationales for drinking, as well as social controls to ensure that community members drink appropriately. Each workplace has a unique culture and the workplace culture includes a set of rules or norms regarding appropriate behaviour (Ames & Janes, 1992). This also applies to alcohol consumption standards in which colleagues share a set of understandings about alcohol use in the workplace, including values and expectations regarding drinking behaviour (Ames & Janes, 1992).

Work conditions may affect how colleagues drink together in work-related settings (Ames & Janes, 1987; Parker & Brody, 1982; Trice & Sonnenstuhl, 1988). For instance, various workplace factors such as work overload, high work demands or boring tasks may cause stress, which employees then seek to relieve with alcohol (Nielsen et al., 2018; Trice & Sonnenstuhl, 1988). In addition, heavy drinking may be promoted by the absence of social regulation. Social norms can not only act as mechanisms to limit behaviour, but also to encourage particular behaviours and make work-related drinking expected and accepted (Ames & Janes, 1987; Savic, Room, Mugavin, Pennay, & Livingston, 2016).

There is little doubt that alcohol is more accessible to someone working in a bar than someone who works in an office. In an occupational setting, physical availability refers to the degree to which alcohol is accessible for work-related consumption. Alcohol is perceived to be physically available in the workplace to the extent that individuals can take alcohol to work, or obtain and consume alcohol during a workday (Ames & Janes, 1992). Frone and Trinidad (2014) show that the perceived physical availability of alcohol at work is positively related to both alcohol use and impairment during a workday. The social availability of alcohol refers to how the alcohol use of a person’s friends affects their own drinking or – in the workplace – how drinking practices among colleagues in work-related social networks affect you, personally. The social availability of alcohol in work-related environments is a key determinant for the formation of heavy-drinking subcultures (Ames & Janes, 1992). It is assumed that a drinking culture at work has a huge influence on an individual’s habitual and excessive alcohol consumption (Nordaune et al., 2017; Walker & Bridgman, 2013). Against this backdrop, we explore how bartenders describe their drinking and how working conditions and a workplace drinking culture may relate to the drinking practices that they describe.

Materials and methods

A total of 21 qualitative in-depth interviews were carried out during spring 2017 with bartenders from different venues and bars in Oslo city centre. The interviews involved eight females and 13 males aged 22–36 years (mean age 27 years). Twelve of the participants worked full time and considered bartending to be a career in itself, while nine were working part-time as bartenders for a temporary period while studying or doing other things. The bartenders worked in different establishments: cocktail bars, nightclubs, hipster bars, traditional pubs and event venues.

Informants were recruited from Responsible Service Training (RBS) courses. The researcher presented the project and asked if anyone was willing to be interviewed. Those who expressed an interest gave their phone numbers during a break and the researcher contacted them over the course of the next two weeks. Participants were offered NOK 250 (approximately EUR 25) and asked to provide their written consent before the interview started. They could choose where the interview would be conducted, typically in a cafe or bar in Oslo. Interviews lasted between 45 minutes and two hours, the average being around 1.5 hours, and they were audiotaped and subsequently transcribed verbatim. Fictitious names were used and identifying factors were removed from the transcripts. The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data.

Recruitment in a training course setting was used based on experience of previous projects which showed that bartenders can be hard to reach as no comprehensive register of individuals employed at licenced premises exists, few bartenders are members of unions and staff turnover is high (Abdon, Wallin, & Andréasson, 2011; Buvik et al., 2018; Trygstad et al., 2014). A potential consequence of adopting this recruitment strategy is that we may have recruited bartenders who were more ‘responsible’ than those who did not attend the training course, or they may work at establishments that place greater focus on responsible serving of alcohol, as studies have indicated that the hospitality industry lacks the economic incentives to comply with training programmes. Training is costly and law enforcement is a low-priority issue (Buvik & Rossow, 2017; Leo, 2013). Another limitation could be that those who responded positively to participation in the study consumed less alcohol.

A semi-structured interview guide was used to explore bartenders’ opinions, attitudes and reflections on their drinking practices. The interviews were intended to elicit specific stories about actual events (Have you experienced this? What did you do?), as well as attitudes, norms and values (What do you think about what happened? Why did you act like you did?). The guide was only a checklist, as our intention was to engage in ‘natural conversations’ and include relevant themes and questions that emerged during the interviews. Both interviewees and interviewers drew conclusions during the conversations and these conclusions were actively used to drive the conversation forward (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995; Shaw, 1999). The bartenders had different perceptions and their stories varied accordingly.

Data were analysed inductively. The analysis began with the initial coding of each transcript to structure the text in respect of socio-environmental factors that facilitate high alcohol consumption. The focus was on bartenders’ reflections on working conditions and the culture of the nightlife industry. Thematic analyses were used to provide detailed and complex patterns within the data. The analyses demonstrated that three clusters of interpretations of factors facilitate heavy drinking: the physical and psychosocial availability of alcohol; hard work and strong emotions; a life stage and lifestyle that facilitate high alcohol consumption.

Results

Availability

Participants described several dimensions of the workplace culture that influenced their alcohol use. First, alcohol was freely available. This included both physical availability as well as what can be described as a kind of psychosocial availability. Bartenders are naturally surrounded by alcohol in their workplace. Beer on tap and bottled alcohol are within arm’s reach. One bartender said:

Everything is always very accessible, so it's very easy. Having a glass of whisky or a glass of wine has a lower threshold because it’s so easily available. (Female, age 25)

According to bartenders, alcohol was always accessible for work-related consumption. Even though few bartenders stated that they actually drank during work hours, the immediate availability of alcohol was perceived as something that facilitated drinking by creating an atmosphere in which drinking was commonplace and natural. Daily interaction with alcohol was described as contributing to the normalisation of high alcohol consumption:

I think you must have a special attitude towards it. It's a special environment yoùre working in; all your guests, everyone you meet is constantly drunk. So that's a bit special. But, at the same time, bartenders often think it's cool. I think it’s great. (Male, age 30)

Another factor that made alcohol more available was reduced prices. Staff discounts on alcohol were common in most establishments and bartenders stated that they drank in their workplace, after work hours, as well as on their days off:

Of course, it’s also cheaper for us because we work in these places. We get a staff discount. All kinds of discounts on the price. (Male, age 20)

Bartenders talked about the price of beer in Norway (about EUR 10 for a pint) and that they could get it for around half the price where they worked. Several bartenders stated that the low price made them drink more.

We can consume beer on tap and we have what we call the ‘alcohol book’ in which we can write down beers that we have consumed after closing time during the month, which we then pay for at the end of the month. (Male, age 35)

Physical availability was also significant at staff parties and special events for the hospitality industry. In addition, bartenders were often invited to different events and courses, such as wine tastings, cocktail courses, etc. Management-sponsored beverage tasting for staff members formed part of the product-related training that was offered to employees. One bartender talked about a wine-tasting event in which he and his colleagues drank the leftovers after the event had finished:

The management buys drinks and there are leftovers. At first, we had to taste quite a lot, and when everyone had finished tasting, we took the rest. There was so much of it. (Male, age 24)

Another scenario that was described was if a customer complained that the Prosecco did not have enough bubbles and asked for a new bottle, it would be too stupid to pour away the contents. One of the bartenders who worked at a concert venue described how the bands never consumed all the beer backstage and that he and his colleagues always drank what was left. Also, alcohol could be used as a reward or as ‘payment’ at staff parties or events:

One of the bartenders is really good. He has won many competitions. He can come here and give us a few tips and then we buy him drinks the same night. That’s his payment. (Female, age 25)

The bartenders in this study presented their drinking habits as being more sophisticated than their customers. While they described their patrons as people who drank large amounts of beer in order to become intoxicated as quickly as possible, they described themselves as being more interested in quality than quantity:

I prefer to go to places where I know they serve good beer, good whisky or good cocktails. I don’t want to go somewhere that plays loud music and has lots of drunk kids running around screaming. (Male, age 30)

The bartenders appeared to distance themselves from intoxication-oriented drinking and stressed that they had a high tolerance of alcohol and knew more than their patrons did about how to behave when intoxicated. They also emphasised that, in contrast to their patrons, they were more concerned about the quality and taste of the beverages:

We bartenders are a bit special. We are very interested in what we drink. Tonight we are attending a cocktail menu launch. We often attend such events. It’s not often that we go out and buy a pint simply to sit down and drink. That doesn’t happen often. But we are happy to go to places that offer a large selection of beers and beverages, where you can sit and sample different drinks. (Female, age 25)

Although the bartenders in this study spoke about drunkenness in a derogatory manner, there is little doubt that they themselves consumed a lot of alcohol. Nevertheless, they made a clear distinction between their own sophisticated and quality-conscious way of drinking and their guest’ binge drinking.

Overall, the bartenders’ working environment could be seen to facilitate drinking both directly, insofar as alcohol was cheap and easy to obtain, and also more indirectly, insofar as it was an environment in which alcohol was at the centre of what was happening and of what people did. The bartenders were surrounded by alcohol and by intoxicated guests at work and as they tended to regard themselves as very competent drinkers, they perceived their own drinking as entailing a minimal risk.

Hard work and strong emotions

Working in a bar was described as stressful and hard work. When the bar got busy, the bartenders had to be alert and work quickly to serve customers. One bartender described the peak hours as ‘entering a war zone’:

There’s a lot of people in the city, there’s a lot of pressure, it's like entering a war zone. You know that it's going to explode soon. And then it explodes and it's packed for six hours. And those you work with have to cooperate. It’s make or break. (Male, age 28)

However, the job is not only about filling customer’s glasses, it is also about contributing to the atmosphere in the bar. An unhappy guest will never return and a bartender in a good mood will sell more drinks:

If the bartenders are in a good mood, they sell a lot of drinks and they can sell much more. Then we earn more. It's nicer for everyone at work. (Female, age 25)

The close interaction with and relationship to customers – in particular regulars – was described as being a positive aspect of their job:

In a way, I'm on a night out, without actually being out. Of course, it can be extremely annoying if people get too drunk or you have to sort things out. But otherwise, it's a great job. And it’s often the same people who come. They become regulars and you get to know each other. (Female, age 32)

Sometimes the bartenders continued drinking with regular guests after work and some bartenders even considered certain regulars to be their friends. Others stated how the constant face-to-face interactions with guests was a tiresome aspect of their job because they felt obliged to act like a therapist or a carer; it was difficult to escape from engaging in small talk with their patrons.

Bar work is essentially social and the interviewees described how the job required them to connect with their guests. Some interviewees compared working in a bar with being on stage, where you have to perform a particular role to an audience:

It's not just that you have to serve people and give them what they want. You're virtually an actor, actually. You must represent the company, you are part of a show. And I like that, it makes the job a lot more fun. (Male, age 20)

Bartenders described themselves as both party initiators and party participants and talked about how customers expected them to be friendly, cheerful and helpful. Working on a ‘stage’ like this was described being as both demanding and rewarding:

When you're a bartender, you're more exposed. You can almost compare it to standing on a stage. You're playing with the guests, not necessarily flirting. Some bartenders say that they think it's very tiring, while some think it's good fun. It’s part of the buzz of working. (Male, age 25)

This bartender talked about how the visibility of working on the ‘stage’ also meant that he had nowhere to hide. The customer’s eyes were always on him and there was rarely time to take a break. This mode of working was described as stressful, but also energising:

You get energy from the guests. Even though this isn’t a party place, music is constantly playing. People are in a great mood and we’re in a great mood. Then you absorb this energy. And we are good colleagues, so we have fun at work together. Lots of playfulness and a great mood. It’s really nice. (Male, age 27)

Some of the bartenders talked about drinking at work, often referred to as staff meetings, in which they went to a back room and drank a shot:

As a colleague said, we're having a ‘staff meeting’ at twelve, and then we goes into the back room and drinks a shot together. Then they leave the room and continue working. (Female, age 30).

Nevertheless, drinking at work was not described as a common occurrence and it never involved large amounts of alcohol. According to the bartenders, the staff meetings in the back room were more about creating a collegial feeling and creating some distance from the guests.

Bartenders described alcohol consumption as a way of managing day-to-day workplace stress and intoxicated customers. Drinking after work was a way of ‘coming down’ after experiencing this shared energy between bar workers, and also between staff and their guests.

My body is very tired so I could sleep like a stone but my head is still in a whirl. It's not that I'm feeling really stressed, it's just my mind trying to process what happened during the shift. (Female, age 26)

Also, an environment in which people party and get intoxicated generates many incidents that must be handled, both at the time and after work. Alcohol was also used during debriefing:

Often, something has happened, or there are several things you want to talk about, such as "Oh, God, do you remember when that guy threw the mojito glasses around and threatened to kill us?" You see? There’s always an incident you need to talk through. (Female, age 33)

Drinking after work was described as a coping strategy and a way of handling the strong emotions provoked by the high energy levels that can be generated working in this way, as well as a readily accessible option for relieving work-related stress.

Social network and lifestyle

Working in a bar is different from other jobs in that it largely takes place when other people are not at work. Bar workers finish late and sleep when other people are working. Such a life rhythm can make it difficult to maintain relationships with friends who do not work in the bar industry.

The only people you can socialize with are those who work around you. If you finish working at twelve, you just go straight out, because it's the only time you’ve got, those three hours before closing time – which I think is one of the reasons you drink so much when you work in a bar – because the only places you can socialize also serve alcohol. (Male, age 29)

Bartenders talked about a strong sense of unity among those who worked in the industry. Intimate relationships resulting from late and irregular work hours were further impacted by excessive drinking. Bartenders spoke about the difficulty of living a sober life in an industry that revolves around alcohol.

My friends are bartenders, as were several of my previous boyfriends. So you don’t meet other people. It's a bit like being isolated from the outside world, but at the same time there is a sense of belonging from being inside. (Female, age 33)

The nightlife industry often attracts younger people who have moved to the city to work. People are the same age and at the same stage in life, and they work unusual hours. The bartending lifestyle appears to involve constant, routine drinking and bartenders are subject to cultural norms that encourage drinking. Some bartenders described their colleagues as a second family:

What's positive about working here is that you spend a lot of time, both day and night, with your closest friends, and you do what you think is cool with them. It doesn't get better than that, you know. It’s like a small family, those who work here. People spend a lot more time here (in the bar) than they need to, perhaps more than they should. (Female, age 25)

Bartenders talked about overlapping work and leisure schedules, as well as blurred lines between working and not working. They referred to co-workers as both friends and family and the bar they worked in as home, perhaps indicating that working in a bar becomes a lifestyle and a social world of its own. Colleagues were close friends and were the only friends that had time to be with you when you were not working. The working hours also affected the social activities it was natural to do together:

You only know people from the industry, so that's where you meet people. Instead of meeting them in a cafe, we have a beer. (Male, age 27)

In summary, bartenders’ working hours made it difficult to spend time with friends who did not also work in the industry. Thus, over time, other friendships could fade away. The interviewees described their intense friendships with colleagues who were at the same stage in life and, like them, were often living in the city on a temporary basis. These were also the friends with whom they shared intense experiences on a regular basis, and their working hours made it natural to ‘do drinking’ when they spent time together.

Discussion

This study contributes to knowledge about the relationship between hospitality work and alcohol consumption. The analysis of the data suggested three main rationales for high alcohol consumption among bartenders. First, they drank because alcohol was very accessible. They were continuously exposed to cheap or free alcohol and often invited to – and expected to attend – drinking sessions such as wine-tasting and beer courses. They also described how the immediate availability of alcohol created an atmosphere in which drinking was commonplace and natural. The constant presence of alcohol in the work environment could desensitise workers’ attitudes toward alcohol consumption (Corsun & Young, 1998). Several studies have indicated that the physical availability of alcohol in the workplace is linked to high alcohol consumption among employees (Hodgins, Williams, & Munro, 2009; Marchand, Parent-Lamarche, & Blanc, 2011). However, several studies have shown how these factors are mediated by the social and cultural characteristics of the workplace (Ames & Janes, 1992; Nesvåg & Duckert, 2017). We noted something similar in our data. The bartenders we interviewed often described their own drinking as being more controlled and sophisticated than their customers’ drinking. This self-image as a ‘competent’ drinker may, to some extent, facilitate heavy drinking.

Second, the bartenders described their drinking habits as a kind of coping mechanism, or a reaction to stressful working conditions: working at night, with loud music and demanding, intoxicated customers. The bartenders in our study stated that they often perceived the guests as very annoying and expressed a need to keep an emotional distance from the customers to avoid the risk of becoming emotionally overwhelmed by their work (Ocejo, 2012). The present findings provided some support for the work-stress paradigm (Frone, 1999). However, the customers gave them a lot of energy and enjoyment, creating a sense of working and partying at the same time. Good customer service in bar work is about employees pretending to be friendly, subservient and flirtatious (Leo, 2013) and, in our study, this was described as something that was sometimes fun, but also tiring. The bartenders described the customer as being a key source of both pleasure and pain (Korczynski, 2003), and alcohol as a way of dealing with both.

In their third explanation of drinking, the bartenders described their intense friendships with colleagues. When they needed to unwind, it was their colleagues with whom the bartenders could spend time, as well as their colleagues who had shared similar experiences at work. The drinking practices of the bartenders who we interviewed appeared to reflect both a life stage and a lifestyle. They often worked, socialised and lived in the same area (Conway & MacNeela, 2012) and interacted with a circle of people who had similar lifestyles, who did shift work and who had shared interests. Their social network often consisted mostly of bartenders and ex-bartenders.

The bartenders talked about how their working hours made it natural to ‘do drinking’ when spending time with their colleagues. In our study, we noted that bartenders used alcohol to cope with their demanding working conditions, but drinking was also symbolically important and part of their self-identity, as well as socially important, insofar as it was seen as something that constituted normative behaviour. Also, the bartenders we interviewed identified themselves as being more sophisticated drinkers, even if they drank more than other people. This identity was associated with their professional sense of being competent at serving alcohol and playing host to their guests in the bars. The distinction between quality and quantity was also used to differentiate themselves from their patrons.

Where co-workers become an individual’s primary reference group, the individual is more likely to drink heavily. A study by Ames and Janes (1992) demonstrated that the majority of a heavy-drinking sample (87%) primarily socialised with their workplace peers and rarely in the family or local community settings. The workplace culture of hospitality encourages social drinking, not drinking in isolation (Corsun & Young, 1998). Interestingly, the bartenders we interviewed stated that there were few breaches of the rules regarding not drinking at work. In a Norwegian survey of bartenders, 10% stated that they drank at work (Buvik et al., 2018), a considerable number compared to the Norwegian workforce at large (Nielsen et al., 2018). The lack of correspondence between these findings could be a result of the recruitment strategy that was used, but it could also relate to the way in which drinking, as well as working, is defined.

Although the expression ‘work hard – play hard’ is described as a cliché (Anderson-Gough, Grey, & Robson, 1998), it appears that the bartenders in this study recognised and reproduced the meaning of the expression somewhat ironically. Work hard – play hard appeared to relate to the image or lifestyle associated with being a bartender. Being a bartender was described as living a certain lifestyle that was different from doing just a regular job. They identified with this image and talked about their work as being part of a lifestyle in which alcohol played an important role. In this way, members of the bartender community created symbols and cultural knowledge associated with their profession (Ocejo, 2012).

The accounts of work-related drinking that we analysed highlight how bartending can be seen as a form of cultural work characterised by exclusivity in terms of membership, by specific values and norms that are followed (Ocejo, 2012). Without overstating its causal significance, our data suggest that the workplace environment and work-related networks among staff in the nightlife industry could play a key role in the development and maintenance of heavy-drinking practices.

The working conditions in nightlife venues are defined, to a wide extent, by owners, managers and authorities. Bartending is characterised by long night shifts, few breaks, demanding customers and loud music – working conditions that are designed for irresponsible serving and an unhealthy lifestyle.

These findings can be useful for creating prevention strategies and server training programmes. Bartender work significantly impacts day-to-day life as the social life of a bartender takes place on both sides of the bar. To ensure responsible serving of alcohol, encouraging bartenders to reflect on their own drinking practices would appear to be constructive. Perhaps, even more important, is to encourage owners and managers to facilitate decent workloads – including breaks, support and in-house drinking policies. Acknowledging how bartenders’ work and leisure time is closely intertwined, and how alcohol plays an important role in both areas, could be a starting point for dialogues about potentially hazardous drinking practices among bartenders. Finally, it is apparently important that server training programmes recognises that bar work also entails stressors such as night shifts, loud music and crowded venues, which can also represent a threat to a healthy lifestyle.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian Directorate of Health.