Exhausted Bartender Cheered for 'Ruining Wedding' by Walking Out Mid-Shift

A bar worker has been praised online after she "ruined a wedding" by leaving mid-shift.

In a post on the popular discussion site Mumsnet, a user by the name of BeagleLover1 shared the story, asking if she was wrong to have left her job after an awful shift.

BeagleLover1 explained how she took the part-time bar job two months ago in a large hotel: "I actually loved it at first," she wrote. "The buzz, making conversation with people etc."

But over the last month, a wave of people had left the job due to working conditions: "We are no longer getting tips due to 'increased bills', there's a sexist new supervisor that insults us all in his own language, we are not allowed drinks on shift anymore, everybody is too scared to order staff food from the chef on breaks because he is also overworked and has a go at us for ordering food. It's been awful but I was trying to stick it out."

This weekend during a very understaffed shift she was greeted with two large weddings and a family party—with only three bar staff in the entire hotel.

"I had to manage a bar of 200 people completely alone. The managers left at 8pm, just as it was kicking off. Our bars shut at 2am so I knew I was in for it," she wrote. "The bar was always rammed with at least six people at any given time. By 11pm I craved the sweet release of death. I was dealing with sexual harassment from several different [men] and had nobody to back me up. I kept getting shouted at for slow service."

Then she ran out of clean glasses. With nobody bringing them back, she had to run to get more glasses and returned to a bar rammed with 20 people. At the same time, one of the beer barrels needed to be changed.

"I went to the basement to change the beers and then had a panic attack because I knew what I was in for when I got back. Insults and abuse. Then I had an epiphany. 'I don't have to do this. Nobody is forcing me to be here. I'm not their slave.' So, I just went to the office to clock out and f***** off home," she said.

A spokesperson for Hospitality Action, a charity established in 1837 in the U.K. to support hospitality workers, told Newsweek: "Working in hospitality has so many great benefits, but despite being fun and enjoyable, it can be stressful, especially at this time of year. Throw in the added pressure of rude or unpleasant customers, it can make for a tough gig."

Jo Causon, CEO of the U.K. Institute of Customer Service, told Newsweek: "Sadly, this is a pervasive issue that shows no sign of abating. We have been tracking abuse and hostility towards customer service workers since mid-2020. Our latest data show that 45 percent have experienced hostility in the past six months—up from 35 percent at the start of 2022."

The data was gathered by TLF Research, based on a poll of 1,244 customer-facing employees in the U.K.

"Our research has uncovered the scale of the impact along with a range of potential effects where customer-facing staff experience abuse," explained Causon. "It has caused 40 percent to leave or consider leaving their roles and 18 percent report that it has affected their mental health. Additionally, the cost to the economy of days taken sick and loss of productivity is huge."

The next morning, the bartender woke to an incensed text message from her manager.

"The wedding party are fuming, have all left terrible reviews—I've read it and it's full of personal insults about me—and are demanding a full refund from the hotel which will likely need to be granted," said the poster. "It goes without saying that I no longer have a job there, but it's a relief. I also feel smug that the sexist supervisor had to clean up after them the next day."

In over 200 comments on Mumsnet, users praised the worker for leaving her job.

"Well done for walking out," said one reply. "They absolutely deserved it."

Another commenter wrote: "That's awful. I bet you were all on minimum wage dealing with all that too. You aren't a manager, a glass collector or wedding coordinator. Someone else should have been there to deal with that."

"Well done," agreed another commenter. "I would have left too. Your mental health and wellbeing come first."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.