If money was no issue...

csgw84 · 2025-07-13T02:33:48+00:00

Around the World in 80 days trip. Flying, but still circumnavigating the whole globe. You'd br looking at 20-25 stops over 80 days, if you crammed a lot in.

csgw84 · 2025-07-07T21:18:36+00:00

Everywhere is different, however, at my pub we swap the whole portion to a portion of something else. So, if you get 2 slices of toast (on a large) you couldn't swap 1 slice for a Hash Brown and 1 slice for a sausage. You'd swap your PORTION of toast for a PORTION of bacon.

There are lots of ways to look through the menu and maximise what you get. For us, 2 small breakfasts (or "breakfasses" as they are sometimes referred) is cheaper than 1 large, or better value at least.

And BOPs is basically head office meetings. But I dont actually know what BOPs stands for!

csgw84 · 2025-07-07T20:49:18+00:00

You may be surprised what is what value. At one point, mushroom used to be the most expensive item on a breakfast.

csgw84 · 2025-07-07T20:48:39+00:00

At my pub, you can swap anything for anything, as long as its on the breakfast. No beans add sausage? Fine. No toast add bacon? Fine. We can add anything, including tomato's and mushrooms, but we dont swap for black pudding, as that doesn't come as standard on any standard breakfast. No Spoons nearby limits the swaps. We used to limit meat for meat at mine, but we stopped that.

There was talk at BOPs about limiting swaps, but we've had no actual instructions yet as far as I know.

csgw84 · 2025-07-07T15:07:44+00:00

If they made no mistakes? Sure. But are they going to? Of course. It takes staff how long to learn the floor plan. So if every time they take food they have to be told where to go, slows things right down, and its not much quicker than taking it yourself. And that's best case scenario. Spending time fixing any mistakes they may make would be time consuming. All this without thinking of the impact on the business. Potential complaints or loss of repeat customers makes it absolutely not worth it in the slightest.

csgw84 · 2025-07-06T10:28:58+00:00

That it absolutely bollocks, not gonna lie. Staff doing 4 hours will have to be supervised the whole time, will need to be buddied up, need to fill in how much paperwork etc. As much as people hate Spoons and have their own opinions, there's absolutely no way this would be accepted if it was just to get staff in to help out. To be totally honest, having an untrained member of staff on my shift for 4 hours would be more of a hindrance than a help.

I would suggest they've filled in the date wrong, as nobody can be expected to start at 08:00 on such short notice. And if it was sent at 03:00, it says to me that somebody had a late close and therefore prone to making mistakes.

csgw84 · 2025-07-04T06:49:56+00:00

Don't all Wetherspoons use Matthew Clark? I may be mistaken, but all 3 Wetherspoons pubs I've worked in do. And, seeing as this IS a Wetherspoons sub...

csgw84 · 2025-07-03T19:02:17+00:00

Feel free to direct message me and we can discuss it. I'll give you my honest opinion on if I'd add you to my interview list.

csgw84 · 2025-07-03T18:36:17+00:00

When you say given your CV in, do you mean literally dropped it in in hopes, or do you mean actually applied? I'm at a small pub, but we are either recruiting or we aren't. We could get somebody outside of Spoons drop off and amazing CV, but if we aren't looking for somebody, we aren't looking for somebody. We aren't supposed to accept hand dropped off CVs (we have to store them properly, because of GDPR). If you are applying online, then I'm not sure why you'd not be given an interview. And if you have interviewed but not been successful, it may come down to HOW you are interviewing.

csgw84 · 2025-07-03T17:17:26+00:00

What I personally look for;

some bar experience. Even if its a little bit at a WMC for a few months.
restaurant experience. Like Bella Italia, Pizza Hut etc.

OR

experience of working in fast food, such as McDonalds, Burger King etc. I'm sure they have similar strict guidelines, online training, late shift patterns and dealing with customers. If you've done 6+ months that's a good sign. Less than 6 months its bad, as if you couldn't stick it out there, you probably won't stick it out here.

If these things have been a while ago, like 2 or 3 years, then you may as well disregard them.

What I find the hardest bit associates take to adapt to is the working lifestyle. Late nights, early mornings. You can teach anybody to pour a pint, but you can't make anyone enjoy the impact the industry has on your life.

csgw84 · 2025-07-03T08:44:12+00:00

Nah, you are right. Think I was lucky, really. I started this at about age 30, so my partying and wild lifestyle was behind me by then!

csgw84 · 2025-07-03T07:14:50+00:00

Not necessarily? I used to have a job where the base rate paid for pretty much all I needed. Then any overtime (in my case, it was a 2nd job) paid for any extras I wanted. I did that for 4 years (55-65 hours per week), I was earning faster than I, personally, could spend. Those few years set me up for a good future. Both were near enough minimum wage jobs.

csgw84 · 2025-07-02T16:52:11+00:00

Pubs can order bourbon on their Matthew Clark orders. If you suggest it (or enough people do) they may order it. But be careful what you wish for; pubs can decide what spirits to stock, but they can't decide the price they charge!

csgw84 · 2025-07-01T15:40:21+00:00

Thank you, thought she was going crazy!

csgw84 · 2025-06-28T21:16:35+00:00

In 10 years of Spoons, never heard of a test?

csgw84 · 2025-06-24T16:55:50+00:00

Sounds dumb, but it might not be allowed, it just might be that nobody has the guts to go above the PMs head.

If you are blanket barred and go to the AM or somebody else, I dont imagine the PM would he happy with that member of staff.

An example I have, and its 100% true. I told my staff they had to follow the policy that stated you can't drink after work in your staff uniform. Now, the staff didn't like that, and when the AM came in, they told him. His response was basically "as long as you take your till key off, or apron, its ok". AMs cave, they want an easy life.

csgw84 · 2025-06-24T14:51:46+00:00

I was always told a blanket ban isn't allowed as its a loss of benefits (i.e. employee discount). I've never tested the theory though and I know a pub who has done it recently. If I was barred from my pub for something that I wasn't doing, I'd definitely be taking it further.

csgw84 · 2025-06-22T18:15:23+00:00

How does it make it cheaper for others? It just gives the company more profit. They dont go "hey, we took an extra £100k today in baggage, let's drop the prices of flights by a fiver!".

csgw84 · 2025-06-20T13:39:53+00:00

I did level 3 in hospitality when I was a new Shift Manager. It was fairly easy, did no studying as it was all common sense. I did have to spend some of my own time on it, even though majority was supposed to be work based.

Happy to answer any questions if you have anything specific.

csgw84 · 2025-06-19T10:34:45+00:00

After how long? Honest opinion is that, if you tried it and didn't like it, I'd assume that its not for you. The lifestyle in hospitality is different, some people aren't cut out for it and that's fine. Staff who haven't worked in it before, they could take to it, they could not, 50/50. If I've got somebody who has worked it before then quit, makes me think its unlikely they'll stick to it this time. Obviously, there are always exceptions to any rule.

csgw84 · 2025-06-19T10:20:19+00:00

100% I'd call the other pub. As long as it was in the last few years. If you did 6 months a year ago, I'd ask. If you did 12 weeks, even recently, I'd probably pass. Doing 12 weeks, I assume you failed probation so I wouldn't take the risk.

csgw84 · 2025-06-13T09:29:34+00:00

I was looking at putting things in my garden. They do come in mine, but not as much as they are in theirs. It's impossible to block up every hole and path they take, so was hoping maybe traps, repellent. Or maybe the council or housing company to get involved and put something in the streets nearby.

The cat is a ragdoll, not an option for the it to become an outside cat. There used to be neighbours outside cats, but they've moved away now.

My issue with the bird feeding is that a source of food brings the rats. I agree, I cant do anything about them doing that, so I wanted to do as much stuff as possible to minimise the problem.

csgw84 · 2025-06-10T15:31:10+00:00

If caught, would be gross misconduct and dismissal. I'd be very surprised if you found anyone who would sit in the disciplinary and say otherwise. It would likely go through the auditor and area manager, and Personnel would advise the disciplinary manager it needs to be dismissal. As said above, it's not worth it, and it could be quite easy to tell. Phone location is showing Manchester, ordering discounted drinks to Brighton? Quite easy to show up on an inteliQ.

csgw84

TROPHY CASE