Workplaces can get messy fast when everyone expects help but refuses to return the favor.

What would you do if your coworkers constantly pushed their responsibilities onto you, treated you like backup staff, and then hid behind technicalities anytime you asked for basic fairness?

Would you keep going along with it? Or would you finally draw the line and do something about it?

In the following story, one bartender finds himself in this predicament and gets some help from his union rep.

Here’s what happened.

Coworker’s & Management Got What They Asked For Because “it’s in the agreement”

This is currently taking place in a casino in a province in Canada, where I work, and it is a bit multifaceted.

To start, we’re technically government employees. Don’t ask me why, but we’re also a union. Ya, I am a literal bartender in a restaurant where everyone is a unionized government employee….you can see where this is probably going or what kind of environment this has engendered.

So first off, employees. There are 3 FT bartenders. As someone who has bartended or managed bars off and on for decades, we actually get hosed. Like I have never made so little money working in the service industry, but we have a pension and benefits, and that’s pretty choice.

The servers want their drinks, but don’t like tipping the bartenders.

We consistently work our butts off while we watch our floor counting their hundreds of dollars at the end of a shift, while we only make what happens directly at our bar.

The servers are mandated to tip out 2% of drink sales ONLY. Regularly, they ignorantly throw dimes across the table at us and make comments about, “Oh, it was only 50 cents, but I rounded up to a dollar because you earned it.”

Yes, comments like this happen on the regular. The rub is that, because of the CBA, the union bartenders are not allowed to serve tables, and the servers consistently remind us of this.

Here is where it gets bad. They expect the bartenders to also run their food, clean and clear their tables, and still only tip to the literal penny. This is one aspect

Management won’t help at all.

Now, as for management. We have had numerous conversations with management as our servers constantly abandon their tables. They go outside to smoke. Hang out on their phones and generally do the barest of minimums.

But because they are not on the floor, we HAVE to be. We are mandated and guaranteed 15-minute breaks twice a shift and one 30-minute break, which we never get. This is without mentioning once that management refuses to hire any new bartenders due to “budgetary constraints.”

We’ve spoken to management numerous times, and all we get told is that “the servers have the floor” and that we can “file a grievance” with the union.

The union reps were more than happy to spell out the rules.

So, the other 2 bartenders and I sat down with our union reps and hammered out the EXACT parameters of our jobs, management’s duties and obligations, and the floor’s.

We got everything highlighted, and we now have laminated cardstock behind the bar with the printed and highlighted aspects of our jobs, our job parameters, and our job guarantees.

A few weeks ago, we 3 started every shift the same way. Servers would regularly just walk behind the bar to get drinks for themselves or their clients. Sorry, you’re not a bartender, you can’t come behind the bar.

What! Ya, sorry, it’s in the CBA We can’t take tables, you can’t serve drinks, we’ll get to it as soon as we can. Servers now have to wait on us to pour their drinks, and that includes pop, water, beer, or even getting them ice. That’s step one.

Everything is finally starting to run smoothly.

We now officially take our 15 and our 30-minute breaks. As such, any and ALL drink service stops.

Here is the best part: such management is otherwise completely useless. Chatting with friends or hiding in their offices, we now have no choice but to come down and man the bar while we do so. They have to make drinks, stock the bar (which we ensure needs to be done), and put away and polish our glassware.

This is important as we have very specific criteria for our house drinks and the type of vessels they are poured in. This has been amusing to watch, but we enjoy our breaks, and I am catching up on some reading.

It’s only been a few weeks, but the servers seem to be getting it, and all of a sudden, there are 2 new bartenders in training on the schedule and 2 more apparently being hired.

Maybe this malicious compliance stuff does work.

Wow! That was so well-played!

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to situations like this.

According to this comment, that’s how some companies work.

Here’s some good advice.

This is a good observation.

Everything would be the same had they just sat around and done nothing, so kudos to them for taking action.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.