'I hate my job, but I especially hate it on Saint Patrick's!' : Server creates relatable Reddit thread for bitter bartenders

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Mar 12, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

Saint Patrick's is the one day you don't want to work as a bartender. Not that New Year's is that much better, but still, Saint Patrick's holds first place for rowdy customers who use the celebration of Irish culture as an excuse to get completely hammered. As customers, they can be rude, loud, and most of all, sick to their stomachs, which creates a big mess. Who gets the lovely privilege of cleaning up after 'em? You, if you're a server. But the money is pretty sweet, as people tend to be pretty generous.

u/ihavetoomanyplants posted to r/TalesFromYourServer about how much he hates St Patrick's and asked the subreddit to share their best/worst stories. People sure had a lot to say, and it wasn't pretty… Scroll down to read the most flabbergasting tales of stupidity. For more stories like this, check out the insane way a woman dealt with an entitled Karen over a parking space.

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/ihavetoomanyplants 15 hours ago Nothing makes me hate my job more than St Patrick's Day Short
    via u/ihavetoomanyplants
  • 02
    Font - I've been a bartender at a very busy bar on a very busy bar strip for 7 years. And every year, st pats is the worst. I can remember each one so clearly, strange and terrible each in their own way. My city does a huge parade, dyes the river, goes all out. Bar crawls everywhere. Puking and fighting in the streets, on the sidewalks, in the bar! I work a double this Saturday and next, and I am dreading it so bad. Bank, though, right? So, any fun or crazy st pats weekend stories to get us all
    via u/ihavetoomanyplants
  • 03
    Font - Imalawyerkid. 14 hr. ago I did an entire shift wearing a promo foam Guinness hat. A few people wanted to try it on for photos, but I assured them it was gross from sweating in it. Still, huge tips all day. At the very end of the night, a dude comes from the bar area, wasted, and MUST have my hat. I warn
    via u/Imalawyerkid
  • 04
    Font - him about the sweat and he doesn't care. He started at $100, but for some reason I wanted to keep the hat and said no (probably becuase I had already made bank that shift). He would not stop and in the end paid me like $250 for this stupid as hat I got for free. Reply Share 512
    via u/Imalawyerkid
  • 05
    Font - calypsodweller · 13 hr. ago Hoboken, NJ used to have a St. Patrick's parade. In 2012, it was the largest in the state. Young adults would come from all over to fill the bars and drink at house parties. The population would grow about 100k. Hoboken is a mile square and the 4th most dense city in the country with over 50k people back then. It's over 60k now.
    via u/calypsodweller
  • 06
    Font - During the parade, I was walking along the public school marching band, which were kids from 5th grade through high school. The parade stopped temporarily, so the kids had to March in place. A young, di k woman snuck behind a 12 year old boy holding the band bass drum. She started to d on him. I yelled at her, taking my camera out. She bolted.
    via u/calypsodweller
  • 07
    Font - The band continued down the street. At 2nd st, they had to stop again. The band was following the HS football players. The players started laughing and pointed up at a window above Cluck U Chicken. A couple were f g in a window, m style. He's arms were on the windowsill. Her head was resting on the windowsill. y
    via u/calypsodweller
  • 08
    Font - TK1129 11 hr. ago Sometimes I think to myself damn I miss the Hoboken parade, drinking and partying all day, taking the train home with my friends all hammered. Then I remember I'm nearly 40, can't drink like 21 year old me, and every bar hit you over the head with a cover charge. Still good memories though
    via u/TK1129
  • 09
    Font - Reddit BeginAgain - 12 hr. ago I'm not a server, but I'm a regular drinker. I refuse to go to a bar on amateur drinking days. On a normal day, regular customers will come in and consume whatever is compatible with them getting home safely. On NYE, St. Patricks, Super Bowl, Cinco, and whenever else people with no concept of what they can handle suddenly think 25 drinks is a good idea.
    via u/RedditBeginAgain
  • 10
    Font - TK1129 11 hr. ago I was a bar back as a teenager. I grew up in a suburban New York area with a huge Irish and Irish American population. I worked in a nice large bar and restaurant that had actually been transported from Ireland here. Even as the bar back I would make great money on St Patrick's Day because people obviously over indulged or
    via u/TK1129
  • 11
    Font - got it in their head that they should definitely get a round of some high end whiskey we would have to climb up a ladder to get. The flip side of that was amateurs throwing up in the waitress station ice bins and the bathroom. After dealing with all that one night I was checking the building prior to closing and
    via u/TK1129
  • 12
    Font - the manager was behind me doing the same. I was finishing up checking the bathrooms and I knocked on the ladies room door prior to opening the door. There was no answer so I walked in and two ladies were going to town on some guy. The manager was right behind me and told 16 year old me to get out and for
    via u/TK1129
  • 13
    Font - them to leave. To really make it embarrassing, my mom was the manager yelling at them and telling me to get out and stop staring 90 Reply Share CurvyCupcakes 9 hr. ago · edited 8 hr. ago "Going to town" lol. I love that euphemism lol. 26 Reply Share
    via u/TK2219, u/CurvyCupcakes
  • 14
    Font - ihavetoomanyplants OP · 15 hr. ago One of my faves, last year a girl fell asleep on the toilet. When we tried to get her out, she FREAKED and started screaming at everyone to get out of her house! Why were we in her bathroom??? How did we get into her apartment?? We just gestured like...maam....this is clearly a bar it still took a lot of convincing before she accepted she was NOT at home
    via u/ihavetoomanyplants
  • 15
    Plant - helloooodave. 13 hr. ago Yeahhhhhh..... Worked in an Irish bar in NYC that was owned by an Irish immigrant and employed LOTS of Irish immigrant staff (I'm American with zero Irish descent but married an Irish immigrant.)
    via u/heloooodave
  • 16
    Font - I can vividly remember the anger of some of the bartenders when people would walk in with the ridiculous orange beards and leprechaun garb. I can especially remember a Paddy's day that fell on a Saturday (that was a particularly awful one). I expect it falling on a Friday this year will up the ante. ↑ 65 Reply Share
    via u/heloooodave
  • 17
    Font - katmcflame 12 hr. ago Working Cinco de Mayo in a Mexican party restaurant & bar is a close second. I remember someone threw up in the TANK of a toilet... while their friend was ON it. 44 Reply Share
    via u/katmcflame
  • 18
    Font - Wils SieBanhus 6 hr. ago The year I started bartending (two years ago), a group of wispiest little frat boys became absolutely convinced that I was Irish, and hung out for hours buying me drinks along with each round they ordered. I drank two or three of them, then just took the cost as a tip. They also told everyone else that I was Irish, which really upped the tips because I guess that's just what you do on St. Pat's.
    via u/SieBanhus
  • 19
    Font - I am not Irish, have never been to Ireland (or Europe for that matter), and neither look nor sound Irish. What I am is South African, and also more than happy to profit off of the good- natured ignorance of college students with mommy and daddy's money to spend. 19 ↓ Reply Share
    via u/SieBanhus
  • 20
    Font - MissHibernia 14 hr. ago People get unnecessarily stupid on St. Patrick's. They try to show that 1% Irish means you can get so di k you are sick but it's ok. There is a big celebration in my town which means a fi n of 21 year olds throwing up green beer on your shoes. The best thing to do is get some
    via u/MissHibernia
  • 21
    Font - candy potatoes from See's and watch a good Irish movie. A lot of people will get Guinness, and I realize I am dissing my own Irish-American street cred here but I think it tastes like peat moss Reply Share 54
    via u/MissHerbnia

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customer service rowdy-customers beer bars jobs toxic-workplace waiter st-patricks bartender entitled tales from your server rude pubs employment
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