A Pub Landlord’s Typical Working Week

personallicenceNo CommentsPub Management

This list came out of a focus group session we recently ran with experienced pub landlords. The task: ‘List a typical week and some of the days in the life of a devoted Publican’.

  1. Work out the staff rota
  2. Complete the wages sheet
  3. Fill in the tax forms
  4. Fill in the NI forms
  5. Fill the wages packets
  6. Put advert in for new bar staff
  7. Put advert in for new kitchen staff
  8. Replenish all cherries/cocktail sticks, etc
  9. Replenish all crisps/nuts, etc
  10. Check AWP machines/empty/replenish
  11. Let in food delivery/check temperatures etc
  12. Visit cash-and-carry, for supplies
  13. Light the fire
  14. Check merchandising messages
  15. Check Garden for mess, clean up
  16. Get Menu ready or agreed with Chef
  17. Let in wine and spirit delivery
  18. Let in soft drink delivery
  19. See BDM for meeting
  20. Take innumerable telephone calls/bookings, etc
  21. Meet bank manager/accountant/VAT person
  22. Let in ‘guest ale’ delivery
  23. See 12 different reps a day!!
  24. Let in bar staff (if they turn up!!)
  25. OPEN THE PUB (BY NOW IT IS 11.00AM)
  26. Wait for customers
  27. Start serving customers
  28. Check Fax orders for food
  29. Sort out regular issues in the toilets
  30. Take 20 telephone calls an hour
  31. Panic if the Chef throws a wobbly
  32. Ask ‘Fred’ to stop flicking his ash on the carpet
  33. Change kegs/casks as they run out
  34. Deal with unexpected visit from the EHO officer
  35. Go to the bank pay in/get change
  36. Deal with customer complaint about the sausages
  37. Talk to the Chef (carefully)
  38. Arrange matches for Darts/Quiz/Skittles, etc
  39. Prepare for a forthcoming rent review
  40. Make insurance claim for anything you can
  41. Deal with leak in the cellar/roof/bathroom
  42. Handle flack from customers when the price of beer increases
  43. Comply with all regulations at all times
  44. Stop a fight in the bar
  45. Try and understand some new legal guidelines
  46. Tell a telephone caller a white lie!
  47. Refuse a customer with a dog in the dining room
  48. Clean up the sick in the toilet
  49. Check the weekly stock-take results, panic if there is a short-fall, get the staff together and tell them “someone is fiddling” (carefully)
  50. Stop 6 of the lads arguing over the pool table
  51. Comfort Fred and Mary who are drowning their sorrows in gin and tonics over the loss of their budgie
  52. Deal with 6 different charities who want you to collect money for them
  53. Deal with PRS and PPL representatives
  54. Argue with SKY over the licence costs
  55. Worry if takings are too low
  56. Clean up some more sick
  57. Visit your competitors and see how they do it better
  58. Work out plans to grow the business
  59. Try and figure out the mechanics of the latest promotion the brewery want you to run
  60. Buy 10 dozen new glasses to replace broken ones
  61. Constantly go ‘the other side of the bar’ to converse with customers and monitor ‘naughties’
  62. Constantly clean up after customers leave
  63. Call time at 11.00 pm
  64. Finally plan to put your feet up for a night-cap
  65. Deal with those who want a bit of ‘afters’
  66. Repeatedly ask them to leave the premises without loosing your temper
  67. AND ABOUT MIDNIGHT … GO TO BED !!

Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!