YOU GET THE BARTENDER, WE GET THE EMPLOYEE.

In nearly three years of running this place, not one team member has quit. Not one. If somebody who used to work at Duesy’s no longer works here, they were terminated.

That probably sounds harsher than it really is because, truthfully, I still like most of them. Some are great people. Some were fun as hell to be around. Some were good team members. I can like somebody, wish them well and still know they weren’t good for Duesy’s. Pretty simple.

That’s the part patrons don’t see when someone they loved suddenly isn’t behind the bar anymore. Maybe they knew your drink, remembered your name, laughed at your jokes and made your Wednesday night a little better. You spent a couple of hours with them and thought they were fantastic. You may have been completely right. You just weren’t their employer. You saw the bartender. We saw the employee.

We saw whether they showed up, whether they showed up on time, whether they pulled their weight and whether the people working beside them could count on them. We saw the call-ins, no-shows, late arrivals, the “oh, I forgot,” the attitude, the unfinished work and the person who somehow disappeared every time something needed to be cleaned, stocked, carried or handled.

Patrons shouldn’t see most of that. A lot happens behind the scenes and that’s where it should stay. But it still matters when I’m deciding who gets to keep working here.

A person can be charming as hell across the bar and still be a bad fit for the team. They can be wonderful with their favorite regulars and difficult with everybody else. They can make a great cocktail and suck at teamwork. They can be somebody I genuinely enjoy as a human being and still create more work, frustration or problems for everyone working around them.

I care about showing up, being dependable, helping each other, taking direction, doing the unglamorous shit and taking care of the person you’ve never seen before just as well as the regular whose drink you already know. When one person doesn’t carry their weight, the work doesn’t disappear. Somebody else gets stuck doing it.

Do that enough and people get pissed. The dependable ones start doing somebody else’s opening work, cleanup, stocking or side work and eventually wonder why they’re trying so hard when somebody else apparently doesn’t have to. I’m not letting that become our culture just because somebody happens to be popular on the other side of the bar.

There are also conversations patrons never hear. Corrections. Expectations. Chances to fix something. Usually more than one. At some point, though, “I forgot” isn’t much of an explanation anymore. “I’m running late” isn’t an occasional thing anymore. The attitude isn’t just a bad day. And having the same damn conversation for the fifth time gets old. Eventually I have to decide what’s fair to everybody else. Sometimes that means somebody has to go.

And firing somebody is a pain in the ass. It screws up the schedule. It creates more work. Then we have to hire somebody, train them and hope they fit with the people already here. Believe me, keeping a good employee is a whole lot easier than replacing one. I’m not sitting around looking for reasons to fire people because I need something else to do. P.S. When you ask, “What happened to so-and-so?” 99% of the time, all you’re going to get is, “They don’t work here anymore.” P.P.S. It’s truly none of your business.

I know that can suck when you liked them. You can miss them. You can think they were great. You may have never had a single bad experience with them. It doesn’t have to be any uglier than that. I don’t need to hate somebody to fire them and I don’t need to make them into some horrible person afterward to justify the decision. Sometimes a person and a business just aren’t a good fit. You got the bartender. We got the employee.

And at the end of the day, I have to worry about the whole team - those who show up, do their jobs, help each other and keep this place rockin' while everybody else gets to sit at the bar and enjoy the fact that they don’t know what’s happening behind it.

That matters more than being popular. Every friggin' time.

Oh and P.P.P.S. Every once in a while, old team members come back around. Yes, I do believe in second chances...sometimes.