7. KEEPING MY PROMISE

David Yip at the Queens Head with one of the locals. Photo credit, David Yip

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by David Yip

In 2017, after leaving my previous employer, I was once again looking for work. Having no savings, my younger sister paid for everything until I could find a job. At home, I kept up my house and spent time with my dad, who was now living with me. He moved in when my elder sister, Suzanne, left Barrow to live with her new partner.

Thinking my dad would miss her company, she suggested I ask him to move in. Having lived on his own for so long, I doubted my dad would say yes, but he did move in. Immediately. and was nicely settled in. Keeping to his routine, my dad was an early riser and on clement days liked to cycle down the old mill lanes. He was in great health for his late sixties. He enjoyed a couple of pints in one of the many bars and was a well-known figure in the town.

I applied for a duty manager job working at Robinsons Brewery at one of their managed houses, the Queens Head, Troutbeck, in the heart of the Lake District, a forty-five minute journey from my house.

Having only ever worked for independent hotels, I believed the one thing missing from my CV was experience working for a big company.

My interview was with Sam, who was employed as the general manager and ran the pub with her husband Mark, who was the bar manager. During the interview, I was asked what type of animal I would be – a first for me when interviewing, and to this day I can never remember the answer I gave.

Sam gave me a tour of the pub/hotel and explained my role. He told me that all the training I needed would be provided as they had many different systems in place. At the end of te tour, I was offered the position, which I accepted. My new wage was £20,000 less than I had earned previously, and I hoped I would be able to manage on that. I was to start the following Monday.

The Queens is an iconic pub famous for its bar, which was made out of a four-poster bed. Despite a major fire some years earlier, the bar was saved because of the many layers of black paint that covered it. Robinsons invested over £2 million in reopening the business, and the bar was stripped back to its original wood. The whole place looked stunning and it was easily the best pub I had ever seen.

I was told I could wear what I wished as long as I looked smart, which was a change from wearing suits all day.

For the first week, I shadowed Sam, who showed me everything I needed to know about the office: from cashing up, a daily safe check, preparing check-ins and check-outs for the hotel, the end of night till counts, and also how food service was run. Mark showed me how the bar was run, and, as I had never worked with real ales before, I was eager to learn. My feet at the end of the week were so sore! In my former job, I was used to walking on plush carpets. The slate and wooden floors in The Queens took some getting used to.

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A new assistant manager was hired, and we all got into a system of working together. After I had been at the pub for six weeks, Sam asked if I wanted to be her assistant manager, as the new guy was not working out. This came with a wage increase, which I happily accepted.

Despite the rural location, we were extremely busy each day, visited by walkers, tourists and the local community.

It was there that I met Eugen, a young Romanian lad who worked front of house, and we worked great together. On one occasion, we served 80 guests between us due to other staff being sick. Everything went great, with all guests leaving happy, and I respected his work ethic.

Some days could be very long and, starting at 7.30am and finishing at 11pm. These were known as an AFD (“all fucking day”). This meant I was up at 6am to get ready for the drive there and then got home just before midnight, with an early start again the following day.

Part of the manager checks I had to perform was to make sure everywhere was clean and free of hazards. One day after a late evening frost, I arrived for work, served breakfast to guests, then went about my checks. I wanted to make sure access to and from the car park was safe, I started to walk up the steep slope to the car park and reached the brow when my shoes lost their grip. I started sliding backwards. i bent over with my hands touching the ground trying to steady myself. I slid back down the slope to the bottom, but still managed to stay upright. As the hotel CCTV captured the whole thing, the staff got a good laugh from the footage.

Working for a big chain (though they did not like being called this) I learned a lot; from the daily checks that needed to be done, to making sure staff and customers were all in a safe environment, to how ales were stored, to how line cleaning was done, and I took lots of online training courses on health and safety, food hygiene, fire marshal training, and on all the other systems they used.

One day, Sam asked to speak to me and told me that our area manager, Simon, had asked if I could help out at another site in Manchester. I was to go for a week and cover the general manager’s holiday, which I agreed to do. The place was not very well organised, and so, during my time there, I sorted out the cellar and used all the systems I had been taught by Sam and Mark.

I had been at Queens for two years when my niece, Hannah, who worked as an assistant manager in a pub in Arnside, called me. She told me that the place was terrible and that her boss had told her about all the problems they faced. She said: “You need my uncle; he would sort this place out easily.” Hannah asked if I would be interested, and I told her I would, as the commute would be less and it would mean me stepping back up to a general manager position.

I met the tenant owner of the Albion at Arnside at his other business, along with one of his trusted staff, and they told me about the issues they had to deal with. I was surprised to learn that his employee knew who I was. He said, “Your reputation precedes you.”. They asked what salary I was looking for, and I asked for an extra £6,000 on top of what I currently earned. This was agreed. I was told that if I reached my target GP on food and drinks, I would also receive monthly bonuses. We shook on this, and I told them that my notice period was two weeks, and that I would see them soon.

Returning to the Queens, I contacted my area manager, Simon, and told him that I would be leaving. He organised a meeting so we could discuss it. As Sam and Mark were away, I met him alone and he asked why I was leaving. I told him I had found better paid work. He asked about my new wage and told me they could not match it because all assistant managers were paid the same in the chain, so an exception could not be made.

Before starting work at the Albion, my new boss asked if I could meet there to be introduced to the team. My niece and all staff were on site, with the exception of the two managers who had been in charge. After being introduced, I told the team that I was there to help drive the business forward and that there would be changes. I was sure we would all get along.

The phone rang and my niece answered the call. It was the brewery, who told her that a beer order had not been placed. It needed to be in as soon as possible, or there would be no delivery. My new boss shook his head in disbelief. I asked my niece to show me where the cellar was and asked if I could have some paper. Going into the cellar, I saw hundreds of flies swarming the room, with beer from the barrels all over the floor. I quickly took a stock check and wrote down an order, then called the telesales team back and placed the order. Before leaving, I spoke to my niece and told her the cellar was disgusting and that the place was not what I expected it would be. She replied: “Why do you think they interviewed you off site?” I left wondering what I had let myself in for.

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The two weeks went quickly before Sam and Mark arrived back from their holiday. Coming into the pub to catch up and finish a handover before starting back, Sam asked if there was anything she needed to know, and I said, “This is my last couple of days.” She replied, “Are you off tomorrow?” and I told her, “No, I am leaving. I assumed Simon would have told you.” They were both shocked by this, with Sam later telling me she cried when they left.

My first day at the Albion arrived, and again my first job was analysing the menu and prices. Once again, I saw that the food was being sold too cheaply to meet the 65% GP. I arranged a meeting with the head chef, and we talked about supplier options to get better prices so I could re-cost the menu.

I set up daily cleaning checks for the front of house team, including the outside terrace areas which had stunning views across the estuary. Working with the team, I monitored how orders were taken and if check-backs on tables were carried out. They weren’t. So I told the staff to return to tables and ask the guests if everything was OK. One member of staff even asked, “Including the people eating outside?” to which I answered, “Why? Are they paying less? Don’t they deserve the same level of service?”

After being there for three months, Eugen contacted me and asked if I had any positions available, as he wanted to leave The Queens. So, because I didn’t want to fall out with Robinsons, I contacted my former area boss and told him that Eugen had asked for work. Simon said he would prefer it if Eugen stayed. I told him that Eugen would be leaving regardless and I would rather he came to work with me than go anywhere else. I did not want to fall out with Robinsons, but I offered Eugen the job, knowing that Simon had accepted he was powerless to stop Eugen from leaving.

At our weekly meetings, my boss told me that he was very happy with the current food and drink gross profits and that the difference was amazing. I spent some time on the outside terrace filling the flower boxes with hundreds of bulbs that would transform the whole place and fill it with colour and greenery. The cellar was now spotless with not a fly in sight. Everything was in its place and stored correctly. I contacted my boss and reminded him that we had agreed a monthly bonuses should I reach my gross profit targets. My emails went unanswered. I contacted the woman who was also at my interview and in charge of HR and payroll and asked her the same. She ignored my emails too. Despite this lack of response, I carried on, enjoying my role.

In September, I was contacted by a former colleague from Clarence House who was working in a busy town centre pub/restaurant that also had rooms. She told me that they were having issues and that her boss now wanted me to work for him. I told her that I doubted he would pay my wages, so I was not interested. Despite these doubts, after two weeks I agreed to meet him.

During our meeting, he told me about issues he was having, and he also told me that the bar was losing hundreds of pounds each week, and the food was just not hitting profit. He asked what wage I wanted, and I told him £48,000. A couple of days later, he emailed saying he would love to offer me the job for a salary of £36,000. I was surprised by this. He knew this was my current wage and I did not have the hotel side to handle. It would have meant more work for the same amount. And we were clearly not as busy as his site. I politely turned the job down.

Bonfire Night approached, with the locals of Arnside putting on a huge firework display on the beachfront opposite. My niece told me hundreds of people came to the free event and the pub would be complete madness. I told her I had worked in Gran Canaria during Pride and I was sure it would not be as bad as that. Locals who came to the pub often said the same: “I hope you’re going to be ready.”

I tripled my beer order and ordered hundreds of plastic cups for drinks so that glasses would not be broken. On the night shift, I put four staff on the bar to work alongside me. We were swamped from early evening, hours before the fireworks even began. When stocks ran low, I asked Eugen to stop serving and to restock all fridges again. During the night, I asked staff to take black bags outside and collect all discarded plastic cups and rubbish. It was non-stop for hours, but the evening ran smoothly. When it was time to close, there was no sign that it had ever happened. The terrace was spotless, the fridges were full, and the bar was clean. When cashing up, I discovered we had taken over £6,000 in drinks alone. That was a great night for a small community pub. It was a night to rival even a busy night at Gran Canaria’s Pride event. The next day, locals at the bar asked how the evening went. I told them it was great (but not as busy as I had expected). And they told me it was one of the busiest years they had ever had. I felt confident that I was just more organised than other people.

It was shortly after this that I the Barrow site (once again) asked to meet me. They told me the job was still available and that they were prepared to meet the wages I had asked for. I asked them if the business could afford this, as I did not want to walk away from a job only to be told they had overstretched themselves. After getting reassurances that not only would my basic salary be £48k, but that I would also receive sales-related bonuses, I accepted the job.

Returning to work at the Albion, I submitted my notice by email to my boss. I did not get a reply. A few days later, before my last week, I was told the weekly Friday meeting would go ahead. I asked if I was to attend, as I would be leaving two days later, and was told ‘yes’. During the meeting, my boss said that he was sorry that I was going and that my time there had shown what a profitable business it really was. I was gobsmacked. I had consistently hit all my targets, but he had refused to pay me any bonuses.

So, I stayed true to the promise I had made to myself two years earlier and this time walked away from a boss who did not stay true to his word.

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