Bouncer behaviour (off duty)

Guffy

Just curious as to wether or not a can, should make a complaint against a bouncer I encountered this weekend.

So I was at my mothers bday, in a late bar that I won't name. t had come to the point where myself and my mates were heading home but one of them was a little to drunk and went to the toilet before we left. The toilet was on the top floor and the door was on a very wide stairs. Myself and the other lad waited outside for him just to make sure he was ok.

After a couple of minutes someone came up to us and told us to leave the stairs. I looked for id on his arm but he had none and he was also drinking so I figured he wasn't a bouncer or at least not working. I explained we were waiting on one of the lads and leaving the bar so he walked into the bar and kept watching us through door. He came back 30 sec later and told us to move. Again I had no reason to believe he was a bouncer, I may have expected he was off duty though. Again I said I'm leaving just waiting on one of the lads.

Again within a minute he came back said move. When I told him a third time within a couple of minutes that I was waiting for a friend to come out of toilet and I'm leaving the pub I was asked if 'your looking for trouble' to which I replied why would I be looking for trouble, he made a couple of other comments and turned and gave his glass to a bar man who passed nearby and came back.

At that point my buddy had come out of toilet and we started to head. He came back over and told us to leave again, I said ya we're going anyway. He shouted down to the bottom floor the name of the bouncer who was working. He came running up the stairs and was told to kick us out. I told the new bouncer we were going anyway and asked him if the first guy was working or what. The bouncer escorting us out said that he was off tonight and shouldn't be drinking in there. He apologised. That was grand.

I was outside for a couple of minutes when I realised I had forgotten something and asked if I could run back in to get it but was told I couldn't cause if the other guy saw me back inside he would kick off cause he was drinking.

I didn't really care and wasn't gona do anything the next day until I was told that my mothers cousins and friends had seen me being kicked out by the bouncer and asked what I had done. Before ya think I was being aggressive or anything like that this is the first time I have ever been kicked out of somewhere and made a concious point to keep my hands down and in no way appear aggressive as I had suspected him to be a bouncer.

Hmm that was a bit long but really I'm asking do I have grounds to make a formal complaint against the bouncer?

connollys

Why not just move out of the stair way which has to be kept clear? Just stand at the top of the stair waiting for your drunk friend and there wouldnt have been any incident.

michael999999

connollys wrote: »

Why not just move out of the stair way which has to be kept clear? Just stand at the top of the stair waiting for your drunk friend and there wouldnt have been any incident.

Or the drunk bouncer could have minded he's own business, and left it to the sober bouncer who was actually working!

Yeah, surely the easiest solution would be to just move?

What exactly would you want to happen, if you were to make a formal complaint? The bouncer wasn't on duty.

Guffy

connollys wrote: »

Why not just move out of the stair way which has to be kept clear? Just stand at the top of the stair waiting for your drunk friend and there wouldnt have been any incident.

This stairs is very wide it the top. There had been people drinking there all night. I was not causing an obstruction and was waiting to help the lad incase he was to fall down stairs.

biko

gufc21 wrote: »

Hmm that was a bit long but really I'm asking do I have grounds to make a formal complaint against the bouncer?

Note, you can't get legal advice on boards.
However, I suggest you go back and speak to the manager of the bar about this. The off-duty bouncer should (in a perfect world) just have told the active bouncer and let him deal with it.
But let the manager deal with him, maybe it was a once off, maybe he's done it before.

mickdw

connollys wrote: »

Why not just move out of the stair way which has to be kept clear? Just stand at the top of the stair waiting for your drunk friend and there wouldnt have been any incident.

A bouncer drinking where he works and still thinking he is working is a recipe for disaster.
You know what would happen if you got into a fight with him - the staff would likely take his side. He shouldn't be there.
You could have a word with management but if you are thinking of going there again probably best to let it go.

Guffy

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah, surely the easiest solution would be to just move?

What exactly would you want to happen, if you were to make a formal complaint? The bouncer wasn't on duty.

That is the point. He wasn't on duty yet had me escorted from the premises. Also technically I didn't know he was a bouncer when he told me to move. A drunk stranger comes up to you and says move do you?

Discodog

I would speak to the manager. If you get no joy then I would write to them. If you really wanted to you could complain to the PSA.

Antifa161

I wouldn't waste my time. It's a bit like complaining about Guards, they'll always look after each other. Let's be honest it was a minor incident, even if he'd given you a kicking around the corner you wouldn't have much of a hope so complaining that you were told to leave is a bit pointless.

McTigs

Antifa161 wrote: »

I wouldn't waste my time. It's a bit like complaining about Guards, they'll always look after each other. Let's be honest it was a minor incident, even if he'd given you a kicking around the corner you wouldn't have much of a hope so complaining that you were told to leave is a bit pointless.

I would disagree, any decent management would be glad to be told their staff are acting badly on the premises, i know i would.

McTigs

McTigs wrote: »

I would disagree, any decent management would be glad to be told their staff are acting badly on the premises, i know i would.

Aren't bouncers technically not hired by the premises, but by an outside company? So it's not really their staff and the guy was off-duty anyway, so it was during their own time.

Shakti

I'd say you narrowly avoided a nasty possibly lethal incident,
lets hope the next people he picks on have such a lucky
escape, almost certainly report him to the management of the
bar with no malice only with a view to circumvent any further
intimidation by establishing a prior record of his animosity and
aggression towards you and your party.

saintsaltynuts

Let it go.Bouncers off duty drinking in the place we're they work, backed up by the rest of the bouncers, are looking for trouble(it happens trust me).They get a few beers on board and want a bit of the action.Granted if you ever see him on his own i bet he's like a little lamb.They're only bullies my friend.

ratracer

saintsaltynuts wrote: »

Let it go.Bouncers off duty drinking in the place we're they work, backed up by the rest of the bouncers, are looking for trouble(it happens trust me).They get a few beers on board and want a bit of the action.Granted if you ever see him on his own i bet he's like a little lamb.They're only bullies my friend.

But why would you just let it go? So that it can happen again to some others just out enjoying themselves? I would report it to the bar management, even if they don't do anything about it this time, it will be helpful to have it noted if it does happen again. I'm sure they wouldn't accept the behaviour of this man if he is off duty.

inisboffin

I agree. If this is a one off for him they will let it slide, but if he does it repeatedly he deserves to have consequences for his actions.

He was an employee who was off duty, intoxicated, and representing an 'active' employee. The fact that the other bouncers were even telling you that he might 'kick off' says something.

An on duty bouncer *would* have been in his rights to move you but would probably have been rational and seen that helping your mate was the best thing (or gone in himself).

I'd send them an email and ask that it not happen again.

VanZandt

Report him surely, he was obviously on a power trip / trying to show off..
and if it is an outside company he works for, you should contact them directly. im sure they would want to know how he is acting when off duty!

Systemic Risk

No harm letting management know. I used to work as bouncer and in one place in galway we worked due to a similar incident to the OP's resulting in violence they brought in a rule stopping their security from drinking in there. Rule makes sense if you ask me....i always hated drinking where i worked so would avoid it anyway.

Anyway as another poster said any decent management team would act on this. There is so much pressure on venues to increase their customers that they will be very pleased to be informed of any issues that would potentially lose them business.

The person in question is well out of order but I don't think it's fair to ban people drinking where they work. Most bar staff drink in the pubs they work in so why should a person working security be excluded and by default the people he drinks with be excluded from a bar or possibly multiple bars if he works for more than one, which some bouncers do.

Once a person behaves themselves they should be allowed to drink where they please.

jamesdiver

If you think you have a justifiable complaint, contact the bar manager directly. They pay alot of money for security staff and will no doubt investigate. There is a whole plethora of insurance issues if security staff are off duty and interfering with business.

confuseddotcom

If there isn't more from this story that you're leaving out, and if you definitely weren't blocking the stairs, I'd give a Big fat NO. Wouldn't let it go in the slightest. Complain to the Premises, and write to his Company Employer. Wasn't a great idea to go drinking in the place he works in, and if his Colleagues knew exactly what he's like and didn't call him a Cab or tell him to move on, - no excuse. Am sick of similar types of Off-Duty Service-people going off on one like this in-correctly. His Co-Workers knew well that he was liable to make a nuisance of himself and / or cause a nuisance to and / or for them, and they didn't do anything. Fine get drunk and act the eejit when off-duty. But there's a big difference between being Off-Duty carrying out their duties being helpful, and being Off-Duty just acting out for the sake of it un-necessarily doing nothing more than exerting their powers. Just. No.

Did you manage to get back what you left behind? Was it valuable and / or expensive? It's a disgrace that the current Bouncer wouldn't let ya go back in in case the Off-Duty one stirred up trouble, and it's even more stupid if the current one didn't go back or get someone else to get whatever it was that you left behind.

Antifa161

McTigs wrote: »

I would disagree, any decent management would be glad to be told their staff are acting badly on the premises, i know i would.

Good for you pal, but in reality managers are never going to side with some drunk punter over one of their staff.

Just chalk it down as yet another scumbag bouncer who must only represent a "tiny minority" of them all :rolleyes:

witnessrenegade

I hate over the top bouncers as much as the next person, but theirs nothing as worse as drunk people who don't listen to what bouncers are telling them, especially when they won't move. You all were drinking and thought it be sound to wait on a staircase for a mate who was in the toilet? Main place that needs to be kept clear in any pub/club is the stairs. You could of walked down the stairs and said it to the other bouncer, or waited outside. It's a pub, not a maze, he would of made it out

Now fair enough the bouncer was drinking and off duty and shouldn't have been saying anything to you, but still, you could of went down the stairs, or pop your head into the toilets and said to your mate that you'll be waiting outside. Pretty simple things I think

Forgot that you left an item in the pub, best thing to do is go in, get it and say it to a manager what you said here. They may not take it all on board, but if they hear the last part that the off duty bouncer would get thick if you came back in then the manager would have to do something