teams

I used to work at a bar on campus here in Champaign. The goal of any bar is obviously to sell as many drinks as possible to maximize revenue, but there are more moving parts that go into it than just the drinks being served. The structure of the bar I worked at resembled a simple hierarchy that splits into dual authority near the bottom of the hierarchy. There was a general manager (non-student) who was the main communication line from the bars owners to the rest of the staff. They were in charge of liquor orders, making schedules, promotions, as well as any upper-level clerical work that the bar required (renew permits, think of new promotions, etc). The general manager would not be working every shift (usually worked more on the weekends as they are busier and require more management) but would usually stop by every night as a patron if they were not working to make sure the ship was sailing alright.

When they would come in as a patron they would be interacting with the next people in line in the hierarchy: the (student) managers. There were usually 6-7 student managers and they are usually seniors as they get to that part of the hierarchy by working there through the ranks. The student managers are much more involved in the 'hands-on' management of the bar. Meaning that a shift that a student manager would work they would be managing all aspects of the bar that night: putting bartenders on registers, tracking sales, making sure bottles were stocked up, dealing with the bouncers/ doormen, dealing with specifically unruly patrons, and any major issues such as the police showing up or something bad happening outside the bar in the line or in the beer gardens. The managers technically answer to the general manager, but when they are on shift they have autonomous authority over the rest of the staff and their word is the law.

After the managers is where the simple hierarchy splits into two different groups: bartenders then under them barbacks and head doors, carders, and under them at the absolute bottom are doormen. Bartenders technically answer to the GM and managers, but their role is very defined within the bar so they in a sense would be working independently. The bartenders main and only focus would be to serve as many drinks as fast as they can to maximize sales/ revenue. Helping the bartenders succeed at this goal are the barbacks who essentially work as administrative assistants to the bartenders. The barbacks responsibility is to keep all facets of the bar stocked so the bartenders can at all times continuously serve. Their responsibilities include restocking all fridges of beer bottles and mixers, stocking on red bull, stocking liquor bottles inside the bar as well as always refilling a bartenders 'rail' to assure they always have liquor right within reach, and refilling the ice tubs.

The other side of the split lies the head doors and carders. A carder is above a doorman but below a barback technically. Carders have one job only and that is to effectively in accordance with the law vet would be patrons IDs and provide them with a wristband if they are over 21. This is their only function. The head doors on the other hand are essentially 'door managers'- the carders answer to them but their role is so defined that they need very little managing. The head doors main job is to manage the doormen. The head door will coordinate doorman at the beginning of each shift, while it is not busy, to start basic cleaning of the bar. After this initial cleaning phase the head door will assign the doormen to specific areas of the bar to patrol- such as near the dance floor, in the beer garden, near the exit gate (so people dont try and sneak in), and help coordinate the line outside especially if it is getting long/busy. The head doors main focus is keeping the bar within safe means- meaning that all the exit gates are patrolled by doormen so no under age people sneak in, kicking unruly patrons out personally (head doors are usually very large people), and helping out with any general issues that arise inside the bar. They essentially work as human liability insurance trying to make sure nothing catastrophic goes down that night. Finally at the bottom of the totem pole are doormen, and their function is very simple: do all the worst jobs that are associated with the bar. Extensive cleaning at all times, spot sweeping, guarding exit gates/ beer gardens, surveying the bar for unruly patrons/ fights and kicking those people out, and taking out all the garbage. At the end of the night the head door will coordinate all the doormen to do a deep clean of everything inside the bar that isn't physically behind the bar where the bartenders work. The bartenders and barbacks are responsible for cleaning the areas behind the bar only.

The structure of this bar has a lot of characteristics of high functioning teams. To start, teams shape purpose in response to a demand or an opportunity placed in their path usually by higher management: everyone knows their role to a 'T' when showing up for a shift. Obviously when everyone comes in the managers and head doors start telling people what to do, but this is just out of formality. Employees will be left to their own devices after being told what to do by higher ups and the managers/ head doors will only step in if someone is doing something very wrong. High performing teams are manageable size: although the staff may be huge, only a select few people are working a specific shift making it much more manageable. Moreover, bartenders and barbacks are usually much older employees and need very little management and the head door is responsible for managing the doormen/ carder. This essentially splits up where managing needs to be done making it easier on the people in power. High performing teams develop a common commitment to working relationships: again, everyone knows their role. Each job is very specialized and each role depends on all the others doing their job for them to succeed. High performing teams hold themselves collectively responsible: even though everyone has very defined roles, if it is a bad night for any facet of the bar it is bad for everyone. Everyone wins or loses at the end of the night when the manager comes up from the office once cleaning is done and gives a small post-shift speech. This is because the managers and general managers have to answer to the owners if there were bad sales or some other negative thing happened. They are not going to sell out some specific doorman for letting in his underage friend who got caught by police inside getting the bar a ticket- they will take the brunt of the heat for the rest of the employees. In this regard it is a very collectively accountable environment.