“Bartending on New Year's Eve was my own personal Vietnam.”
Times Square in New York City the day after New Year's.
Image by Stephen Chernin / Getty Images
"I've worked two New Year's Eves at this bar, which is fun because the staff is awesome. But the kind of customers who end up here...well, let's just say it wasn't exactly their plan to end up here. So they can be kind of weird.
The first New Year's that I worked here was the first New Year's that I worked ever, actually, so I got all dressed up and brought my own bottle of champagne. At midnight there was just the staff and a few stragglers, plus this ten-top of tourists who didn't speak any English. They specifically wanted to come here and I don't know why. But we have those little individual cans of champagne, so they ordered that and had a good time.
At midnight, my boss didn't even offer us a drink! So I popped my bottle of champagne and the staff drank that."
"I got thrown up on one New Year's. I was bartending on the Lower East Side, and this guy ordered four shots of Jaeger. I handed them to him and he and his three friends took them all at once. Then he leaned across the bar to pay me and 'blechhhhhhhhhhh!'
It's not even worth the money to work on New Year's. A lot of the customers are people who don't usually drink ["Amateur night!" interjected the lone patron at the bar] so they can't handle their alcohol. Totally not worth it."
"I worked with dogs for 8 years and had to work all holidays. It was exhausting, considering work days usually lasted 10-12 hours depending on the day. We were always slammed for New Year's; I'd have to be at work at 7 a.m. on New Year's Day taking care of over 100 dogs. We had a staff of around 6 working New Year's, so each person was essentially taking care of 20 dogs, many of whom got stress diarrhea from the fireworks at midnight. It sucked. Bad."
