Im currently working as a bouncer right now, my first night ended up a brawl involving 20 drunks and 8 of us bouncers, a bloke ended up in a coma and the shit went on even after the cops arrived. Still doing it right now for a living, but lets just say that there is a lot more action than i ever imagined, even after years of clubbing I never realized how many drunken fights occur until i was actually sober and being paid to end them.
Is the ghost of Jeff Heally playing in the background?
That was an excellent read, thanks Danno. It fortified my resolve to never be a bouncer or have to work with drunk/high people in any capacity.
it got easier to be physical at first. but the event i described was a kind of turning point. i still felt incredibly angry for the next few weeks that i was working, but i really didn’t want to be there and deal with that stuff any more. i didn’t care for the safety of others, didn’t care if they were trying to kill each other.
throughout the job my friends were noticing a change in me. even at training i was getting more aggressive in a bad way, finding it hard to hold back on the new guys and so on. i think that when you’re getting to this point, it’s harming your mind.
good luck with your work though. stay safe and sane, everyone who does this kind of job.
Deep story.
They make elastic work boots in Australia??
[quote=IrishLuck422;2145214]Deep story.
They make elastic work boots in Australia??[/quote]
i thought they were common everywhere?
From one ex-guard to another, deep respect, the job is quite shitty for the amount we get payed to do.
I worked at embassies, parties and stores.
Thankfully the number of nut jobs i met was far less, except at the parties because of alcohol and women. However the party makers wanted me to just stand outside for 6 hours, making sure people saw me and didnt try anything funny. Some things were going on inside and there was some crying, fighting and emotional drunk break ups but they decided to handle it themselves, for which i am thankful.
However i hated, and i mean HATED working at the embassies, those things fucking sucked. First part was that diplomats and politicians always treated you like dogs, you were a $10 / hour slave (yes, $10, you thought you got payed well, fuck no). Their attitude was very abusive and snobby, the problem was that unlike a drunkard being a cunt to you that you could just reach a boiling point and after restrain with some accidental ooops elbows and knees, these faggots had political protection and couldnt be touched.
For the most part the visitors and people seeking visas behaved quite well, problem is that they are still citizens of the country the embassy represents, as such you still couldnt go off in their face if they acted stuck up too, and the occasional actual looney bins who did come in saying they are long lost princess’s of that country, are usually so old that forcefully removing without harming them wasnt possible. Although we had many other guards, the underpaying and treatment made everyone reluctant to help unless ordered to, so we werent watching each others backs, nobody really wanted to be there.
Some of my friends worked as bouncers at night clubs, they got shot and stabbed, and would tell me stories about how they would take people to the back door and throw them out after a beating or would stomp drunkards down the stairs, when i was new to the proffesion those stories shocked me and i wanted to be the good model guard. 8 months later i would “accidentally” fall on my elbows at someone when taking them down to restrain, it just reaches a point where all that anger and frustration either eats you up on the inside or you start eating other people, i chose the 2nd for a while. Later on i quit and felt like a huge weight got off my chest.
Now its summer time and tuition fees still need to be payed for next year, it has been 2 months and i have yet to get a job. If i dont get a call next week for a job interview as an office clerk or something, i will have to go back to my old job … sadly … FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.
shit aussie’s are some savage mother fuckers…
Now we know what happens when you give the lower classes protein.
wow, great story, danno, glad you’re working something better.
ps: i also find myself using caps less.
Tough story bro. I can relate.
I must say, though, you broke a cardinal rule of the bounce:
Once you tie a guy up, you drag him to the door. Going to the ground inside ends in the type of stalemate you described. Of course…being as understaffed as you were, it’s not your fault. You should have had backup.
WHen I had to toss a guy, I would tie him up and start moving toward the door immediately, dragging him if I had to. But I always had help…
The real tragedy here is what you were expected to achieve without the proper manpower.
Ideally, you would have one staff per 50 patrons. Realistically, I would have severe reservations about working anywhere that had less than one guy per 100 patrons.
Man up, you fucking pussy, you get to beat down motherfuckers all day and you complain about that shit? What ze fuck, Mohammed? Spare a thought for the office drone motherfucker who has to bottle up all his feelings because he has to sit behind some fucking desk all day and feels robbed of his manhood and his humanity.
Kidding. Fuckin’ A, dude. Great story. Full of emotion and shit. I quite enjoyed it.
Incidentally, dude, dude. Look on the bright side, I mean in addition to learning and growing from your experience, getting out of that fucked up security gig and working a better job. Really, now you’re like fucking Kwai Chang Caine, because you understand, violence, have experienced it, and you can lay it on motherfuckers thick. But you choose not to, because you know of the damage and destruction practicing it can cause. So now, you can spread the word to young bucks who are full of testosterone and aggression and want to take motherfuckers to war.
Dude, dude, dude.
The Legend Continues.
i actually did - picked him up and carried him outside, past the foot path and on to the street where i held him down for a bit cos he was spazzing out, then let him up hoping he would leave.
did i not say that in the article? haven’t read it for a while, hope i didn’t forget to tell that part.
[quote=Scrapper;2211862]The real tragedy here is what you were expected to achieve without the proper manpower.
Ideally, you would have one staff per 50 patrons. Realistically, I would have severe reservations about working anywhere that had less than one guy per 100 patrons.[/quote]
even with 50, i’d want more than one guard. there were only about this many people in the place at the time.
the other thing was that a high percentage of the patrons were a little unhinged. the last night i worked there, i was asked to remove this guy who had about 15kg on me (more than 30lbs) and refused to put his glass down. so for about 25 minutes i stood there trying to negotiate with this crazy guy who was yelling insults at everyone in the place. i refused to touch him because i didn’t want to get glassed, i didn’t feel my health was worth the money they paid me. oh yeah, and he also had a friend with him standing a few feet away just watching. this guy was a lot bigger than me too.
eventually he blew off all his steam and just walked out on his own.
i refused to work there again, and the manager didn’t want me back anyways.
that place went though just about every guard in the town. either she’d fire them or the guard would quit. they often didn’t last more than a couple of nights. she expected it to work like a bruce lee movie or something.
I guess if you feel bad about hurting people you shouldn’t be a guard in the first place.
no - if you don’t feel bad about hurting people you shouldn’t be a guard.
I’m just curious; can’t you just call the police at that point?
after about 20 min the manager called for another security guard to come. just as he arrived, the guy was leaving.
she totally expected me to remove the guy myself, and seemed very reluctant to call anyone.
It’s amazing how alcohol will unleash latent anger, primal anxiety, and the very high insecurities of people. It’s really sad actually that so many males (and females but I’ll use males as an example) have that aggression in them and it is not dispersed, expressed, or vented in a productive and constructive way. I believe this goes back to the primal instincts that have been genetically encoded into our cells, in order to maintain drive for survival, the hunt, protection of friends and family ( these two examples being the modern tribe), and the absolute need for reproduction. This of course seems to be enhanced and truly built ,though, through life experiences that are of the negative end. Your environment does have an effect on you, which is why childhood experiences and lessons play such a pivotal role in the future development of our ego and the wiring of our brain towards situations. Especially when it concerns combat with fellow males. Now I am talking from my experience and what I have learned over my martial arts training and the fights I have been in over my young life. That is why I believe the martial arts is, perhaps, the greatest physical craft that you can participate in because, of the teachings I’ve received on human violence, mortality, survival, mental development and emotional perseverance. Your story really hit home with me, because I feel that I can empathize with your feelings on the state of male aggression and our dark nature. Thank you for sharing your story.
I guess it’s an old thread, but since it’s been bumped I’ll throw my $0.02 in anyway.
As far as the OP goes, I say good job and well deserved. I spent 10+ years in nite club security and am 300-0 on the street. Never once did I lose a minutes rest worrying about some drunk asshole. I’m glad your BJJ helped you out, but for anyone else in the business , I highly, HIGHLY recommend Judo. Never have I ever seen anyone get up from an ippon on the street/parking lot. Once you get Judo’d you STAY Judo’d. Ground fighting is ill-advised in a multiple-attacker situation and any kind of striking, while effective, also looks bad from a PR perspective.
If you are finding that the job is getting to you and effecting your personal life, GET OUT!! There are plenty more things one can do with their life. It’s a vicious circle, being constantly angry will only cause you more problems at work, which will only make you more angry.
Remember, Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.