O'Neills, Blackheath

I agree with the post below. I work in O'Neills and am so relieved that the 'chavalanche' finally seems to be receding (and we'll keep working on it till the bigoted burberry boys are a thing of the past). Our boss is doing a brilliant job in turning it all around and I haven't seen such a quick improvement in the place in all the time I've worked there, so give it a chance.

As for 7 June anonymous, it's a shame you got a bad impression. However, you must have come in on a Friday or Saturday night and perhaps conveniently neglected to notice the sheer volume of people we have to serve. It gets pretty stressful and we often have to deal with abuse from customers (usually without good reason, and never something that should be tolerated by anyone, let alone us). That's why we may not have looked too happy or, as 2pinttommy rightly said, we're just busy getting the drinks sorted.

I feel that, though I like the bulk of customers coming through our doors, the behaviour and attitudes of some can be just as much open to criticism as the staff, if not more so, and you've simply proved that by tarring all of us with the same negative brush.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm trying to justify any of us and how we supposedly come across. I enjoy working there and it seems to me that everybody else does, too. Most customers (especially the regulars) can see that a mile off.

Plus the new boss has really brought our morale up and reinforced the strong team spirit that makes this such a good pub to work in in the first place.

As for the comment about staff not knowing what a shandy is, that's admittedly a poor show! But a load of new staff have just started and are doing their best so, again, give them a chance to learn the ropes.

Well I've written way too much, but if you're still with me, I've got to say that I've worked in many a pub before and never would even have considered posting some comment on some site about any of them, as I couldn't have cared less. But this one's different - I've never had a job like it. All the staff are great (and the customers ain't half bad either). That's why I get frustrated with the negativity surrounding this place. It's unjustified, unfair and untrue.

10 Jul 2005 16:58