Drink Safety: The Bar Code, Unattended Drinks and the Sober Buddy

Arrange a code with the bartender so that the drinks customers buy you arrive without alcohol, never drink anything that did not travel straight from the bar to your hand, and work with at least one dancer who is staying sober that night. Drunk dancers earn less, get fired for intoxication, and are the easiest target in the room; a dancer who is sober at 2am is sharper, safer and richer than the one who drank her hustle, and the customer buying the drinks never needs to know.

Safety first: control what's in the glass

Two risks, both real. The first is simply getting drunk at work, which is where most incidents dancers describe begin: judgment goes, the hands rule goes, the money gets miscounted, and the walk to the car gets dangerous. Dancers Information's harm-reduction guidance for dancers is blunt that intoxicated nights earn less and that clubs do fire for it. The second is the drink itself. No fetched source covers spiking in a club setting specifically, and it is rare, but the rule every dancer passes to every new one is the same: a drink you did not watch being made and did not carry yourself is not yours any more. Accept drinks from the bar, not from the table.

The bar code

Most clubs expect you to accept drinks, and some clubs pay you a cut on them, which makes refusing both awkward and expensive. The answer is a code with the bar. Gemma Rose set one up at every club she worked; Jacq the Stripper's version was to sip a single drink all night. The mechanics are simple. You tell the bartender before the shift: when I order my usual, make it without the spirit. "Vodka soda" becomes soda and lime. "Champagne" becomes sparkling water in a flute, or a glass the bar pours short. The customer pays full price, the club takes its cut, and you stay clear.

Make the arrangement with each bartender, not just one, and tip them for it; a bartender who keeps your code is doing you a service. If a customer insists on tasting your drink or watching it poured, that is an unusual level of interest in what is in your glass, and the correct response is to lose interest in him.

Can I say no to a drink a customer buys me?

Yes, and most customers do not mind. "I'm working, I'll take a water and you can tip me the difference" is a line vets use, and some men prefer it, because they are paying to be with someone who is present. Where the club expects the drink sale, use the code rather than refusing. Where a customer takes offense at a refusal, he has told you he wanted you drunk, which is information. Blame the club if it helps: "They breathalyse us, I can't," or simply, "One a night, that's my rule."

Unattended means gone

A drink you set down to do a set, go to the dressing room or dance for someone else is a drink you do not return to. Get a fresh one. This feels wasteful once; it feels normal within a week. Ask the bartender to hold your drink behind the bar while you are on stage. If you are at a table and need to leave, take the glass with you or leave it for good. The cost of a new soda water is nothing; the cost of the alternative is the night.

Why do dancers earn less when they drink?

Because selling is a sober skill. Reading the room, pricing with confidence, holding the hands rule, keeping your count, noticing the man who has stopped paying attention: all of it degrades with every drink. Dancers Information notes that customers can sense when a dancer is off and that staying sharp is part of staying safe, and vets add that the drunk dancer is the one who gives free time, discounts the room and forgets to collect first. The club's breathalyser, where there is one, is enforcing something that is also in your financial interest. The drink hustle, selling bottles for a commission, is a separate skill from drinking them, and /advice/the-drink-hustle-done-sober covers doing it well without touching the product.

The sober buddy

Pair with one dancer each shift who is staying clear, and agree to look out for each other: who is with whom, who looks unsteady, who is leaving with whom. Dancers Information recommends partnering with a sober friend for the drive and the walk out, and the same friend is useful at midnight when you are not sure if the room has shifted. It does not have to be the same person every night. It does have to be someone who will tell you when you have had enough and who will not let you drive if you have.

Tired is the other kind of drunk. A double shift with no sleep makes the same decisions a third drink does. If you are exhausted, that is a reason to cut the shift (see /advice/when-to-cut-a-dead-shift), and it is certainly a reason not to drive; the taxi routine in /advice/leaving-the-club is for this night too.

What about drugs?

They are everywhere in some clubs, customers offer them, and some dancers use them to get through nights that are hard to get through. The safest position is not to, and the dancers who write most frankly about the job, Gemma Rose among them, say that using to cope is the start of the decline they saw in others and that help is easier to get early. If you do use, the harm-reduction principles in Dancers Information's guidance apply: never from a customer, never at work, never mixed with the alcohol you are pretending to drink, and never before the drive. Clubs fire for it, licensing bodies close clubs for it, and a dancer who is high is the one the grabby customer picks.

Do this tonight

• Set up your drink code with every bartender on shift and tip them for it.
• Pick a sober buddy and agree to check on each other at midnight and at the end.
• Never go back to a drink you left; order a fresh one.
• Decide your limit before the shift and have the buddy hold you to it.