Bars can be dangerous places, especially for those of us who work behind them. Cuts, scrapes, burns, slips and falls are all quite common bar injuries, and sometimes bartenders suffer even weirder injuries like bar spoon puncture wounds. I’ve experienced many of these myself and I don’t know anyone in the industry who hasn’t. It’s common for injuries to not be treated correctly or quickly enough and often, bartenders will continue working with an injury even if they probably shouldn’t. All too often, I hear about bartenders taping themselves back together and finishing out a busy shift. My guest this week, Julie Kunz, even tells a story about a time she sustained a concussion and continued working the rest of the night. She didn’t go to the hospital until days later.
Julie has worked at many amazing bars in the Bay Area, including: Cafe du Nord(with Bon Vivants), Hard Water and the Michelin star Nico Restaurant. Julie has suffered many of the most common and uncommon bar injuries and is currently recovering from a foot injury at the time of recording. Because of this, we actually recorded this interview at her home in Oakland, Calif. (apologies in advance for the garbage truck noises in the background). It’s always morbidly fun to hear about gross injuries, and Julie had many great stories to share.
We were joined by registered nurse Andrew Campbell for this episode. Andrew began working in hospitals in 2004 and has recently transitioned to a career in personal training and holistic health coaching. He currently runs a personal training program called &Kettlebell. Andrew had a ton of knowledge to share about how the body works, how to treat injuries, when you should go to the hospital and some great tips on how to avoid fatigue and better take care of ourselves behind the bar.
Listen to my interview with Julie and Andrew in the player below or wherever podcasts are found, and read on after the break for a more in depth look at common bar related injuries and how to treat them.
Some important facts about bar injuries
Injuries are common at bars and restaurants where knives, peelers, ranges and ovens, torches, boiling hot liquids, slippery floors, hard surfaces and broken glass are all just tools of the trade. When you put it that way, a bar sounds more like a house of horrors or a teen slasher movie than a fun place to imbibe. Combine all of those dangers with fast paced, high volume service and alcohol use and you’ve got plenty of accidents waiting to happen. And that’s just the acute injuries—there’s a whole world of repetitive stress injuries, alcohol related conditions and long-term health problems that bartenders suffer from.
It’s hard to say exactly how often bartenders sustain injuries at work, as the research isn’t very specific or conclusive. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that three per every 100 industry employees sustained work related injury or illness, more than one per 100 cases resulted in lost time, transfer or restriction. Those numbers are based on the more than three million strong combined workforce of hospitality workers in any role. Those are only the reported cases though.