Krystalnacht…
Probably spelt it incorrectly, but well that night of long knives has come to an establishment near me. So here’s to a superbly entertaining Monday morning and the chance to watch as certain groups and individuals fight for their rights of continued employment. Some of them will probably make it, some of them don’t deserve to make it and the rest are pretty much in the hands of the Gods.
So, Saturday night a rather large (300+) ensemble of Kiwis descended for an “organised” event. Two licensees on site, 20+ catering staff and well apparently no security staff. Actually there was our regular night guard but he had been instructed by someone (me) to keep out of the way and try and make sure the building wasn’t looted or burnt to the ground. The backdrop historically to this fiasco is simply that Meetings and Events really don’t like the prospect of anyone saying no to a client. Hence no visible security and the M+E staff took control of such minor issues as fire checks, access and of course crowd management.
This heady cocktail of 300+, 19-24 year olds with an unlimited free bar from, 7pm - 2am and no-one with any actual balls attempting to manage them appears to have caused some disquiet this morning. Not that I view this personally as an issue of handing someone (or rather several people) a large piece of rope and seeing if they can figure out how to tie a noose or anything, but I do. So all in all quite an entertainment.
Edited highlights from internal CCTV and of course first hand reports are quite, quite stunning:
1. 3 ambulances called for post blunt trauma care;
2. Damage to several internal doors in attempts to be forced open by party goers;
3. Lifts having to be grounded and sealed to stop their use as small private spaces;
4. Formal complaint from a professor at a nearby University building complaining of noise;
5. Collection of 17 used prophylactics, scattered over two floors and including (a personal favourite here) one discovered under a table in the main lobby;
6. Reports (4 thereof) from, members of the catering and in house portering teams of drug use;
7. Positive swabs taken in various locales to be sent for discrete analysis, lots of “white powder”;
8. One 18th century oil painting now with an additional moustache and glasses;
9. Tannoyed announcement requesting the guests stop using class A drugs.
All this with two licensees paid to be on site and managing the event… Not that I’m a malicious and or curious sort but, for some reason whilst reviewing footage it was noted that at approximately 21.37 both the licensees were recorded getting into what can only be assumed is a minicab and leaving the premises… and yet no sign of their return. I can only assume that they were no more than 20 minutes away at any given point.
Similarly the Regulation section is about to have their first round of “Transition phase” reviews. Also known as the less than subtle instruction that now is the last chance to try for VR and anyone left over will be looking at two options. The majority of which will be redundancy.