If you have spent any time in North Dakota bars, you have probably witnessed an altercation or two. Witnessing a bar fight can be intense, but imagine being in the shoes of the staff at these bars when all hell breaks loose. Should North Dakota bar staff get training on how to deal with such extreme situations?

There have been multiple instances of fatal violence at North Dakota bars.

This question stems from the Inforum article about the lawsuit against Fargo's Hotel Donaldson (HoDo). Back in 2017, a fight outside HoDo that ended fatally resulted in a lawsuit against the hotel because employees "hadn’t received any training from any bar or restaurant they previously worked at that would help them handle altercations, nor did those establishments have policies for those situations." And Valley News Live reported a similar fatal incident that happened on August 20, 2021.  As it turns out, "only 30% of the U.S. requires some type of training or certification for handling bar altercations."

Why should employees be expected to intervene in patrons' physical altercations?

I am kind of "middle of the road" with my thoughts on bar fight preparedness. While I do think it is probably important for all bars to have some sort of policy and procedure on employees handling bar fights, why should it be expected that employees intervene? They should not have to control grown people who choose to go out and act inappropriately. I have never worked in a bar, but I have about 10 years of experience in customer service, and I was always taught to professionally handle unruly people, but never to actually engage with someone who is violent.

 

Anywhere I have worked, employees were not to engage in physical altercations with customers. In fact, we were trained not to engage with violent people at all, we were supposed to call the police and try to be safe. Why should bartending be the one customer service profession where employees have to be put in harm's way to prevent or stop violent acts?

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