"As soon as I got behind the bar I panicked. There were perhaps half a dozen people waiting to order, but it looked like a sea of thousands. The bar was particularly tricky because it was shaped like the bow of a ship. Every time I went to one side, customers started calling from the other. I couldn't remember the faces. Nor the drinks they ordered. I took a funny turn. The faces became twisted, distorted, ghoulish, cackling manically or cursing my incompetence."
"The crowd staring at me got more Rosemary's Baby by the second. My bitter was headless; my lager all head. I broke another glass. I was getting dizzy, struggling to breathe. My legs were collapsing. After half an hour, the manager put me out of my misery. He told me that I wasn't cut out for this line of work and he was going to have to let me go."
A young man in his early 20s began a first shift at the Friendship Inn with confidence in pub conventions. Once behind the ship-bow shaped bar, a small queue felt overwhelming and customers calling from both sides intensified confusion. Visual perception distorted into menacing faces and orders blurred, triggering severe panic. Drink orders were repeatedly wrong and multiple glasses broke. Physical symptoms escalated to dizziness, breathlessness and collapsing legs. After about half an hour the manager dismissed him and refused pay. Disoriented and humiliated, the man struggled to find the hatch and paced in circles before leaving.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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