Chris Maclean: We must factor the fun back into the industry

I despair of the licensees who spend their time moaning. The government. The councils. The bins. The customers. Surely customers visit a pub because it is one of the few places where you can escape the day-to-day drudgery of life. This is for them. It is their sanctuary in a frustrating world.

This will probably generate criticism that I am in denial of the critical issues facing our industry. Not so. It is simply that we must, as a priority, factor the fun back into the industry.

The fun must be there on three levels; The customers must have fun. They need to feel invigorated from their visit. My own, personal, discovery of the need for pubs (from a customer's perspective) came many years ago. I'd finish work (I flogged insurance) around 9pm exhausted. I'd have had my fill of customers, bosses, products and so forth. I'd go straight home to discover my wife's list of horrors; the washing machine broken, the bath leaks, she's pregnant again. That sort of stuff. And amongst it I discovered the pub. A simple 20-minute sanctuary where I could have a pint, talk rubbish for a short while then go home ready to face what was next. A pub represented fun. It was escapism. Harmless, enjoyable fun.

Undoubtedly for any of this to occur, the staff must have fun too. It is inconceivable that fun could occur in a pub without the complete support of the staff. As an employer it is a constant source of delight to stand back and watch the staff having fun doing what they do. It is infectious. Give staff the opportunity and the motive to have fun and it is a delight to see how this spreads amongst customers. Some years ago, as a bonus to staff, I decided that one whole evening's takings should be given to the staff. (The brewery were generous which eased the pain.) But all six staff worked for one night and the takings were divided amongst them. I decided to take the night off. When I returned the pub was rammed full. The staff had worked their socks off, had taken a fortune and everyone was happy. It is not an exercise I've repeated but never, in all my years, have I seen so much fun being had by everybody in the pub. Fun makes everything worthwhile.

Finally, the licensee must have fun. Surely this is what makes it all worthwhile? Why would anyone take a pub on otherwise? There are plenty of stories of how disasterous it is to enter this trade. The risks to your health and wealth. Yet there remain people for whom the prospect of running a pub is their dream. I would suggest that, for many, this is because of the fun they see ahead of them. I wish them well.

In our town here I can think of a number of licensees who have additional jobs. Taxi driving. Working in shops. In the health service. Jobs they undertake because the pub itself probably isn't really viable. They do it because the pub cannot support them financially. So why would you work in another job to subsidise running a pub? It doesn't make sense.

The answer, I suspect, is simple. They do it because they love the pub. They do it because a pub is where you have fun. They do it because they want to have fun. Simple.