Please stop being rude to me just because I’m a club promoter

There's nothing worse than walking through your university's open areas as you're heading to lectures and being confronted with the sea of promoters with a handful of leaflets, right?

It can be a pain when you're on four hours sleep and six hours of lectures and seminars are the last thing you need, let alone a flyer being waved in your face by an overly enthusiastic club promoter.

However, I think it's fair to say that of all the standard jobs a student can get, promotions staff definitely get the full brunt of student frustration on nights out, even if it is just in passing. So, from someone who's worked on promotion, here's some of the stock phrases and situations we have to put up with most shifts.

'Give me a load of flyers and I'll chuck them in the bin for you'

Don't get me wrong, we appreciate your desire to give us a hand. However, when most of the leaflets that are handed back at the door of the club are commission based and add a couple more quid to the minimum wage we're getting paid, we'd more than likely want to hand them out, but thanks for the offer anyway.

Promoters, promoters everywhere!

Getting eye contact and being completely blanked

What happened to a standard "no thanks"? C'mon it's not that hard! If you acknowledge our existence when we're stood out in the cold on the concourse, you're not contractually obliged to take a flyer. So don't worry, we're not going to harangue you until you take one.

Being told to 'fuck off'

Again, just saying "no thanks" is perfectly acceptable. I'm pretty sure that in most other lines of work, you wouldn't get this. You can normally tell the people that don't want to be spoken to, so you leave them well alone, but there is always someone who will catch you off guard and come back with this pleasant response. So, unless you're not one for making a reasonable impression on people, I'd avoid using this one.

Watching people walk to the other side of the road to avoid you

To quote the Elephant Man, "I'm a human being". Crossing the road just to avoid an "Interested in one pound off at (insert club name here)?" is probably worse than telling us to fuck off. At least we're being noticed instead of purposely avoided like some kind of social outcast.

Having people insult the club you work for

No matter what genius joke you come up with in your drunken state, we've heard them all before, it's nothing special. You're insulting my workplace, not something deeply personal to me, so it's a bit of a wasted effort anyway.

Laughing in my face when I offer you a leaflet

There's nothing more demeaning than this. It's normally from someone in a group and they do it to 'impress' their mates, but most of the time, it doesn't work. Most of the time, it's from the drunks en route to the club, however, when it's the sober ones laughing at you as soon as you mention the name, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth. Although, from experiencing this and everything else listed above, it's not that deep.

To be fair, working on promo isn't that bad. Shifts are pretty short and most of the time, people are alright with you, even when it is freezing outside and they just want to get to the warmth of the lecture theatre or the club.

But, if you could cut us some slack every now and then, that would be great and just think of all the great drinks deals and cheap entry we have to offer you.