I'm 6 shifts into dancer life and I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. When I was hired the manager breezed through certain rules, and I remember her mentioning that if you wanted to keep yourself off stage, it cost $30 per hour. At the time, I figured the only reason you'd need to do that would be if you felt like not being on stage.
Fast forward to last week. I arrived at 8 on a Friday, and it was so dead but there were tons of dancers already there. I didn't start making headway with a customer til 10, and I hadn't gone on stage ONCE in the two preceding hours. Whatever, I figured, I don't really love or hate being on stage, so I didn't mind. I'd only met that DJ once before, and he'd seemed so heavily on drugs that I assumed he was just super confused.
Anyway, around 10 I headed upstairs to the LD area with a customer. I turned to the DJ and waved so he knew where I went. He waved back. I couldn't believe that the customer wanted to keep going, and all told, he spent 4 hours with me.
Around 2am when the customer and I settled up at the bouncer/dance counter's desk, the DJ walked up to me. He needed to speak to me when I was finished. He headed back downstairs and even the customer raised his eyebrow at the interaction. He pointed out that the DJ had acted like I was in trouble, which was just awkward.
Back downstairs, I went to find the DJ who was positively tweaking out.
He launched into a tirade of what I'd done wrong. "You were supposed to pay for the time you weren't on stage," he said.
I was confused.
"I covered for you! I covered for you since 8! Everyone knows what's going on because we have walkie talkies."
I had to set him straight. "I showed up at 8 and didn't go upstairs til 10. YOU didn't put me onstage during that time. And what was I supposed to do? Break the moment with a great customer? How was I supposed to know he was going to spend that much?" (the club doesn't have VIP or champagne rooms)
I genuinely wanted to know what I SHOULD have done, but the DJ couldn't seem to process an answer for me.
He kept saying that he'd helped me out THIS time, but he never told me what I could do in the future to avoid the same situation. (soooo he wants me to pay him extra for his "good deed"?)
I kept asking for a solution to the situation but it became clear I wouldn't get one.
I would've asked a manager about it, but didn't want to get myself in trouble.
Later and without mentioning specifics, I asked an honest dancer acquaintance what she thought about that DJ and what she usually tipped him.
She shook her head. "It depends with that guy... sometimes he's a dick and doesn't put me on stage AT ALL! Hate that shit!"
I didn't say anything else to her about it.
Instead, I tipped him a normal amount--not more or less than what I was going to tip him--and headed out.
I know I'm new to this industry, and I know I'm going to make a certain amount of mistakes. And yeah, I know I'm probably easily manipulated just cause I don't fully understand how everything works.
What I want to know is, what do you all think of this? How could I have handled this better? How should I handle this in the future?

