I'm relatively new to dancing, and I've now worked at two clubs. The club I started at and consider to be my "home club" is no lap dance, no contact, gown club. Much of the money I make is off of conversation. We have private dances, but its pretty much the same as being on stage, except its in a VIP room. The other club I've worked at for a couple nights is similar to a deja vu club.
After experiencing the independent contractor lifestyle that goes along with the deja vu club, some of the things going on at my home club are seeming a little extra ridiculous and sketchy. I still make loads more at my home club, and like the club better in general, but I just want to see if anyone else has experienced these types of things/ has any input on them.
One night at my home club, a high roller came in and was absolutely sh*tfaced. As soon as he met me, he wanted to go upstairs for a private dance. I had never met the guy before, but had heard about him. Typically, we charge 100 up front for 10 min of a private dance (dancers take 50%), and in this case, I danced for 20 minutes while swatting away this guys paws because he was hammered and trying to be handsy. When I finished, I asked a staff member if they had charged him for the dances, because I absolutely was not dealing with that a-hole for free, high roller or not. The employee said yes, they had.
I continue to hang out with him in the VIP room, and a couple other girls come up to join and dance privately. They too, were under the impression that he had been/was going to be charged for each 10 min, or at least something for the 30 minutes we all did together at one point.
So drunken high roller pulls out lots of cash, and starts tipping. Since the money is everywhere and there are three of us dancing in the VIP area together, we decide during the dance to split it three ways after we tip out the bouncer and waitress who were there too. Because we want to stay up there, I put all of this money in a bucket or two, and bring it down to the managers office and ask him to hold it there for the three of us (dividing and counting in the dressing room right then would have taken way too much time away from making more money up there). He's happy to do so, and will run it through the counting machine for us at the end of the night.
When the end of the night rolls around, shady move number one happens: the manager is refusing to give us our cuts of the money I asked him to hold, because the club needed the singles for the rest of the week. I tell him I am NOT leaving with the money I MADE that night (it was about 800), and he says he'll get back to me with larger bills a little later. So I stick around for an extra 30 min after close, low and behold, he still won't give me the money and tells me to come pick it up tomorrow. I tell him that I also should have private dance money (the 50%) from the customer's cc.
Shady move number two: when being walked out by the bouncer, I find out that the customer was NEVER CHARGED FOR ANY OF THE DANCES. Because "he's such a high roller" is would be "embarrassing to ask him to pay for that, because he tips well". I can understand this a little, but, shouldn't the girls who danced have been told beforehand that they were working on tips alone for those 30+ min?!
I went back the next day, was hanging out with the owner of the club, and talking about all of this. He called the manager up, who said he still couldn't give me the money from the previous night. I wasn't happy and the owner could clearly see that. About 30 min later, the manager returns with my money.
My whole take on this is that it's super messed up to do this to your employees (we aren't independent contractors at this club). Is this true, or is this just a sad norm of working in the industry? Thoughts appreciated.


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