Walkabout chiefs in job swap with barstaff

Fifty members of staff from the Walkabout sports bar in Renfield Street, Glasgow were treated to a night on the tiles last night as board members from the bar chain's London head office took over their shifts.

Twenty head office staff, including managing director-operations, Russell Scott, company secretary Claire Yarlett and Simon Kaye, commercial director, worked behind the bar and in the kitchens to allow the bar team a night on the town.

The trade-off was the prize in an incentive scheme run by Walkabout's parent company, Regent Inns.

The incentive rewarded the bar which achieved the highest percentage increase in sales during December, in a scheme which was run throughout the whole Regent Inns business - including Walkabout, Jongleurs Comedy Clubs and Old Orleans restaurants.

Walkabout Glasgow venue manager Matt Ford, who took his 50-strong team of bar-staff, chefs, waiting staff and cleaners out for dinner and then onto a nightclub, said: "It's not every day that head office offers to run your bar so the team really enjoyed it. I'm just pleased we had a bar left when we got back!"

Russell Scott added: "Matt's team have worked tremendously hard and had a very successful Christmas. Running their bar and sending them on a night out was the least we could do in return. However, working behind the bar was harder than some of us expected!"