Waitress Fired For Complaining About Tip On Facebook

22-year-old Ashley Johnson lost her job after she complained about a poor tip on Facebook. She felt the $5 tip from a couple who had sat in her section for 3 hours was a joke, and wrote about it on the social networking site. From the article: "Brixx officials told Johnson a couple of days later that she was being fired because she violated a company policy banning workers from speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network." Silly Ashley, as everyone who has worked in a restaurant can tell you, complaining on Facebook isn't the answer. If you want to get back at bad customers you overcharge them, or put something in their food.

Comments

Boohoo

[SeNtM]

Boohoo. I was in a restaurant for a few hours recently, the waitress forgot our drink order twice (each time taking 15-20 minutes), gave our dinner order to another couple (incidently, it was a sushi place and the couple was ignorant to what they were eating), and then didn't bother to apologize or tell us we would be waiting (thirsty) for another 30 minutes. She was only waiting on 4 other tables. I made it a point to sit at the table till after she picked up the receipt so I could see her face when she looked at the $1 tip on a $90 check.

I was in good company so the wait didn't really bother me. But when the service is bad the tip is how you show it. People feel so entitled to getting money without doing the work to deserve it.

On the reverse side of the coin, when a waitress does well, I don't hesitate to leave 25%...

Re:Boohoo

[SeNtM]

Because it is so ingrained. If I left nothing, I would appear like a tourist (I am in Orlando after all). By leaving a single dollar, I believe I sent her a message.

Australia is an entirely different animal, especially in regard to minimum wage (I believe you call it fair-pay). The rate exchange for AUD/USD is something like 1:0.85. And after conversion, your minimum-wage (14.31AUD) is over twice that of the US (7.25USD).

However, this US minimum-wage requirements don't apply to "tipped" employees. They get a special minimum wage of 4.19USD (4.89AUD). And restaurants do not pay waiters/waitresses over minimum...ever.

But you are right, in the recent years even I have become amazed at the gall of some businesses/people. You can find tip jars at fast-food restaurants, coffee shops...I think I even remember seeing one at a gas-station recently. I will reward someone for service if they do a good job, but I refuse to put a single cent in the tip jar of a cashier that handed me a hamburger...and who wasn't even the one to throw the burger patty in the microwave before placing it between two stale peices of bread to warm under a heat lamp for 10 minutes before I even placed the order.

Alright, I'm joking here...the burger was likely under the heat lamp for 30 minutes before I ordered.