A waitress in Arkansas who served a party of 40 was celebrated by the party and given a $4400 tip for doing a great job. Her boss informed her that she needed to share that tip with all of the other coworkers there. When she refused she was fired
Imagine you’re a waitress at a restaurant, not a bar, but a pretty nice place. And you’ve been working there for three and a half years, taking every shift possible to help pay down your student loans. Then a group of 40 people walk into the restaurant. They sit at your table. You and another waitress take all the orders. You make sure the guests are happy. You make sure their drinks are full and their requests are taken care of. And at the end of the meal, the CEO of the 40 person dinner group stands up and says in front of the entire restaurant, he holds the glass up and he puts his arm around you and he says, “Excuse me, I don’t want to take up the time of the patrons in the restaurant, but I want to thank our two waitresses who went above and beyond for us this evening. Each of us at this table, all 40 of us, have pooled $100 in cash. But we’ve also put it on our social media as well. In total, we want to give you and your other waitress $4,400. Here it is.”
And he hands you the wad of cash and then he yells out to the restaurant, Don’t forget to tip your waiters and waitresses. How would you feel if someone did that to you? You would probably cry. I know I would. You’d probably think this has been a hard year. I have bills and loans to pay off. A tip like that would literally change my life. And then your manager comes over to you and says that you got to share that 40 $400 tip with every other employee in the restaurant, even though you’ve never had to share your tips with anyone else before this moment. Why now? Your manager says, okay, okay, well, you can keep 20% of the tip, but no more than that. You ask for the money back? He gives it to you, and then he fires you.
That happened to a waitress in Arkansas. So we are tipping a total of 4000. She was actually fired for not sharing the tip with other employees at that restaurant. How does that make you feel?
How would you feel if this situation happened to you? Would you have shared the tip? Do you think that this woman should have been fired? Would you have left the job or would you have said to yourself, you know what? I know I’m just one small little part in this whole wheel. And, you know, the chefs deserve something and the busboy and, you know, the person, the host. And, you know, we should all share the tips. What would you do if you were given 40 $400 and then told to give it back or you’re fired?
