There’s an unpalatable restaurant story making the rounds this week, frequently under a headline like: “Waitress fired after generous $2,200 tip turns sour.” On the face of it, it’s an easy narrative of a good deed gone wrong. But under the surface, it exposes everything that’s terrible about restaurant tipping.
This fairy tale, including the heart-warming finale in which the gallant diners started a crowdfunding page for the now out-of-work server, omits or ignores the true awfulness of what happened.
The incident occurred in early December when a group of more than 30 diners contributed to a $4,400 tip to be split between their two servers at the Oven and Tap in Bentonville, Arkansas. But then one of the servers, Ryan Brandt, told the diners that her manager said the tip had to be shared with all staff, with only 20 percent going to her. Then she was fired. (The restaurant issued a statement saying it wouldn’t disclose the reason she was let go.) So we’ve got an easy-to-hate villainous restaurant manager, a victim the audience can identify with — she has student loans to pay off! — and a whole squadron of heroes. All of which obscures what’s actually wrong with this story.
Yes, it’s gross that the manager insisted on dividing the tip after the organizer of the meal outing said he had contacted the restaurant in advance to confirm that servers do not share tips so all the money would go to the server he'd requested, Brandt, who'd waited on him previously. (The restaurant...
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