After getting a hefty $4,400 tip from a very kind client she was serving, a server was dismissed. The Arkansas restaurant’s Ryan Brandt was serving a group of more than 40 business executives when she received the modest sum of money as payment for her assistance.
While there is currently a lot of discussion surrounding proper tipping behaviour, I think the majority of us can agree that a starting point of anywhere between 10% and 12.5% is generally a good idea. However, after handing the waitress thousands of dollars in cash, it’s obvious that this particular group of diners really took tipping to the next level.
One of the dinner guests, Rebecca Soto, later posted the exciting occasion to Instagram with the caption: “I’m humbled to have been a part of something so lovely and wonderful. to bless someone else without having met them first.
The incident occurred in early December, 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 is disgusting that the manager insisted on splitting the tip after the meal outing’s planner claimed he had confirmed with the restaurant in advance that servers do not split tips so that all the money would go to Brandt, the server he had specifically requested and who had previously served him. (The restaurant disputed that he had called ahead, according to local news site WKNA.)
Furthermore, if the restaurant fired her for discussing the tip with a customer, as she claims, that is unconscionable. But this fairy tale leaves out or downplays the true horror of what happened, even in the endearing scene where the brave patrons launch a fundraising campaign for the now unemployed server.
