Applebee's Waitress Fired Because Customer Can't Admit He's A Prick

[Niamh Moynagh]

READ THIS FIRST

This is absolutely ridiculous, how could she get fired for something that trivial? If the customer didn’t want to be ridiculed, he shouldn’t have written the note. I’m a bartender and a server myself, have been since I was 19. Personally I love my job - it’s fun, I get to meet new people, and a lot of my friends come into the bar I work at, so it’s almost like hanging out. But I constantly get stiffed on tips, especially working as a bartender. People think they can just walk away after paying for their drink and not tip at all and they’ll be greeted back like a prodigal son the next time they get thirsty? Rubbish. I make $3 and hour on top of tips and I work a 13 hour shift. Most nights I only make around $100. That adds up to about $7.69 an hour, just over federal minimum wage. That’s less than I make at my third part-time job, where I make $8.65/hour. The arrogance of this customer astonishes me, and Applebee’s cavalier attitude towards their employees infuriates me just as much.

[Niamh Moynagh]

Here, here!! Applebee's gets off scot-free, but a waitress, who in the original Reddit post doesn't even reference the restaurant she works at, gets fired. Lovely system we have here.. :P

[Sarah H]

I think what makes this story such a gut-punch to me is the way that the waitress is getting penalized for the policies of the restaurant.  The man who stiffed her was objecting (by refusing to pay) to the Applebee's policy of adding a mandatory gratuity to the bill.  But Applebee's doesn't lose money, she does.  And then she can't even point out the ridiculousness of the situation without getting fired.  I understand why they fired her: she made them look bad by association, and they don't want their employees to think it's ok to do that.  As for the customer, if he didn't stand by what he wrote, he should not have written it.

[Niamh Moynagh]

But that was what surprised me, if you look at the picture you can barely make out the guys signature - and obviously I'm being subjective when I'm calling him a prick, but in my opinion he could use a few years experience waiting tables for change and see if his attitude towards tipping changes after that. Apparently Applebee's only got involved after the customer complained about the photo to them and started demanding that everyone be fired.. I don't know what the best scenario would have been, all I know is that stuff like this happens everyday, and it's nice to hear about it from somewhere other than the smoking area for staff at the restaurant.

[Latch33570]

She opened herself up to this by posting it just as much as he did by writing that. Him being a PRICK, and that is apparently what he is, doesn't give her the right to be mean also. Why Applebe's got involved is beyond me. The picture doesn't have Applebe's name anywhere. She shouldn't have posted it anyway.  The classier thing would have been to just take it and grin certainly not post his signature and let people who are familiar with him know what he is.

[Sarah H]

Well, that makes a difference in how I react to this story.

[Niamh Moynagh]

we do but it doesn't apply to the service industry. We live off of our tips, which are supposed to compensate for the lack of wage. And most of the time it does, but it's still only minimum wage, or slightly above, and sometimes it absolutely does not compensate.

[Sarah H]

SHEESH. $3 an hour? Do you not have minimum wage??