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Outback Steakhouse Fires Waitress After she Complained on Facebook that a church group left no tip on a $735 carry-out order

 

01
From Daily Mail:

An Outback Steakhouse server has been fired after complaining on Facebook that a church group left her no tip on a $735 carry-out order.

Tamlynn Yoder, 25, said she spent most of her shift on Wednesday putting together the 75-item order for Christ Fellowship at the Outback where she worked in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

'We take the order over the phone, we put the order together, take payment and then take order to the car,' Yoder told the Palm Beach Post. 'It's a lot of work just as much as serving.' 

Yoder said she made just $18 in tips during her shift since she spent most of her time on the church's order of 25 steaks, 25 chickens and 25 potatoes.

She took to Facebook to complain that Christ Fellowhip had stiffed on the tip, though she didn't identify where she worked. But when a friend saw her post he urged her to take it down and said he'd contact Christ Fellowship directly to see if they'd remedy the situation.

The next day, Yoder came in to work and was told that Christ Fellowship had been refunded the entire $735, and she was fired.

02An Outback spokeswoman told the Post that Yoder had violated a company policy prohibiting employees from talking about customers online.

The church said that they had contacted the restaurant after hearing the complaint from Yoder's friend to see about getting a tip to her, and never intended for her to be fired. 

The minimum wage for tipped employees in Florida is $5.23 an hour. Although opinions vary on tipping for carry-out orders, Yoder says it's a must. 

'Coming in to eat or takeout, you should automatically be wanting to tip 15 per cent,' she told WFLX. 'From there you either go up or you go down, based on service.'

Christ Fellowship said their policy is to tip on carry-out orders, but that their volunteer wasn't aware of that.

'Thank you all very much for expressing your concerns,' the church said in a statement on Facebook. 

'We are sorry to hear about this situation and our leaders have been notified about it. We value our local business partners and those who work in their establishments—many of whom are members of our church—and it is customary for us to leave a generous tip whenever we pick up a carry-out order. 

'They will be looking into what happened in this instance. We are reaching out directly to the people affected.'

Yoder said she had heard from Christ Fellowship and thanked them for reaching out.

She is currently seeking a new job. 

read more on Daily Mail

 

 

 

 

Comments

TechTyger

This is another one... why am I expected to pay extra for the basic function of the store? "I buy food. You hand me food." Sitting at a table, the waitress has to do extra work, sure... I still hate tipping for that, but do it because in that case it's necessary, but if I'm doing most of the work involved in a carry out order (Pick up at counter. Leave.) then why is a tip expected?

Tipping needs to die. Preferably painfully, but I'll settle for 'ded'.

Kai Lowell

This appears to be curbside pickup ("'We take the order over the phone, we put the order together, take payment and then take order to the car,' Yoder told the Palm Beach Post.") but other than that, yeah, you're exactly right. Tipping needs to go choke, but that will never happen till waiters and waitresses are actually paid a living wage.

Gothchickfla

I used to live a couple of cities away from this Outback! I used to take trips to the stores around that place on my bike. That curbside service got *a lot* of work during lunch.

TechTyger

I'd be happy for them to be paid more and for the food to cost the little bit more it would need to to cover it... just to stop the blackmail feeling of eating in a restaurant, or going somewhere like a coffee shop...

plus.google.com/108073606865059711666

I agree that tipping is a horrible custom that needs to go away. It is well documented that it actually *reduces* the quality of service. (Because poor service has very little effect on tips. The only way for a waitress to increase her income is to handle more tables. Double the number of tables, double the tips, minus, on average, about 10% for crappy service.)

But until we kill it with fire, very few wait staff makes anywhere near enough to live on without tips, and in many cases, actually pay income tax on 15% whether they get it or not.

Don't blame the staff, blame management who refuse to raise their prices and pay a living wage. And customers who get bent out of shape over not being allowed to tip, because then they can't treat the waitress like shit, and treating retail employees like shit is the only way some people *ever* feel like they matter. (You wouldn't believe the complaints restaurants get when they go to no tipping policies.)

TechTyger

I don't blame the waitpeople, (except in this case, and she got rather harshly punished for it, even though she did something stupid...) and I'd rather some people piss and moan about NOT tipping than my having TO tip. :P

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