Applebee’s Waitress – An Applebee’s waitress has been fired after posting a picture of the tip that a pastor left on a co-workers receipt.
They always say to be careful what you post on the internet, but these days it seems like everything gets you fired whether it’s a violation of someone’s privacy or not. Perhaps the only way to keep your job safe at this point is to just avoid social media all together…?
For one Applebee’s waitress she was simply trying to make the best out of a rather rude, yet “comical” tip that was left for one of her co-workers by a pastor.
The pastor, who has been identified as Alois Bell, crossed out the automatic 18 percent tip that the restaurant added since her party was well over eight people.
In place of the tip she wrote, “I give God 10%, why do you get 18?”
After the remark she filled in the line for any additional tip with a big zero before adding the title “Pastor” above her signature.
Chelsea Welch, the waitress who posted a picture of the receipt, told The Consumerist that posting the tip was just a “light-hearted joke.”
After all, you have to give the waitresses props for simply laughing off the matter instead of purposely trying to slander the pastor’s name.
“I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical,” Welch said. “I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining.”
Well the pastor didn’t take too kindly to the “light-hearted joke” so it didn’t take her long to complain to management about the receipt being posted online.
It all started when a friend of Bell’s contacted her and informed her that her tip (or lack thereof) went viral.
While the waitress claims she didn’t mean any harm to be done, the customer claims that posting her “lapse” in “character and judgment” has brought her shame already.
“[It was] a lapse in my character and judgment,” she said. “My heart is really broken. I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”
Despite the fact that the pastor has openly admitted that the rude “tip” was a result of her own lack of judgment the restaurant has still decided that the customer is always right.
“Out Guests’ personal information – including their meal check – is private, and neither Applebee’s nor its franchisees have a right to share this information publicly,” Applebee’s spokesperson Dan Smith wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “We value our Guests’ trust above all else. Our franchisee has apologized to the Guest and has taken disciplinary action with the Team Member for violating their Guests’ right to privacy. This individual is no longer employed by the franchisee.”
The waitress, along with several others who have heard the story, don’t agree with the restaurant’s decision however.
“When I posted this, I didn’t represent Applebee’s in a bad light,” the fired waitress wrote. “In fact, I didn’t represent them at all. I did my best to protect the identity of all parties involved. I didn’t break any specific guidelines in the company handbook – I checked.”
So if she didn’t violate any rules in the handbook and she didn’t even reveal that the receipt was from Applebee’s, why is she getting fired?
According to her she believes the customer’s own embarrassment is the only reason behind her unemployment.
“But because this person got embarrassed that their selfishness was made public, Applebee’s has made it clear that they would rather lose a dedicated employee than lose an angry customer,” Welch continued. “That’s a policy I can’t understand.”
She also went on to explain that she had no cruel intentions in the first place.
“I had no intention of starting a witch hunt or hurting anyone,” she said. “I just wanted to share a picture I found interesting. I come home exhausted, sore, burnt, dirty and blistered on a good day. And after all that, I can be fired for ‘embarrassing’ someone who directly insults their server on religious grounds.”
She also admitted that she doesn’t necessarily feel bad for posting the tip. At the end of the day, if the pastor wrote it down it suggests that she wanted it to be seen.
“If this person wrote the note, obviously they wanted it seen by someone. I’ve been stiffed on tips before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Big Man used as reasoning.”
Several petitions, including one by the Huffington Post, have been started to urge the restaurant to give the waitress her job back.
