Teen restaurant employee busted for adding big tips for herself on orders. UPDATED
When you work service industry, you really have to trust and rely on your coworkers to make it through some shifts.
There are few benefits built into the job and sticking together and respecting each other is the best way to get by. So, when one woman found out that her coworker had been altering bills to give herself larger tips, she was shocked.
When she found out that her coworker had done it to her as well, she was livid. Reddit encouraged her to take action and her update shows how bringing the theft to light played out.
Takeout girl tipped herself using my credit card
So I work at a pretty busy, popular seafood restaurant. I just recently got hired about 2 weeks ago and was getting trained at the bar today. After my training session, I was scheduled to serve tables for the night. Between 3 and 4, I had my break.
So you need someone else to ring out your food for you and I asked the takeout specialist at the time. She rang in my order, cashed me out, and when I turned around she tipped herself 20% and said, “thanks for the tip!” With the SNARKIEST little smile on her face.
She’s a 17 year old high school girl who plays travel soccer. Takeout doesn’t usually make s@*t in tips, so they make more hourly. I acted like I didn’t care in the moment but man, that s&*t really irked me.
It was only $7 but Jesus man, that could’ve gone towards my employee meal for tomorrow or something. Any of the other servers would’ve kicked her sh*t in, they don’t play. It’s just a dumb situation because after today, I can’t bring it up again otherwise I look stupid for bitching about $7. Just sucks, you know? Really didn’t like that.
Readers were surprisingly familiar with this type of behavior.
So, when I was a server, there was an expectation that we'd tip the takeout person who got us our meals ordered and packed.
They also made less than minimum wage, and at some point, the restaurant started adding gratuities to employees' checks, on shift or off, after people would come in, use the employee 50% off discount, and tip less than 10% off the discounted price (we tipped out 3% of gross sales, before discounts but after tax).
I would never condone an employee taking a tip for themselves, and the hostess in question should be fired, but the idea that a tip might be the expectation in some restaurants isn't farfetched.
She probably wrote in in on paper like you do at restaurants. It probably could have been refunded back before the end of the night, but OP wasn’t really comfortable with dealing with it in the moment. I get that, I do the same thing sometimes and outweigh if it’s really worth it to complain or not.
The truth is you were a customer in the moment and she stole from a customer. She should have been fired and if this were not an employee I’m sure she would have been.
The fact that she did this to someone she has to see 3-5 days a week is even more egregious, but she was probably banking on OP just letting it go. Takeout girl will eventually get the business caught up in a bad situation.
Couldn’t be me, I commend OOP for staying calm in that situation, but I would have gone ballistic if some snotty 17-year-old tipped herself with my card.
Maybe I'm far enough removed from food service that I don't understand the politics anymore. But I'm also pretty motivated by schadenfreude, so I would have just called my credit card company and let their lawyers take care of it.
I'm usually very nice, but this would have been a time where I wasn't. I would have turned, calmly told her that she had ten seconds to return my money, then waited for her to get smart & cause a scene because I was treating her like an adult & not being a pushover or Karen when asking the thief to return what she stole.
My mission from that moment would be to make her regret ever stealing from me & get my $7 back. Don't mess with my money.
Wow, she did it so confidently too. Hope her soccer teammates have been checking their gym bags after meets, the girl is an unrepentant thief.
After reading the support from those who commented, the OP decided to take action and updated about it the next day.
Well, here it is. The very much requested update. First of all, I’d like to thank each and every one of you who took time out of your day to be there for me. I really didn’t expect the post to blow up like that and get so much attention.
I was just venting after a long day and the love I received in return was so overwhelming. I needed it. Every word. From every person. Thank you sincerely, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for reminding me of my worth.
So I went in today at 11:45. As I was clocking in, I managed to catch the General Manager in the office. I asked her if she had a moment, to which she said she did, and I asked if there was an unspoken rule where servers had to tip takeout for putting together employee meals. She said no, why?
I explained what happened yesterday and she apparently was already made aware of the situation. There were a few servers around who heard the whole thing go down, they vouched for me yesterday while I wasn’t around.
She offered my cash back and I explained that the money wasn’t my issue, it was the principle. She could be stealing from other employees, guests, who knows? My GM assured me that the issue would be addressed and taken care of.
I thanked her for her time and then proceeded to make it a mission of mine to tell the other two managers to ensure that everyone was made aware of what this girl is capable of doing when backs are turned.
They. Were. Astonished. Totally on my side, called it what it was, there was no sympathy for her. It was theft. Point blank period. They made sure all the managers were made aware of what happened and reassured me that this wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Dumb chick also didn’t help her case today. Managers caught an ear of her speaking to me in a disrespectful manner. All I had to do was make eye contact with them and there was a mutual understanding that this girl is really a problem.
Now as far as her punishment goes, I only know so much. She did get written up, she was spoken to in the office, and she ended up getting cut early from her position tonight. On the way out, gave me these angry little hissy-fit glares.
I laughed in her face, gave her the same little snarky smile that she gave me yesterday. She goes, “Just so you know, I really don’t care where I stand in your life.” I laughed again, louder this time, and said, “hey! Thanks for the tip! :)”
This story had a happy ending. I made really good money today, had lovely tables, and walked out feeling a lot better than I did last night. So thanks guys, I wouldn’t have done this without you. And I’m really happy that I did.
Readers responses ranged from similar stories to unabashed support or condemnation for bringing the theft to the attention of management.
“They vouched for me yesterday while I wasn’t around.” Good looking out by the other servers on shift there. Also, last I checked stealing “a little bit” isn’t cool either.
Management would be stupid to keep her on. She’s openly stealing them making staff aware of it. Really think she isn’t doing this to takeout customers who are in a rush and aren’t right in front of her as she closes tabs?
I think people are missing a crucial bit of information when asking why the tip stealer is still employed. The gm KNEW and did nothing while the other managers were not aware at all. I'm willing to put money on tip stealer and gm doing a little more than dish duty after work hours if they are willing to put an entire restaurant at legal risk like this...
Poor OOP, you’re not going to last in serving. GM hate when you come to them over things like this, and they fully expect you to work this out yourself. I learned early on unless I cut a finger off, or the customer requested I was to leave them alone.
That girl should have been fired that day. I'm betting she's done it a lot to other orders hoping they wouldn't notice. She f*#$ed up by rubbing it in another employee's face.
Written up? What a stupid concept. Massive ethics violation like that should be immediate termination.
I had a gift card for a place that should have been enough for the wife and I to dine at twice. The second time we go in there’s no where near enough to cover the meal. I still had the receipt even.
They were able to pull the previous visit. Waitress helped herself to an extra $25. They said she’d already been fired for similar stunts. Comped the remainder of our meal.