I don’t think any of us need to be told that living the life of a waiter or waitress can be difficult at times. They often work long hours, serving others for very low pay and hoping that they get enough tips to make ends meet.
Every once in a while, a server is given something that really shows how much people appreciate the hard work that they do. That recently happened to a waitress by the name of Ryan Brandt, who was working at a restaurant in Bentonville, Arkansas.
It was December 10 and she was serving a table at Oven and Tap that was full of people. There were some 40 people sitting at the table, but they did something extraordinary.
Everyone sitting at the table left $100 to the waitress as they were leaving. It ended up being a $4,400 tip. There were two servers that were working the table. One went home sick but they were still expecting to get part of the tip.
One of the men who was at the table was the owner of the real estate company, Grant Wise. Prior to the time that he came to the restaurant, he wanted to check the tipping policy and was told that it would go directly to the staff members that were waiting on the table.
He was absolutely overjoyed when he saw her reaction and how much it meant to her.
The problem is, after working at the restaurant for 3 1/2 years, this waitress was told that she had to give the cash to the shift manager and she would only get 20%.
Wise was upset over the situation and asked that the gratuity be returned so he could provide it to the server outside. It was really something she was counting on because she had borrowed money for student loans and needed to start to pay them back.
The next day, she was told that she was fired for violating policy. The restaurant refused to give any more details, but they said it didn’t have anything to do with the tipping incident.