Tipping and the Lord -- Hallelujah!
Feb. 1st, 2013 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kybearfuzzI'm surprised I've not seen more comments about this situation on LJ, but it's been burning up Facebook left and right. The story is here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tipping-pastor-apologizes-687234
In a nutshell, a church group goes to Applebee's and eats. The female pastor apparently is disgusted by the automatic 18% gratuity added to her check, crosses it out, and puts a message on it saying that she gives 10% to God, why does she [the server] deserve 18%? She then puts her total on the bill and signs her bill as "Pastor" and her name. Another server takes a photo of the bill and posts it on the web. As the story goes, she excluded the signature and name of the customer, but the pastor was notified by other members of her "church" and recognized her handiwork on the receipt. She calls Applebee's and supposedly demands they fire the whole staff, but only the one server who posted the image gets canned by Applebee's for "policy violations." Eventually, the name of the pastor comes out as well as her poor attitude. She apologizes for her "lapse in judgment," but nothing else.
Having waited tables before, I can tell you -- it's hard work. And sometimes customers are not the nicest people and putting up with it while smiling is a chore. The pastor is a bitch and I'm not sad she got called out on this. She exhibits everything I find wrong with those who call themselves "Christians."
However, I'm a bit torn when it comes to Applebee's and the firing of the server. As a customer, I wouldn't want my receipt posted on the net, though I have never given them a reason to do that. I think firing the server was extreme. It's bad PR for the company as evident on their Facebook page, the big bad restaurant ganging up on the server and siding with the bad customer.
Any thoughts on the situation? I'm curious.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tipping-pastor-apologizes-687234
In a nutshell, a church group goes to Applebee's and eats. The female pastor apparently is disgusted by the automatic 18% gratuity added to her check, crosses it out, and puts a message on it saying that she gives 10% to God, why does she [the server] deserve 18%? She then puts her total on the bill and signs her bill as "Pastor" and her name. Another server takes a photo of the bill and posts it on the web. As the story goes, she excluded the signature and name of the customer, but the pastor was notified by other members of her "church" and recognized her handiwork on the receipt. She calls Applebee's and supposedly demands they fire the whole staff, but only the one server who posted the image gets canned by Applebee's for "policy violations." Eventually, the name of the pastor comes out as well as her poor attitude. She apologizes for her "lapse in judgment," but nothing else.
Having waited tables before, I can tell you -- it's hard work. And sometimes customers are not the nicest people and putting up with it while smiling is a chore. The pastor is a bitch and I'm not sad she got called out on this. She exhibits everything I find wrong with those who call themselves "Christians."
However, I'm a bit torn when it comes to Applebee's and the firing of the server. As a customer, I wouldn't want my receipt posted on the net, though I have never given them a reason to do that. I think firing the server was extreme. It's bad PR for the company as evident on their Facebook page, the big bad restaurant ganging up on the server and siding with the bad customer.
Any thoughts on the situation? I'm curious.
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 11:23 pm (UTC)The receipt does have the signature clearly visible, though no other identifying information. I can see why the server left it on, since the addition of "Pastor" to the signature is an important element of the story, but ethically, I think she should have anonymized it better. The customer's bad behavior deserves public scorn, but linking it back to an actual person and exposing them to the resulting internet dogpile is bad form. Because really, almost *nothing* that any individual can do is deserving of the level of mass outrage that you get when something like this goes viral. So she should have, like, obscured the name with her finger when she took the picture or something.
Firing her was dumb, PR-wise. Somebody at corporate HQ should be getting called on the carpet for that decision. I suppose they might feel like they had to, for liability reasons, but you'd think by now that every corporation in existence would realize they ALWAYS need to be concerned about looking like the Big Bad Faceless Evil when something like this happens...
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 11:50 pm (UTC)If they hadn't fired the server, the customer would have stayed completely anonymous, and they'd have no PR problem. Definitely goes on the "what not to do" list.
Of course, if the customer hadn't made a big stink about it, there might have been rumors, but nobody -- certainly not millions of random strangers on the internet -- would have known for sure that it was actually her. Sounds like karma to me...