BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A restaurant waitress thought it was her lucky night after receiving an extremely generous tip from a large party she had been serving. Little did she know, the gratuity would lead to her being fired.
The ordeal came after Ryan Brandt and another server waited on a party of more than 40 people at the Over and Tap in Bentonville, Arkansas last Friday.
Following the dinner, each member of the party chipped in $100 for the tip, which came out to a whopping $4,400 for Brandt and the other waitress, according to WXIN.
However, management told Brandt the two servers would need to share the tip with the rest of the workers, which she said she's never had to do in her 3-and-a-half years working at the restaurant. After the split, Brandt would have received just 20% of the gratuity.
Grant Wise, one of the organizers of the party, said he called the restaurant before the dinner to ask about its tipping policy and that the tip was solely for those who waited on the party. He asked the restaurant to return the tip, and instead, gave it to Brandt directly.
After not receiving a share of the tip, the restaurant fired Brandt, reportedly telling her she had violated a company policy.
“It was devastating, I borrowed a significant amount for student loans. Most of them were turned off because of the pandemic but they’re turning back on in January and that’s a harsh reality,” said Brandt.
