Facebook post costs waitress her job

Charlotte Observer ^ | 05/17/2010 | Eric Frazier

[Tatze]

No, you irresponsible dumbass, you lost your job for mentioning your employer's name while blasting a customer. That is not a good image on the business. But you keep blaming Facebook for your foolishness and lack of judgement.

Exactly. I think she would have been fine if she hadn't mentioned the restaurants name! That does reflect poorly on the restaurant and they had every right to fire her!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"If restaurants don’t have to pay the minimum wage, then waitstaff shouldn’t have to pay taxes on tips."

It's actually worse than that at my wife's restaurant. They pay taxes on total food sales. In other words, if you buy a meal and pay less than the normal 10% rate, you have just cost my wife to pay taxes on tips she never earned.

Still, its the nature of the beast and she accepts that working arrangement. She's willing to go out and "earn" her tips. What makes her angry is when people (usually teenagers) come in, order a coke and proceed to sit at the table for the next two hours and leave her a 1.00 tip. She never gets the chance to earn her wages when people do that.

No ones talking about sitting there for 10 minutes after you have eaten to relax and talk. We're talking about staying for one or two hours after you eat. It's inconsiderate unless you leave a big tip after sitting there for that long.

[RockinRight]

My wife is similar...she’s not against political statuses or posts, but generally shys away from it and tends to be less confrontational than me on those issues.

She is a Freeper BTW.

[MollyKuehl]

True, but her last statement was about losing her job because of a FaceBook status. FB didn’t randomly posted that there, she typed it in. At the end, she’s still not fully accepting the fact that she was wrong!

[a fool in paradise]

She had to stay one hour extra (for what is it, $2.25 an hour) until this table left. Doesn’t sound like she got any other waiters’ table to keep her busy.

3 hours is a long meal. For 2 or more people, that is less than $2.5 a head.

But then people bring wifi computers (or iphones) to restaurants and park for hours for free refills these days.

[RichInOC]

[RockinRight]

The hard part is job hunting while 4 of my coworkers are my FB friends...I therefore cannot say anything at all about it on there.

[Stand Watch Listen]

OK, but look. This is a pizza joint, right? Who cares how long they stayed. Do you think two people ran up a bill over $30.00? At lunch?
Assume lunch was $20.00 or $25.00. Five bucks is a damn good tip.

Yes, but a server in this country needs to turn over volumn to make any decent total tip amont. Especially with the short span of lunch time. 3 hours tied up with this one table just may equate to a turnover of an additional 3-4 tables (45-55 min ea).

[RockinRight]

My rule is “friend” them if you want, if they are an actual “friend” i.e., someone you’d invite to your kid’s birthday party, or have over for a beer...and only if they’re not someone who can fire you or keep you from getting promoted!

[cardinal4]

You miss my point. These customers, unfortunately, are legion. And nine times out ten they know they are being disruptive. As for posting on FB? That is a new paradigm. I agree with you that you don’t want employees disparaging customers, but at the same time management should know that taking a table for 2+ hours and only getting water re-fills is costing THEM money.

[sausageseller]

“Johnson, 22, says she apologized to Brixx for using bad judgment. “It was my own fault,” she said.

Who is the dumbass now?

[svcw]

That’s funny. My husband tips on the degree of mess our grandchildren leave.

[gundog]

BWAHAHHAA!!

[afraidfortherepublic]

A $5 tip in a pizza parlor is generous.

The waitress was stupid, whiny, and deserved what she got. She never should have mentioned the restaurant’s name. Was she mad at the restaurant for making her stay over? What was the point of that?

Re: her customers. Were they especially demanding? If she was being kept overtime, did she ask them to settle their bill so she could leave? Turn them over to her replacement?

She sounds like a pill. Hopefully she learned a good lesson, but she may have to continue her “career” in another town, because I don’t know any employer who would hire her after this fiasco.

I’ll bet her “service” wasn’t worth $5.

[Ladysmith]

Hear hear on #2. Only one co-worker is my “friend” on Facebook and only because it’s for health and workout discussions. Our job is totally off-limits. If violated, I will un-friend the co-worker in a heartbeat.

[who knows what evil?]

Line and learn, Ashley...

[thefactor]

Please tell me the amount of the check since you obviously know.

[who knows what evil?]

Live and learn, Ashley...

[MollyKuehl]

I understand that but this is will always happen. It is up to the employee to recognize that and either get used to it, find a different way of venting or change careers. Personal responsibility for our own actions, regardless if professional or personal needs to be always in the forefront.

[MollyKuehl]

Who is the dumbass now?

Read the last line of the article where her last words were how she still cannot understand how she got fired over a FB status... and ask me then!!