Part-Time worker fired for shaming no tipping Wall St. firm on Twitter (Glass, Lewis & Co.)

[Teamster Jeff]

>>>
This group placed a huge order: three of this sandwich, four of another, three of the one that takes forever on the grill, two of the one that takes forever to assemble. Five or six milkshakes. The order came to just under $170.

I was making sandwiches, another worker took the order and a third made the milkshakes and watched the grills. A line grew while we worked, and we had to tell other customers that their lunch orders would take longer than usual. They paid; I asked my co-worker who was dealing with the money how much of a tip they’d left. They had left actually no tip at all. (They had paid with a card so we checked the cash tips to see if there’d been a bump. There hadn’t.)

I asked some of the group as they were picking up their orders if they had intended to not tip. They hemmed and hawed and walked away.
>
Two days later, I got a text from the owner asking if I was free to talk on the phone at some point. We spoke later that afternoon.

He told me that he’d gotten a call from the company, Glass, Lewis & Co. The company provides shareholder advisory services. Apparently, those employees were mortified that their lunch truck had tip-shamed them—the home office in San Francisco even got involved.

And it was unfortunate but he was going to have to let me go. The company has a way of doing things and he thought I’d understood that. I had embarrassed him and the company and that was that.
>>>

http://www.theawl.com/2013/07/millennial-fired-for-tweet#more-173354

[PoliticAverse]

1. This was a takeout food truck ? n/t

[MineralMan]

3. Yup. Go to the link. It's an interesting read, and the

employee is interesting, too. It's a take-out joint. Some people tip. Some don't.

[d_r]

4. food truck grilled cheese

and milkshakes. what a load of yuppie crap.

eta sorry, artisanal grilled cheese
https://twitter.com/intent/user?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theawl.com%2F2013%2F07%2Fmillennial-fired-for-tweet&screen_name=milktrucknyc&tw_i=359754805473849344&tw_p=tweetembed

[MineralMan]

2. Interesting, but not earth-shaking.

Food trucks are not huge tip generators. You go up, place your order. It gets made and you pick it up from the counter. Just like a fast food restaurant. Tipping is an afterthought for a lot of people when you order and pick up at a counter. Some tip. Some don't. The person involved seems annoyed that the people ordered lots of stuff and that some of it is difficult to make. It's still a take-out joint where you order and pickup at the counter.

The service you get is the service everyone gets. Whether one order is a large one has little to do with it. Whether one of their sandwiches takes time to make has little to do with it. It's on the menu. There were several customers, apparently, but their employer picked up the tab for lunch, it appears.

The worker is annoyed by no tip from this group. And that's understandable. But, it's sandwiches at a counter. There's no service. You order. You pick up. If you weren't there someone else would be and they'd be making sandwiches. There's a tip jar. Some people tip in such cases. Others don't, and treat it like any other take-out food place.

So, this employee tweeted her annoyance and named the company, which took offense and contacted the owner of the food truck. They bought $170 of food and got hassled at a take-out place.

I wouldn't have fired this person, maybe, unless the employee was a general PITA, but I'd have made it clear that I was in business to sell food from the food truck, and value everyone who buys food from me. I'd have made it clear that employees are not to engage in tip shaming. It's a take-out joint, after all.

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. I have to agree.

I live in Portland - &quot Food) Cart-Landia" - and I keep an office downtown. I eat lunch at food carts more often than not. I tip, although not at a sit-down restaurant percentage. Some people don't. I do it because most of these carts are the very definition of mom-and-pop businesses and I want them to succeed (and some of the food is simply amazing). No one seems to make a fuss about it either way. I can understand that employee being annoyed at not getting tipped for a large, complicated order, but I also understand the owner considering it a firing offense to tweet about it. That's no way to treat a customer.

[MineralMan]

10. Yah. Tons of food trucks here in the Twin Cities.

I don't go to the yuppy ones, though. Too damned expensive, IMO. There's a taco truck I like, though, and I'll stop by there any time I run across it. I know where it is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's not downtown, like the cool food trucks, but the food is authentic and excellent. Normally, I buy their tacos de cabeza (head meat) or tacos de lingua (tongue). I get two orders, and gobble 'em up. They have a tip jar. I tip $1 for my $5 purchase. Good stuff, freshly prepared and great eating. A guy's gotta speak Spanish at that truck, at least enough to read off the menu and order.

[Teamster Jeff]

7. If they are cheap asses thats fine don't tip

But to go out of your way to complain about a Tweet by someone with 300 followers is some punk ass behavior. I don't consider a tweet getting "hassled at a take-out place" either.

[MineralMan]

8. Yeah. That's what I mean. None of it is earthshaking.

It's hardly worth mentioning at all, it seems to me. All in a part of a day's work in the food truck. Note: If there's a tip jar, I tip at food trucks. If there's not, I don't.

[Rex]

5. Fuck it, stop serving the Wall Street idiots. Tell them you refuse service.

Let them fall apart when they find out it is impossible to microwave a chimichanga in under 2 minutes.

[Xithras]

9. A food truck is not a restaurant.

I'd no more be expected to tip someone at a food truck than I would be expected to tip the order taker at Burger King. Those aren't tip wage jobs, and there is no expectation for a tip. Heck, the vast majority of food trucks are actually operated by their owners anyway, and there's never been any expectation that owners get tipped in any business.

Awesome food and service still earns my tips from time to time (there's taqueria trailer not far from me that gets tips on every visit, because their food is unfuckingbelievably good), but most of the time they're just treated like any other fast food joint.

[Starry Messenger]

11. People aren't getting this isn't just about tipping or not.

It's that a large corporation felt so threatened by criticism by a guy making grilled cheese sammitches that they brought down the Death Star. The author says he took the risk because he was already thinking of getting out of the job. Interesting point near the end:

"What did I get out of this? Hmm. A "story," maybe. A lesson about employers—at least in the food service industry—and what they think of workers advocating for themselves.

To be fair, maybe I'm not the best employee for a gamified grilled cheese truck. About a month earlier, I’d come into work on a Saturday and was told I’d need to work late the next day. (Our schedules are established on a weekly basis, so this was very late notice.) I believed this gave me some degree of leverage. So I started bargaining. If they needed me to stay late on Sunday with only 24 hours notice, surely it was only fair that they let me go early that night?

They weren’t too happy about this and my bargaining failed—they just found someone else to work late on Sunday. I suppose this is why ‘collective bargaining’ is a thing."

[joeybee12]

14. +1

Yup, it's about some scumbuckets throwing their weight around.

[Teamster Jeff]

15. Thank you

[historylovr]

18. Exactly so. nt

[rl6214]

12. Waiting on them while they dine, tip required

Making takeout food out of a food truck, no tip required.

[Mike Daniels]

16. Is there anything that indicates the tweet is specifically what caused the incident?

From my reading the person telling the story first VERBALLY asked the people if they intended not to tip.

That may very well have set the actual process in motion regarding the complaint to the company. The tweet just piled things on but the verbal conduct alone would have been justification to complain to the food-truck's manager.

[onethatcares]

17. I hope the guy that got canned

was really loud about it. like, 'HEY YA CHEAP BASTAGES, DID SOMEONE STEAL YOUR TIP OFFA THE COUNTER, OR DID YOU GUYS PLAN TO STIFF US?"

At least that would have been shaming. Not just a question about it.