A Michigan waitress was fired after receiving a shocking $10,000 tip on a $32.43 bill, but the restaurant insisted the firing was a “business decision” unrelated to the generous tip.
Linsey Boyd, a Michigan mother who received the surprising tip, was fired from the Mason Jar Café in Benton Harbor despite generously sharing the money with eight other co-workers.
Boyd said in a now-deleted Facebook post that the drama occurred after an anonymous customer left the $10,000 tip to honor a recently deceased friend.
The middle-aged man in a dark suit wished not to be identified, but said he was in town for the funeral and intended to spread some joy through the generous tip, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I just gave him a hug. At that moment she didn’t even know her name, but I gave her a hug. “Then he told me that he had left a memory of someone very dear to him and that he wanted to do something kind and generous in his name,” Boyd said. WSBT.
Linsey Boyd, a waitress from Michigan, was fired after receiving a shocking $10,000 tip on a $32.43 bill, but the restaurant insisted the firing was a “business decision” unrelated to the generous tip.
The middle-aged man who left the tip did not want to be identified, but said he was in town to attend the funeral and intended to spread some joy through the generous tip.
Boyd, a Michigan mother who received the surprising tip, was fired from the Mason Jar Café in Benton Harbor despite generously sharing the money with eight other co-workers.
What was supposed to be an upbeat story has taken a negative turn, as Boyd revealed in his viral post that he lost his job due to “all the drama, animosity, and pain” the huge information sparked.
The restaurant’s owners, Able Martinez and Jayme Cousins, said “labor laws” limited what they could share, but claimed Boyd’s firing had nothing to do with the $10,000 tip.
“We cannot comment on the nature of your job loss due to employment laws and to protect the staff involved,” the couple wrote in a Facebook post.
‘However, I will say that it had nothing to do with the tip. She received the full tip, she didn’t pay taxes (the business did). Yes, she shared the tip at the request of the man who left her,’ they continued.
But Boyd offered his side of the story, saying he was asked to take a mental health day while a “drama” unfolded inside the restaurant over the tip.
“Drama ensued and in an attempt to diffuse the situation and resolve the rumors, things got even worse,” he wrote.
She did not specify what happened and has since deleted the post and deleted her entire Facebook page. But rumors have circulated suggesting that staff she wasn’t working that day were hoping to share the tip.
“Staff who were not working on the day of the $10,000 tip expected it to be reduced and it created an extremely dramatic work environment,” one post reads.
What was supposed to be an upbeat story has taken a negative turn, as Boyd revealed in his viral post that he lost his job due to “all the drama, animosity and pain” that the huge tip caused.
Restaurant owners Able Martinez and Jayme Cousins said ‘labor laws’ limited what they could share, but claimed Boyd’s firing had nothing to do with the $10,000 tip.
Boyd offered his side of the story, saying he was asked to take the mental health day while a “drama” unfolded inside the restaurant over the tip.
According to Boyd, management asked him to take another day off “to let things calm down” and did not respond to his text message asking if he had been told “in a professional manner not to come back.”
Boyd was fired in a phone call Tuesday, marking the first time since she was 15 that she has been out of a job.
When the desperate waitress shared her experience, social media users were furious and left negative reviews on the restaurant’s website and Google Maps.
One angry user shared screenshots of Boyd’s post and wrote: ‘This is NOT what our community is about. Linsey honored the wishes of tippers and shared this act of kindness when many would have kept it to themselves.
“I have personally worked with her and she is one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever met,” they continued.
‘SHAME ON YOU AND SHAME ON ALL THE EMPLOYEES who complained that they didn’t get a cut when they were NOT working. How selfish can you be?! I hope this gets resolved!’
The restaurant’s owners have since refuted Boyd’s claims, but declined to go into detail about why she was fired.
“I know there’s a lot of things that say we let her go because of the complaint and that’s just not logical,” Cousins said. WOOD-TV.
“We have a staff that has continued to work for us for years and college students that come back every summer and we give opportunity after opportunity to our staff, so clearly we wouldn’t let anyone go for no reason.”
The owners wrote on social media that this was a purely business decision and emphasized that such decisions are not “made lightly or hastily.”
“We donate to them for college funds, we keep them employed during Covid, we do everything in our power to not lose staff,” the owners wrote.