Tipping is a voluntary yet courteous act of saying "thank you" to people for their service. In the U.S., restaurants often charge a gratuity for their servers. But when it comes to food to go, is tipping still needed?
As far as a former Outback Steakhouse server in Palm Beach, Florida, is concerned, the answer is yes. Tamlynn Yoder recently prepared an order for take out worth $735 for Christ Fellowship, according to WPTV. After delivering their meal, she got upset when she did not receive a tip.
"When I brought it out and put it in the car and received the payment, there was no gratuity. I got upset. I posted a post on Facebook about the church not leaving a gratuity tip," Yoder said. "We live off of tips. If we don't have that then we have nothing."
The waitress recalled that she only received $18 in tips that day from other orders because she was so busy handling the megachurch's order.
Her social media rant caused two things to happen - first, she was fired from her job, and next, she received compensation from the church members who heard about her post.
Cathie Koch, a spokeswoman for Outback Steakhouse, told The Palm Beach Post that company policy prohibits employees from posting about customers on social media. If they do so, they can be subject for termination. When asked to "go into specifics" about what happened, Koch declined.
The megachurch received a full refund for their order, but members strove to make amends over what happened. David Lonsberry, executive director of business for the church, said they "did not desire in any way for punitive action to be taken."
"We did not call the restaurant to have her fired, we wanted to get the situation resolved," he said, adding that members usually leave generous tips on take-out orders because a lot of them work as servers as well.
"That night, we had a volunteer go to the restaurant and pick up the order since we were having a big conference. He probably didn't know to tip since it was a rush of the moment thing," explained Lonsberry.
When they finally got in touch with Yoder on Monday, she was happy to report that she received "more than the tip" from the church. "[Christ Fellowship] said a couple of the church families came together for me," Yoder shared.
Even though she lost her job because of what happened, Yoder has no regrets. "I feel that we should be allowed to say something especially to big parties that don't leave anything ... they pay the exact amount. I probably would still do it the same way. I wouldn't change anything," she said.
