The dark cloud of a good deed hangs over a Michigan restaurant, because days after it made the news over a massive tip left by a customer, the server who received the tip was fired.
The saga began on Feb. 5, when a man had $32.43 worth of breakfast at the Mason Jar Café in Benton Harbor, Michigan. He left a $10,000 tip, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I just gave him a hug. I didn’t even know his name at that point, but I gave him a hug. He then told me he left her a memorial of someone very dear to him and he wanted to do something kind and generous in her name,” Linsey Boyd, his server said then, according to WSBT-TV.
Boyd went from being bouncy to being bounced a few days later, when she was fired even as the news of the good deed was making the rounds of the media and social media
Boyd made a now-deleted Facebook post in which she said “drama ensued” after the $10,000 tip was shared, as the anonymous benefactor had requested, “and in an attempt to diffuse the situation and resolve any rumors, things became even worse,” the Free Press reported.
She said she was asked to take first Sunday and then Monday off, and then on Tuesday was told she had been fired.
“One week I’m such an amazing, hardworking employee, awesome mother … couldn’t have happened to a better person. Now, I’m without a job, for the first time since I was 15 years old,” her post said.
They make people work for crap wages, and when they get tipped a large amount like this, they think they are entitled to some of it. The Mason Jar Cafe in Benton Harbor needs to be boycotted for this. Let them lose business for their rash decision.
— Musicatto (@AudioCDSound) February 16, 2024
Is there more to this firing than the restaurant is admitting?
The Mason Jar Café posted its version on Facebook, noting “We can not comment on the nature of her losing her job due to labor laws and to protect the staff involved.”
The post said Boyd’s firing “had nothing to do with the tip. She did receive the entire tip, she did not pay taxes on it (the business did). Yes, she shared the tip at the request of the man that left it.”
“We do truly care about our staff,” the post said, outlining how it has retained staff for years, adding, “We hope it is clear this was not a decision made lightly or hastily.”
An anonymous customer asked his Mason Jar Cafe waitress, Linsey Boyd, to share the $10,000 windfall with her co-workers — which she did. Now, she no longer works there. https://t.co/ol8TyP3NBD
— WNDU (@16NewsNow) February 15, 2024
Co-owner Jayme Cousins said the tip was not the reason Boyd was fired, but indicated it was part of the story, according to Mlive.
“When something this big happens, people act certain ways and if there’s issues with somebody to begin with, this can cause it to be even worse,” Cousins said. “And then it all just kind of blows up.”
She said the restaurant has been hit by “cancel culture” because of the number of people supporting Boyd.
Server fired after receiving $10K tip, but owners say it has nothing to do with viral gesture: ‘Purely a business decision’ https://t.co/0n6MHCJAfX pic.twitter.com/kY5ISyz1yh
— New York Post (@nypost) February 17, 2024
“They’re calling the restaurant, they’re harassing my staff, they’re telling us to burn in hell,” Cousins said. “It’s just been horrible.”
Boyd told WNDU-TV on Wednesday that after all the drama, she “drove out of town this morning to spend time with family and get away.”
