The Michigan waitress who received an enormous $10,000 tip was fired a few days later. Linsey Boyd, who worked as a waitress at Mason Jar Cafe in Benton Harbor, located in southern Michigan, was fired a week after an unidentified customer left the generous tip on a $32.43 bill on February 5, the Detroit Free Press reported.
However, the restaurant claims that her termination from her job was not related to the generous tip and was solely a business-related choice. The restaurant didn't specify the reason why Boyd was fired but the mother-of-two reportedly split the $10,000 tip with her coworkers at the restaurant "to continue to spread the love."
Tipped and Fired a Few Days Later
Boyd said in a now-deleted Facebook post that the customer, who preferred to remain anonymous, gave the now widely circulated tip as a tribute to a friend whose funeral brought him to town. He had asked Boyd to distribute the gift among the entire waitstaff, which came out to be a little over $1,100 for each employee.
"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," Boyd told WSBT.
However, what was initially supposed to be an upbeat story has taken a negative turn. Boyd shared in her viral post that she lost her job due to the "drama, animosity, and hurt" that ensued from the substantial tip.
"I will say it 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," said husband and wife owners Able Martinez and Jayme Cousins in a Facebook post.
The restaurant owners said that "labor laws" restricted them from sharing certain details but claimed that Boyd's termination was unrelated to the $10,000 tip.
"We cannot comment on the nature of her losing her job due to labor laws and to protect the staff involved," the couple wrote in a Facebook post.
"However, I will say it 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," they continued.
Difficult to Accept
Boyd presented her perspective, saying that she was asked to take a mental health day as "drama" unfolded within the restaurant due to the tip. According to a now-deleted Facebook post, she mentioned that management had requested her to take that Sunday off as a mental health day.
Later, Boyd said that management contacted her on Sunday night and asked her to take the next day off as well.
On Monday, the waitress reached out to the restaurant, inquiring whether she was being informed "in a professional way not to come back."
According to WSBT-TV, she was fired via a phone call on the following Tuesday.
"One week I'm such an amazing, hardworking employee, awesome mother ... couldn't have happened to a better person," Boyd's post reportedly read. "Now, I'm without a job, for the first time since I was 15 years old."
The restaurant's management has contested Boyd's allegations, claiming that her termination was unrelated to the tip or its aftermath.
"We do truly care about our staff," the couple added. "We've had the same crew for 5-6 years. We have college girls that come home every summer and have been for four years now, we take our staff up north at the end of every summer season, we give donations for college funds for them, we kept them employed through Covid, we do everything in our power not to lose staff.
"I know there is a lot going around that we let her go because of the tip and that's just not logical," Cousins told WOOD-TV. "(W)e have a staff that has continued to work for us for years and college kids that come back every summer and we give chances after chances to our staff, so we clearly would not let someone go for no reason at all."
Cousins added that the decision was not made lightly, emphasizing that terminating an employee is something the restaurant try to avoid.
