5 ms·

Millennial Fired For Tweet

24 points by shakes 13y ago

epoxyhockey 13y ago
Tip etiquette is always a funny thing. As a customer, you always want to show appreciation for the lowest level workers. Also, as a customer, you know that spending $170 at a small business is almost a gift in of itself (admittedly, more for the business owner than the employee). But, was the employee expecting to make 20% tip on a $170 order? Does one normally tip more than $1 at a food truck, if at all? Was the business owner expecting to post big profits for the day and not compensate the worker a bit more for that day? At the end of the day, the worker may have a right to be upset watching everyone greatly profit but himself.
- crisnoble 13y ago
  "Was the business owner expecting to post big profits for the day and not compensate the worker a bit more for that day?" I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no, the owner was not going to share his extra revenue with his minimum wage employees.
- Falling3 13y ago
  A gift for a small business may just as well be a curse for an employee. He specifically mentioned the order contained several sandwiches that were more difficult/time-consuming to prepare and that this added to their usual volume to create a very busy situation. I know it's all part of the job he signed up for, but it's not pleasant to be working that hard and feel rushed and pressured by a group of people waiting on you. And to answer your third question, I'm quite sure the business owner would not be doing any profit sharing.
jbail 13y ago
Is it expected of you to tip when you aren't getting waiter/waitress service? When I get a burrito at Chipotle, I don't tip. I stand while ordering. I pay at a counter. When I'm finished eating, I bus my own table. These are the things I always assumed you were paying a server for when you tipped them. When I order delivery, I always tip generously because somebody actually got in their car or bike and came to my house with food. That's extra effort in my book. Same goes for when I eat in and have a waiter or waitress waiting on me, refilling my water, etc. Certainly $170 is a large grilled cheese order, but more generally, I'm asking if it's expected to tip when you are not getting service beyond having your food handed to you.
- dragontamer 13y ago
  I only tip when I'm served actually. Maybe this should be a poll? It sounds like what happened here was a food truck order. I've had $100+ orders from Chick-filla before, but I don't think I need to leave a tip for those...
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    If food or drink is carried to anywhere that I am sitting, I tip, otherwise I don't (except perhaps coinage that I don't feel like carrying.) The exception to this is that I tip bartenders when I am standing at the bar/counter. I attribute this to my looser attitude towards tipping while drinking, since I absolutely never tip baristas in otherwise identical situations. This sort of tipping isn't hard and fast for me though; one of the places I use to drink was a "pub" inside of a Wholefoods (the situation was constructed to get around state laws about selling beer. A building inside of a building with it's own cash registers, beer on tap, some seating and bar nuts, etc). You would walk to the walk-in fridge to get your own beer then walk it over to the counter to pay, so I never tipped there.
    - jmduke 13y ago
      I think a good reason for this (since its pretty common practice) is unlike a barista, where you'll have a cup (or maybe two) tops during your entire interaction with him/her, you're gonna see that bartender many times over the course of a night. Factor in the fact that the competition for his attention is much fiercer than that of a barista's, and suddenly its quite rational to do everything in your power to make sure he remembers your face.
      - jlgreco 13y ago
        Excellent point, the two situations are actually quite dissimilar.
- rdouble 13y ago
  I think that is part of the issue. Nobody really knows if you're supposed to tip at an artisanal grilled cheese food truck. If it was Chipotle you wouldn't tip. If it was a hot dog cart you wouldn't tip, but you also wouldn't ever order $170 worth of hot dogs. Do people tip for big orders at Shake Shack? If not, I'd say you don't tip at fancy food trucks, either. It gets trickier here in the future because if the business is using Square and you pay with a card there's always a tip solicitation screen before the signature screen. This has caused the unintended effect of me always paying for my third wave coffee in cash.
gcb0 13y ago
#streisandeffect
eblume 13y ago
This is a pretty good example of the sort of social interaction that makes me want to stay away from social media platforms. It's not a fear of saying the wrong thing and getting fired... it's the fear of saying just about anything at all with such a huge megaphone attached to your mouth (and the fact that your shouting will be recorded forever.) HN comments are about the closest I'm generally willing to go to that sort of ultra-public commenting, and even then I'm generally pretty careful. Some people seem very cavalier about it.
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  Tell me about it. I limit my social networking to other planets entirely.
pdog 13y ago
What a weird title. Why call out that he's a "Millenial"?
- Falling3 13y ago
  Agreed. I thought it was some sort of moniker at first. Maybe they thought his age was relevant to the action - that it's more likely people of a specific generation would get themselves into this sort of situation.
- YokoZar 13y ago
  The story is supposed to be a bit symbolic of the changing times and new generation. And it sort of is.
- ddq 13y ago
  My thoughts exactly. My best guess is that it's the trendy new buzzword of the week and was included to increase pageviews. Possibly also to highlight the disparity between the young, social-media-savvy working class kid and the stuffy, old, upper-middle class businessmen in suits.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  What is a "millenial" anyway, someone who is currently 13 years old or younger? I can't help but feel that he should have just taken this as a learning experience and shut up. At least he shares his name with a comedian so potential employers may not discover that he likes to publicly shame customers...
  - bradleyjg 13y ago
    It took a while to settle down, but I think the general consensus on generations is now: Greatest Generation -> Baby Boomers -> Gen X -> millennial (f.k.a. Gen Y) If you set generation length at 20 years, and the anchor point of 1946 as the beginning of the baby boomers, you get a definition of millennial of 1986-2006. That is about right IMO for people who grew up with pervasive internet. No one knows what the 2006-2026 generation will be called, the oldest of them are barely out of elementary school.
neltnerb 13y ago
This quote makes me giggle. "If social media is going to be used in one way to monitor worker productivity, why can it not also be used to advocate for a more civil exchange between worker and consumer?" ... right, because putting things up in public on the internet encourages "civil exchange". Not saying that it's unreasonable to advocate whatever position you like, but that is an incredibly silly justification.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Not leaving a tip on a $170 order is pretty uncivil as well. His boss ought to have told Lewis and Glass to go fly a kite, they're not entitled to immunity from criticism.
  - Falling3 13y ago
    I would really have loved to see that as well.
Zikes 13y ago
If the author is looking for sympathy, I have none for them. The fact that this is on Twitter has nothing to do with it (nor does their being a "millenial", but that's another matter), they could just as well have shamed their customer on any number of platforms online or offline and the result would have and should have been exactly the same.
- dragontamer 13y ago
  If he is truly a "millenial", then he should know how serious it is to publicly shame someone on Twitter. A millenial knows the online consequences of their actions, they're supposed to know full well the dangers of online communications. This one didn't. Every few weeks, we have a story about someone who lost their job because of something they said on Twitter or Facebook. Has everyone already forgotten "Adria Richards got fired over Twitter comment" story that ran a few months ago?
- wyclif 13y ago
  Same here. To me, this has little to do with tipping—since tips are, after all, optional—but the author is using that as a wedge to gain sympathy. The bigger issue is that if you are employed, you represent the company you work for and shaming customers via Twitter is never appropriate.
- keypusher 13y ago
  Agreed. If he wanted to talk about the problems associated with jobs based on tipping, or why the minimum wage isn't high enough, or any number of other issues related to the US service economy I would definitely be sympathetic, but when you earn tips at work, you don't get to complain that the tips your received were inadequate (except perhaps to your coworkers). You do not publicly question customers about their tip generosity in any public forum if you intend to stay employed, let alone Twitter. I worked in food service jobs for years, yes I know the money is bad and the work sucks, but the solution to that is getting a better job not shaming your customers and embarrassing your boss.
ianterrell 13y ago
Regarding gcb0's pointing out of the Streisand Effect: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40glasslewis&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=%40glasslewis&src=typd
- Zikes 13y ago
  Kid's going to have a tough time getting hired now. Not only did he make the mistake of shaming a customer online, a poor customer service practice in and of itself, but he went on to repeat that same mistake by writing an entirely unapologetic article about it. Why would I want to hire someone that doesn't know how to bite his tongue? He seemingly lacks any of the necessary social mores for interacting with even moderately challenging customers, a skill I've seen better mastered in your average drive-through window.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    I was wondering about that, but (thankfully for him) he seems to share his name with a Irish comedian. All he probably has to do is leave that job off his resume and it won't be particularly google-able.
resu 13y ago
What's the difference between making a large order at a food truck vs doing the same at McDonalds?
- keypusher 13y ago
  After the food truck, some guy will get on Twitter and complain loudly about you after work. After McDonalds, you will get on Twitter and complain loudly about the food after work.
bradleyjg 13y ago
Tip at a food truck? I've always understood tips to be customary in the restaurant industry for sit-in or delivery, not pick up.
WestCoastJustin 13y ago
Flagged -- what possible good commentary is going to come out of this? Everyone in this story (and we are only seeing one side) needs to grow up. Stop being passive aggressive online, when you can actually speak up in the moment and express yourself. I'm having flash backs about dongle jokes.
- gkoberger 13y ago
  To be fair, he also did that. And I personally think he should have been fired for that, too -- many people customarily only tip for table service, and asking someone if they meant to not tip is rude. Unfortunately, it's a tip -- and there's no obligation for someone to tip unless they feel it's deserved, especially if there's no waiter or delivery involved.
thret 13y ago
I'd have fired him too, trying to shame one of his biggest customers. Not sure why he thinks he is entitled to a tip, a tip is voluntary. It is a gift.
jmduke 13y ago
I think it's a useful exercise to remove the Internet from the equation here. This is equivalent to grabbing a megaphone and letting all of your customers know "Hey, look at Glass Lewis & Co! They didn't tip us for a big order!" If I'm a customer and I hear this, this is what I could be thinking: 1. Jeez, that's not very nice. 2. Wait, I don't tip when I order from any food trucks. Am I gonna get called out tomorrow for it? 3. I'm going to start bringing my lunch. Especially since this is an industry where the cost of replacing a PTE is especially low, it doesn't seem like the owner did anything wrong besides protect his revenue. He didn't even try and coax an apology out of the guy.
gkoberger 13y ago
One thing worth noting is a lot of companies don't allow you to expense tips -- meaning that someone would have had to pay $170's worth of tips out of their own pocket. Since it's not table service, there's a good amount of debate on if a tip is even customary.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  Would this apply to "standard gratuity" or whatever for "parties over 8"? Seems a little off if that is the case.
moron4hire 13y ago
We tip because servers have a separate, lower minimum wage to the rest of food service. I don't tip at places that don't have servers.
- sejje 13y ago
  I think you've confused the cause and effect, but I agree with your conclusion. I do tip non-servers sometimes, but I do it for exceptional service in an attempt to reward it. Plus, it makes me feel good.
  - moron4hire 13y ago
    but rewarding past service doesn't actually result in better future service.
    - sejje 13y ago
      I don't know that you're right, but I'm not sure it matters. That's not why I tip.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  It is worth tipping delivery people too as they (almost?) always have to use their own vehicles and pay for their own gas. It is really a shit gig.
  - moron4hire 13y ago
    yeah
rhizome 13y ago
This guy wasn't "advocating for himself," he was talking about a customer of the company he works for. He would have had nothing to say if he didn't work there, and moreso if he wasn't aware of the order at all. You simply don't shame or insult your customers. It may feel like a hard lesson now, but I guarantee he won't be creating a VC-backed startup geared toward making this kind of thing easier.
ewest 13y ago
I think firing the guy for this is pretty extreme - it does not allow for: * the owner to constructively handle issues like this (maybe like educating the 'offender') * the 'offender' to learn from his mistake and understand it in a broader context All we have here is action: twitter-shame non-tipper; result: fired. Very short-sighted. As far as the story itself goes - tipping is optional (even for large/huge orders), so the guy was in the wrong to begin with.
georgebonnr 13y ago
First of all, yes, I think most people would be unsure of whether or not they are expected to tip in that situation. Second of all, "standing up for yourself" would be verbally nudging the customers as to whether they wanted to tip or not, as he did. Publicly tweet-shaming them is, in my opinion, something else entirely, and not worthy of receiving any kind of support from the owner.
callmeed 13y ago
I'm going to take an opposing view to most comments here: 1. Yes, you should tip at a coffee shop/food truck/counter restaurant if the staff are slammed–especially so if you're the reason they are slammed. These employees are likely underpaid and the people at Glass, Lewis & Co probably make 5-10x what this dude makes. I don't think a 15-20% tip is necessary, but some type of tip is appropriate IMO. 2. While the tweet was a mistake (he admitted so in a round-about way), I don't think he should have been fired and Glass Lewis & Co's overreaction just backs up my opinion (established by them not tipping) that they're jerks. 3. This guy used the same Internet to "shame" a customer that people use to give 1-star Yelp reviews for the most ridiculous reasons. The door swings both ways. For all we know, GLC's $170 caused bad reviews by other customers who had to wait. I hate it when customers belittle my customer service employees in help tickets and I will jump in and tell them to back off at times. Granted, none of my employees have tweeted about a jerk customer–but even if they did, I wouldn't fire them (I would definitely apologize and try to make it right).

24 points by shakes 13y ago

Tip etiquette is always a funny thing. As a customer, you always want to show appreciation for the lowest level workers. Also, as a customer, you know that spending $170 at a small business is almost a gift in of itself (admittedly, more for the business owner than the employee). But, was the employee expecting to make 20% tip on a $170 order? Does one normally tip more than $1 at a food truck, if at all? Was the business owner expecting to post big profits for the day and not compensate the worker a bit more for that day? At the end of the day, the worker may have a right to be upset watching everyone greatly profit but himself.

crisnoble 13y ago
"Was the business owner expecting to post big profits for the day and not compensate the worker a bit more for that day?" I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no, the owner was not going to share his extra revenue with his minimum wage employees.
Falling3 13y ago
A gift for a small business may just as well be a curse for an employee. He specifically mentioned the order contained several sandwiches that were more difficult/time-consuming to prepare and that this added to their usual volume to create a very busy situation. I know it's all part of the job he signed up for, but it's not pleasant to be working that hard and feel rushed and pressured by a group of people waiting on you. And to answer your third question, I'm quite sure the business owner would not be doing any profit sharing.

jbail 13y ago

Is it expected of you to tip when you aren't getting waiter/waitress service? When I get a burrito at Chipotle, I don't tip. I stand while ordering. I pay at a counter. When I'm finished eating, I bus my own table. These are the things I always assumed you were paying a server for when you tipped them. When I order delivery, I always tip generously because somebody actually got in their car or bike and came to my house with food. That's extra effort in my book. Same goes for when I eat in and have a waiter or waitress waiting on me, refilling my water, etc. Certainly $170 is a large grilled cheese order, but more generally, I'm asking if it's expected to tip when you are not getting service beyond having your food handed to you.

dragontamer 13y ago
I only tip when I'm served actually. Maybe this should be a poll? It sounds like what happened here was a food truck order. I've had $100+ orders from Chick-filla before, but I don't think I need to leave a tip for those...
- jlgreco 13y ago
  If food or drink is carried to anywhere that I am sitting, I tip, otherwise I don't (except perhaps coinage that I don't feel like carrying.) The exception to this is that I tip bartenders when I am standing at the bar/counter. I attribute this to my looser attitude towards tipping while drinking, since I absolutely never tip baristas in otherwise identical situations. This sort of tipping isn't hard and fast for me though; one of the places I use to drink was a "pub" inside of a Wholefoods (the situation was constructed to get around state laws about selling beer. A building inside of a building with it's own cash registers, beer on tap, some seating and bar nuts, etc). You would walk to the walk-in fridge to get your own beer then walk it over to the counter to pay, so I never tipped there.
  - jmduke 13y ago
    I think a good reason for this (since its pretty common practice) is unlike a barista, where you'll have a cup (or maybe two) tops during your entire interaction with him/her, you're gonna see that bartender many times over the course of a night. Factor in the fact that the competition for his attention is much fiercer than that of a barista's, and suddenly its quite rational to do everything in your power to make sure he remembers your face.
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      Excellent point, the two situations are actually quite dissimilar.
rdouble 13y ago
I think that is part of the issue. Nobody really knows if you're supposed to tip at an artisanal grilled cheese food truck. If it was Chipotle you wouldn't tip. If it was a hot dog cart you wouldn't tip, but you also wouldn't ever order $170 worth of hot dogs. Do people tip for big orders at Shake Shack? If not, I'd say you don't tip at fancy food trucks, either. It gets trickier here in the future because if the business is using Square and you pay with a card there's always a tip solicitation screen before the signature screen. This has caused the unintended effect of me always paying for my third wave coffee in cash.

gcb0 13y ago

#streisandeffect

eblume 13y ago

This is a pretty good example of the sort of social interaction that makes me want to stay away from social media platforms. It's not a fear of saying the wrong thing and getting fired... it's the fear of saying just about anything at all with such a huge megaphone attached to your mouth (and the fact that your shouting will be recorded forever.) HN comments are about the closest I'm generally willing to go to that sort of ultra-public commenting, and even then I'm generally pretty careful. Some people seem very cavalier about it.

dredmorbius 13y ago
Tell me about it. I limit my social networking to other planets entirely.

pdog 13y ago

What a weird title. Why call out that he's a "Millenial"?

Falling3 13y ago
Agreed. I thought it was some sort of moniker at first. Maybe they thought his age was relevant to the action - that it's more likely people of a specific generation would get themselves into this sort of situation.
YokoZar 13y ago
The story is supposed to be a bit symbolic of the changing times and new generation. And it sort of is.
ddq 13y ago
My thoughts exactly. My best guess is that it's the trendy new buzzword of the week and was included to increase pageviews. Possibly also to highlight the disparity between the young, social-media-savvy working class kid and the stuffy, old, upper-middle class businessmen in suits.
jlgreco 13y ago
What is a "millenial" anyway, someone who is currently 13 years old or younger? I can't help but feel that he should have just taken this as a learning experience and shut up. At least he shares his name with a comedian so potential employers may not discover that he likes to publicly shame customers...
- bradleyjg 13y ago
  It took a while to settle down, but I think the general consensus on generations is now: Greatest Generation -> Baby Boomers -> Gen X -> millennial (f.k.a. Gen Y) If you set generation length at 20 years, and the anchor point of 1946 as the beginning of the baby boomers, you get a definition of millennial of 1986-2006. That is about right IMO for people who grew up with pervasive internet. No one knows what the 2006-2026 generation will be called, the oldest of them are barely out of elementary school.

neltnerb 13y ago

This quote makes me giggle. "If social media is going to be used in one way to monitor worker productivity, why can it not also be used to advocate for a more civil exchange between worker and consumer?" ... right, because putting things up in public on the internet encourages "civil exchange". Not saying that it's unreasonable to advocate whatever position you like, but that is an incredibly silly justification.

anigbrowl 13y ago
Not leaving a tip on a $170 order is pretty uncivil as well. His boss ought to have told Lewis and Glass to go fly a kite, they're not entitled to immunity from criticism.
- Falling3 13y ago
  I would really have loved to see that as well.

Zikes 13y ago

If the author is looking for sympathy, I have none for them. The fact that this is on Twitter has nothing to do with it (nor does their being a "millenial", but that's another matter), they could just as well have shamed their customer on any number of platforms online or offline and the result would have and should have been exactly the same.

dragontamer 13y ago
If he is truly a "millenial", then he should know how serious it is to publicly shame someone on Twitter. A millenial knows the online consequences of their actions, they're supposed to know full well the dangers of online communications. This one didn't. Every few weeks, we have a story about someone who lost their job because of something they said on Twitter or Facebook. Has everyone already forgotten "Adria Richards got fired over Twitter comment" story that ran a few months ago?
wyclif 13y ago
Same here. To me, this has little to do with tipping—since tips are, after all, optional—but the author is using that as a wedge to gain sympathy. The bigger issue is that if you are employed, you represent the company you work for and shaming customers via Twitter is never appropriate.
keypusher 13y ago
Agreed. If he wanted to talk about the problems associated with jobs based on tipping, or why the minimum wage isn't high enough, or any number of other issues related to the US service economy I would definitely be sympathetic, but when you earn tips at work, you don't get to complain that the tips your received were inadequate (except perhaps to your coworkers). You do not publicly question customers about their tip generosity in any public forum if you intend to stay employed, let alone Twitter. I worked in food service jobs for years, yes I know the money is bad and the work sucks, but the solution to that is getting a better job not shaming your customers and embarrassing your boss.

ianterrell 13y ago

Regarding gcb0's pointing out of the Streisand Effect: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40glasslewis&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=%40glasslewis&src=typd

Zikes 13y ago
Kid's going to have a tough time getting hired now. Not only did he make the mistake of shaming a customer online, a poor customer service practice in and of itself, but he went on to repeat that same mistake by writing an entirely unapologetic article about it. Why would I want to hire someone that doesn't know how to bite his tongue? He seemingly lacks any of the necessary social mores for interacting with even moderately challenging customers, a skill I've seen better mastered in your average drive-through window.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I was wondering about that, but (thankfully for him) he seems to share his name with a Irish comedian. All he probably has to do is leave that job off his resume and it won't be particularly google-able.

resu 13y ago

What's the difference between making a large order at a food truck vs doing the same at McDonalds?

keypusher 13y ago
After the food truck, some guy will get on Twitter and complain loudly about you after work. After McDonalds, you will get on Twitter and complain loudly about the food after work.

bradleyjg 13y ago

Tip at a food truck? I've always understood tips to be customary in the restaurant industry for sit-in or delivery, not pick up.

WestCoastJustin 13y ago

Flagged -- what possible good commentary is going to come out of this? Everyone in this story (and we are only seeing one side) needs to grow up. Stop being passive aggressive online, when you can actually speak up in the moment and express yourself. I'm having flash backs about dongle jokes.

gkoberger 13y ago
To be fair, he also did that. And I personally think he should have been fired for that, too -- many people customarily only tip for table service, and asking someone if they meant to not tip is rude. Unfortunately, it's a tip -- and there's no obligation for someone to tip unless they feel it's deserved, especially if there's no waiter or delivery involved.

thret 13y ago

I'd have fired him too, trying to shame one of his biggest customers. Not sure why he thinks he is entitled to a tip, a tip is voluntary. It is a gift.

jmduke 13y ago

I think it's a useful exercise to remove the Internet from the equation here. This is equivalent to grabbing a megaphone and letting all of your customers know "Hey, look at Glass Lewis & Co! They didn't tip us for a big order!" If I'm a customer and I hear this, this is what I could be thinking: 1. Jeez, that's not very nice. 2. Wait, I don't tip when I order from any food trucks. Am I gonna get called out tomorrow for it? 3. I'm going to start bringing my lunch. Especially since this is an industry where the cost of replacing a PTE is especially low, it doesn't seem like the owner did anything wrong besides protect his revenue. He didn't even try and coax an apology out of the guy.

gkoberger 13y ago

One thing worth noting is a lot of companies don't allow you to expense tips -- meaning that someone would have had to pay $170's worth of tips out of their own pocket. Since it's not table service, there's a good amount of debate on if a tip is even customary.

jlgreco 13y ago
Would this apply to "standard gratuity" or whatever for "parties over 8"? Seems a little off if that is the case.

moron4hire 13y ago

We tip because servers have a separate, lower minimum wage to the rest of food service. I don't tip at places that don't have servers.

sejje 13y ago
I think you've confused the cause and effect, but I agree with your conclusion. I do tip non-servers sometimes, but I do it for exceptional service in an attempt to reward it. Plus, it makes me feel good.
- moron4hire 13y ago
  but rewarding past service doesn't actually result in better future service.
  - sejje 13y ago
    I don't know that you're right, but I'm not sure it matters. That's not why I tip.
jlgreco 13y ago
It is worth tipping delivery people too as they (almost?) always have to use their own vehicles and pay for their own gas. It is really a shit gig.
- moron4hire 13y ago
  yeah

rhizome 13y ago

This guy wasn't "advocating for himself," he was talking about a customer of the company he works for. He would have had nothing to say if he didn't work there, and moreso if he wasn't aware of the order at all. You simply don't shame or insult your customers. It may feel like a hard lesson now, but I guarantee he won't be creating a VC-backed startup geared toward making this kind of thing easier.

ewest 13y ago

I think firing the guy for this is pretty extreme - it does not allow for: * the owner to constructively handle issues like this (maybe like educating the 'offender') * the 'offender' to learn from his mistake and understand it in a broader context All we have here is action: twitter-shame non-tipper; result: fired. Very short-sighted. As far as the story itself goes - tipping is optional (even for large/huge orders), so the guy was in the wrong to begin with.

georgebonnr 13y ago

First of all, yes, I think most people would be unsure of whether or not they are expected to tip in that situation. Second of all, "standing up for yourself" would be verbally nudging the customers as to whether they wanted to tip or not, as he did. Publicly tweet-shaming them is, in my opinion, something else entirely, and not worthy of receiving any kind of support from the owner.

callmeed 13y ago

I'm going to take an opposing view to most comments here: 1. Yes, you should tip at a coffee shop/food truck/counter restaurant if the staff are slammed–especially so if you're the reason they are slammed. These employees are likely underpaid and the people at Glass, Lewis & Co probably make 5-10x what this dude makes. I don't think a 15-20% tip is necessary, but some type of tip is appropriate IMO. 2. While the tweet was a mistake (he admitted so in a round-about way), I don't think he should have been fired and Glass Lewis & Co's overreaction just backs up my opinion (established by them not tipping) that they're jerks. 3. This guy used the same Internet to "shame" a customer that people use to give 1-star Yelp reviews for the most ridiculous reasons. The door swings both ways. For all we know, GLC's $170 caused bad reviews by other customers who had to wait. I hate it when customers belittle my customer service employees in help tickets and I will jump in and tell them to back off at times. Granted, none of my employees have tweeted about a jerk customer–but even if they did, I wouldn't fire them (I would definitely apologize and try to make it right).