Brixx Pizza FIRES Waitress Ashley Johnson For Complaining About Tip On Facebook

UPDATE: Brixx has posted a statement about the incident on their official Facebook page. Scroll down to read it.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A North Carolina waitress is out of a job after griping on her Facebook page about the $5 tip she got from a couple who sat at their table for three hours. The waitress says the customers kept her at work an hour after she was supposed to clock out.

The Charlotte Observer reported Monday that 22-year-old Ashley Johnson felt slighted after waiting on the couple at Brixx Pizza.

So she blasted the couple on Facebook, calling them cheap and mentioning the restaurant by name.

Brixx officials told Johnson a couple of days later that she was being fired because she violated a company policy banning workers from speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network.

Johnson says she has apologized to Brixx and is looking for a new job.

Brixx's decision to fire Johnson over the Facebook offense didn't seem to be winning them any fans. All of the comments by users on the company's Facebook page are negative.

The critical comments appeared on Brixx's account soon after the Observer published their story about Johnson's dismissal.

Brixx has not now posted a statement about the incident on their Facebook page. The company's response was posted at around 5:30 2:34 p.m. EST, Monday, May 17:

Brixx Wood Fired Pizza Brixx appreciates your feedback! Please know we value our employees very much, which is why we are one of the few small restaurant companies that offers benefits. Brixx also values our customers and has a policy against making negative remarks about them.

As an employer, it is necessary to enforce policies for the benefit of all our hardworking employees and valued customers. Our policies ensure Brixx is an enjoyable place to both work AND dine. We welcome your comments, but please keep it clean!

A sampling of the comments on Brixx's Facebook page on Monday morning:

Comments

[Independent4America]

07:06 PM on 05/23/2010

Waitresses with bad attitudes suck!
There is no entitlement.
If you are a waitress who thinks the world owes you anything then
you are living in a fantasy world.

[Semper Troll]

05:04 PM on 05/22/2010

The thing is... if she had just told everyone that works at the restaurant with her, including the owner, they would just have laugh.

[Edward Taylor]

12:55 PM on 05/21/2010

25 Years in the restaurant/bar biz. Have my own place now. If a table did that to one of my waitresses, I'd pick up their tab and tell them not to come back, since they obviously can't afford it. I defend my employees, after this much time in this industry I've discovered that the costumer is always wrong.

[Bike Commuter]

02:40 PM on 05/22/2010

I would really like to know the actual situation before passing the kind of absolute judgement you are. If they ordered pizza and drinks the bill might have only been $15, which would make it a 33% tip. If it the section is not at volume the what does it matter if the table doesn't turn right away? Sitting and talking isn't a big deal when business is slow, especially if they aren't constantly asking for refills. Customers don't usually have any way of knowing when a server is going off duty unless they are told.

The thing that bothers me about those in the restaurant business with your attitude is that they expect every customer to know every little thing about it. Sorry, not everyone knows all of the little intricacies of a server's job, just like you don't know all of the little ways to make the lives of other service workers easier.

If I were at a nearby table and saw an owner do what you said you would do, I would leave and never come back. I would also tell every local person I knew not to eat there because of the out of control owner. Hopefully you are just blowing smoke, because I can't imagine someone with that kind of attitude actually managing to run a successful business. I have known of a few, but they didn't last long.

[Susanne Freeborn]

07:45 AM on 05/24/2010

If somebody takes your table for three hours they are taking your opportunity to make money for that long too. Tips should grow along with the amount of time someone uses up your real estate. I once waited on a group of 11 people who literally left me pocket change in an ashtray on the table. They stayed for about 3 hours. I brought them everything they asked for, I didn't screw up anyone's order, I did my job in a friendly and professional way. Sometimes people are just jerks. When I saw what they left on the table, I chased them down the street and threw it at them. I didn't get fired either.

[Independent4America]

07:09 PM on 05/23/2010

After my years in food service distribution I know most restaurant owners are total d0ucheb@gs!

[climbing panda]

06:49 PM on 05/19/2010

if the idiot waitress hadn't said where she worked then there wouldn't have been a problem. her friend's would know where she worked.

[deezus]

03:05 PM on 05/19/2010

Precisely why I don't use my Facebook account at all. I know of too many people who have gotten canned over that stupid website.

[Spekkio]

01:55 PM on 05/20/2010

Out of honest curiousity, how many people do you know? I'm very interested in this phenomenon.

[deezus]

12:22 PM on 05/21/2010

I know a lot of people, can't really put a number to it. Though a lot of the people I am talking about worked where I work, until getting canned because of stuff happening on Facebook.

[Bike Commuter]

11:27 AM on 05/19/2010

Sorry, but unless you have a mere handful of friends and a completely private page, Facebook is like shouting on the street corner. Whether a tip is bad or there is some other problem with your job, if your employer sees it they can fire you.

The same can happen if you are sitting at another restaurant complaining to a friend. If your boss is at a nearby table and overhears you using the company name in a bad light, then they can fire you. It may not seem fair, but that is the way it is.

If you are going to complain, get on the phone and call a friend. Gripe to your spouse or roommate. Call your mom. You have the right to complain to your heart's content. Just don't post it on the web if it can be traced back to you.

[missy1262]

08:58 AM on 05/19/2010

Frist of all I believe that Ashley has the right to vent however she just chose the wrong avenue to do it with and as Brixx company policy stated which everyone is forgetting all about they told her the following:

"Brixx officials told Johnson a couple of days later that she was being fired because she violated a company policy banning workers from speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network."

In all honesty she admitted that she was wrong. There is no law that a tip is guaranteed if you get a tip it is a thank you, if it is a great tip you did something very good, if not.... No one knows for sure how well Ashley treated the customers and it was after she had clocked out of her shift that she waited for them to finish so maybe a bit annoyed and made an error which the patrons felt they should tip her so low.

As for the stalking comment, anyone propbably could read her page and once the news leaked everyone looked at it so there is no stalking, if there was I am sure most people making comments would be guilty of looking at someones comments.

[Womanvoter4Obama]

08:11 AM on 05/19/2010

As a former waitress during my college years, I also feel that she had every right to complain or vent. Spending that much time catering to a couple and getting a lousy $5? They should be ashamed of themselves. They may as well have not left a tip at all. She has a right to her opinion..and she did stay after her shift ended to serve them.

[DAVID POSTER]

06:06 PM on 05/19/2010

I agree. But she "vented" in the wrong place.
David

[Lynda Filler]

01:32 AM on 05/19/2010

Unfortunately the way FB works so many are privy to your 'status', friends of friends etc, etc. I have often thought that the young ladies need to restrain themselves with some of their raunchy drunk status comments. Employers do have personal accounts too.

[Ghost Dance 2010]

12:53 AM on 05/19/2010

Brixx certainly knows how to get bad press.

[LittleMittens]

09:38 PM on 05/18/2010

How scummy is it that her employer has to sneak around like a creep reading their employees personal social network posts. It's against the law to ask an employee their age, year of graduation, ethnic background, and sexual orientation, when will it be against the law to skulking employees on the web?

[DAVID POSTER]

06:08 PM on 05/19/2010

Never. Facebook is a public place. Mark it private if you wish, but it will be made public.

[Womanvoter4Obama]

06:47 PM on 05/19/2010

Yes and no. She has every right to vent but she sure should have checked her privacy settings before she went off. And why was her employer on her FB page? She hadn't friended them.

[Spekkio]

02:00 PM on 05/20/2010

This brings us to a point that I keep making, but it doesn't seem to get the attention or traction I think it deserves. Yes, in this case, the woman in question showed poor judgment. But her employer - your employer - could fire you for posting legitimate political stuff in public. The private sector has too few checks keeping them from interfering in the private lives of current or potential employees.

http://libraryomega.blogspot.com/2010/04/facebook-privacy.html

[DoorMouse]

08:49 PM on 05/18/2010

There's quite a few things I don't get about this story. First off, why didn't she flip the table to another server? This is done ALL THE TIME, it's SOP if you need to leave for any reason. It's usually pretty easy to talk someone else into covering the table.
1. If they haven't paid yet, drop the check. Come back a little later and pick it up. If it has cash or a charge, you're good (most places make the server pay if the table pulls a "dine and ditch"). If there's nothing in it, picking an empty check up off the table and then replacing it, "I'll come back when your ready," will get them off their wallets 99% of the time.

2. Get someone who's willing to watch the table. People who camp this long usually need refills on their coffee or water. Take him or her over to the table and introduce them, "OK folks, I'm leaving. This is Doormouse, and he'll be here if you need any more coffee, etc." If there's a tip in the check folder, then most people will hand it to you.
3. If that fails, make some kind of a deal with the server you are flipping the table to. I never took money from a fellow server just to watch a table, but that's just me. I'm not going to being doing anything but wiping the table down and resetting it.

[DoorMouse]

09:06 PM on 05/18/2010

Couldn't fit everything in. At one of the restaurants that I worked at we used to "pray to the god of Late Tables" to spare us. Many a brewski was raised in his honor when he did.

[Nate Carter]

07:43 PM on 05/18/2010

it shouldn't be okay to fire somoene over a status update. then again, it shouldn't be okay to slam your customers and the business that finances your life in a public forum. I don't think anyone is in the right on this one

[bloodface]

08:04 PM on 05/18/2010

It's not technically a public forum, however. If you are in public office, yes, but not a regular citizen. It all depends on how your settings. Additionally, where does the scope of the companies reach begin and end? Are they justified in firing someone because they said something in private to one other person, who then relayed that to management?

[Spekkio]

02:01 PM on 05/20/2010

They're definitely not justified, IMO, but yes, they have the power to do that. People have been fired for bumper stickers on their cars, drinking beer after work, etc.

http://libraryomega.blogspot.com/2010/04/facebook-privacy.html

[Master G]

06:54 PM on 05/18/2010

I thought about this and i think that not only is this Prixx place to blame but she is as well. We all know that social networking sites are nothing but a burden when you get down to it. Your boss uses it to dig up dirt on you, your wife uses it to find someone with bigger manhood and your daughter uses it to meet those minorities you hate so she can bring them home for you to meet. When will people learn that its better to stay under the radar and not try to act like youre a 17 year old with a twitter/facebook acc.

[holyghostie]

05:01 PM on 05/18/2010

The manager at this Brix should come do an internship in NYC to learn how to turn-tables.

http://agilechef.com/2010/03/throughput-part-1/

[fedupinfla]

05:09 PM on 05/18/2010

THANK-YOU!!! I've been trying to explain this concept to a few people here who seem to think sitting at a table for 3hrs & leaving a lousy $5 tip is the WAITRESSES fault.

[holyghostie]

05:19 PM on 05/18/2010

I know I had the same battle last night. Its a subtle art but one that is taught in all eating establishments I've ever worked in, to get the campers to move.

You might send the bus boy over 100 times with the water pitcher, or constantly ask if they want dessert, coffee, tea or something else. Usually people with an ounce of a brain get the hint.

If you want to watch masters at table-turning go to any Chinese Restaurant in NYC. Its a sight to behold.