Meet Glass, Lewis and Co., the company that got a food truck employee fired for offending them on Twitter

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Hold the phone. I just read through the source article: this wasn’t calling-in an order for delivery or anything. This was a group of people (“about a dozen”) who walked down to the truck, placed their orders, and paid. No table service - just up to the counter, order, pay.

That’s not a situation where tipping is called for in the first place.

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Tip at food trucks, they get paid squat.

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I also understand why he had to be fired, although I have mixed feelings about it. Are food truck employees tipped wait staff?

Actually that’s something I’ve wondered about even before reading this story. Where I live there’s been an explosion of food trucks in recent years. Most of them are staffed solely by their owners. I still always leave them a tip, because I know most have got pretty narrow margins. But if they have employees who depend on tips that makes it even more important. This is really an academic question, though. Even if their employees make standard minimum wage I still think they deserve a tip. It benefits all of us.

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Definitely kind of tacky that they accepted the apology on Twitter, but it probably wasn’t that smart to complain about them not tipping, either.

That said, I am totally an over-tipper. Whenever I find myself in position where “the company” is paying for my food, but I feel weird about them paying for the tip, I’ll just pay for it out of pocket. I’m not some mega-rich dude, but I guess I can afford it.

That said, if I’m too broke to tip someone, then I probably shouldn’t be patronizing an establishment where it’s “normal” to tip. If I can justify spending three to five bucks on a freaking cup of coffee, then it only seems fair to throw down an extra buck or two for the people making it for me and who are usually very pleasant and friendly. If I don’t have the money to tip someone, than maybe I should be making my food/coffee/drinks/whatever at home.

All that said, yeah, it’s lame that they didn’t tip, but shit happens. It also sounds like this guy wasn’t very happy at his job and was willing to risk his employment. I don’t think complaining about it on Twitter was really great, either, especially when it seems like this company is trying to have a very visible “social media” presence.

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Probably below Minimum Wage - which is an odd thing that America does to it’s waiter staff. Why they call it Minimum Wage is anyone’s guess I guess. So yeah, tip or just don’t support that business.

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Just Tweeted to @glasslewis… Rich people that can spend a fortune but tip nothing. Typiclal rich people that care nothing for the poor. Put the hash tag #shameful Please tweet to them so they learn to care of others.

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I think this is less about them not tipping than it is about them churlishly ringing up the boss and causing this guy to get fired. What fragile, pathetic people they must be. It’s not even like he lied, is it? They didn’t tip.

Still, it looks like they’ve gotten themselves a nice little social media buzz out of this, and have likely damaged their own brand quite considerably.

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That’s odd. Spending more money implies that you should part with even more money?

When I go someplace and have [insert favourite consumable here] and it’s 2 or 3 dollars more than it should be - I have the opposite reaction: I assume they pay their staff well and tip much less and/or base it on the quality of service.

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Done!

I didn’t realize tipping at a food truck was a thing. Do you tip at McDonalds? They get paid squat too. What’s the difference? I tip wait staff, but I don’t wander into the kitchen at a restaurant and tip them. What’s the ‘service’ that the service charge would cover?

TBH, I thought that most people working a food truck were the owners of said truck, so tipping would seem a bit redundant. Maybe that’s not a good assumption.

Generally I don’t eat at them anyway, since they always seem bloody expensive. If they really aren’t paying their staff much and working on thin margins then…

Dammit, years over here and I still don’t get tipping (to forestall anger - I always tip wait staff 15-20%, I’m not Mr Pink). I just wish all employers would pay their goddamn staff a fair salary, set their prices appropriately to cover service and leave me out of it.

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Be a rebel. Slip yer next burger flipper a fiver.

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I assume it’s because a food truck doesn’t have the kind of access to the global-supply chain that Starbuck’s/McDonald’s/whateveryounameit has, and the cost of operations is reflected in the price.

Edit: I also find that the quality is often better because of the lack of homogeneity.

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Tipping not only is a fair practice or a show of appreciation, it’s an investment.

Being a good tipper ensures that you are remembered as a favored customer. That means extra meat on a sandwich, coffee poured from the freshest pot, a bigger piece of cake, faster service, an occasional freebie.

Being a non-tipper guarantees just the opposite.

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Tipping at food trucks! Give me a break. Tipping at food trucks. Man, you can’t just buy something anymore. Jeebsusflippinchrist.

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Tips should be made illegal. It’s the only way to make business owners pay decent wages.

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If a place has a tip jar, tip.

Because I promise you, the person that gets those tips is not being paid a living wage.

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Also, complaining about not paying a non-mandatory fee on Twitter and referencing the particular company is an absolute dick move. Calling to have dude fired is also a dick move, but thinking you as an employee should do that is a terrible idea.

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Fair enough, although I honestly doubt the employees at any of these places get paid that well.

I work in the industry and own my own truck. The positions may not pay be the greatest wage in the world, but the average food-truck cook makes $13 an hour and are considered NON-TIP SHARING positions. So, the bottom-line is that he had no business in expecting a tip (though they’re always appreciated and I let my people take and split them).

And what he did… Hey, he can find another cook job and nobody will know who he is or the stupid thing he did, OTOH, the truck has to deal with harm to their reputation caused by Captain Crybaby.

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