Group Stiffs Waitress On Tip For $735 Order; She Gets Fired

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL — A server in Florida got a semi-happy ending after she was fired by Outback Steakhouse in Palm Beach Gardens for posting on social media that a mega church had stiffed her out of a tip on a $735 to-go order. Tamlynn Yoder didn’t mention the restaurant by name in her Facebook rant, but Outback said the post violated company policy.

The Christ Fellowship Church — which got a full refund on its order of 25 steaks, 25 chicken dinners and 25 potatoes — reached out to Yoder on Monday and gave her compensation that totaled more than the tip would have been, according to media reports. She declined to give the amount. But she is still on the unemployment line.

Yoder, 25, vented after a pretty tough day on Feb. 7. She had collected only $18 in tips during her shift.

“When I brought it out and put it in the car and received the payment, there was no gratuity. I got upset. I posted a post on Facebook about the church not leaving a gratuity tip,” Yoder told WLFX-TV. “We live off of tips. If we don’t have that then we have nothing.”

Yoder said anyone who orders from a restaurant, whether dining in the restaurant or placing a takeout order, should be prepared to leave a 15 percent tip. “From there you either go up or you go down, based on service,” she said.

Christ Fellowship Church became aware of the situation after a friend of Yoder’s called to complain about the Facebook post. The church then called Outback and Yoder was fired — something the church said it didn’t intend to happen.

“We did not call the restaurant to have her fired, we wanted to get the situation resolved,” David Lonsberry, an executive director of business for Christ Fellowship, told The Palm Beach Post.

Because the restaurant was experiencing delays, a volunteer at the church, which was holding a conference, volunteered to pick up the order and “probably didn’t know to tip since it was a rush of the moment thing.”

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Outback spokeswoman Cathie Koch told The Post that company policy prohibits employees from posting about their customers on social media, but declined to “go into specifics” about the incident involving Yoder.

After several people criticized the church in an unrelated post on its Facebook page, Christ Fellowship said the situation was regrettable.

“Thank you all very much for expressing your concerns. We are sorry to hear about this situation and our leaders have been notified about it. We value our local business partners and those who work in their establishments — many of whom are members of our church — and it is customary for us to leave a generous tip whenever we pick up a carry-out order. They will be looking into what happened in this instance. We are reaching out directly to the people affected,” the post read.

Yoder is now looking for a job.

“One day I would like to own my own restaurant,” Yoder told The Post. “I love this business.”

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