An Arkansas waitress had a party of 40 leave a massive tip, only to find out later from her manager that she was fired and that she'd be splitting the tip with the other staffers.

The big tip came on December 6th, when waitress Ryan Brandt and another server worked a party of more than 40 at a restaurant called Oven and Tap in Bentonville, according to Fox 59.

Each diner had chipped in $100 for a tip, believing the total would go to their two servers.

“We knew servers were really hit hard through COVID, and it was something that we had come up with to help give back,” Grant Wise, who dined with the party at the eatery following a conference in town, told CBS 5.

The restaurant's manager instructed Brandt to pool the tip with her co-workers who didn't serve the party, which was not the practice she'd experienced in her three years working there, she told Fox 59.

“I was told that I was going to be giving my cash over to my shift manager, and I would be taking home 20 percent,” Brandt told the news outlet.

When Grant Wise heard about the bad deal, he contacted the restaurant and demanded they give the tip money, before giving Brandt $2,200 on his own.

The next day, Brandt found out she was fired.

“They fired me from Oven and Tap over the phone and I’ve been there for 3 1/2 years and that was really heartbreaking,” Brandt told CBS 5. “Especially because I didn’t think I did anything wrong.”

In a statement, Oven and Tap said Brandt was released from her job for reasons unrelated to the "tipping incident" and that they "fully honored" the tippers' requests to reward their servers.

After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers. We fully honored their request.

 

Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee.

 

The server who was terminated several days after the group dined with us was not let go because she chose to keep the tip money.

 

The other two servers who received generous tips that evening from the Witly organization — including one who also received $2,200 — are still members of our team.

So, Wise took matters into his own hands and created a GoFundMe for Brandt, which according to the New York Post, had raised over $8,700 as of Monday morning.

“It was devastating, I borrowed a significant amount for student loans,” Brandt said about losing her job. “Most of them were turned off because of the pandemic but they’re turning back on in January and that’s a harsh reality.”

Read more at NY Post

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