A server who recently went viral after receiving a $10,000 tip has revealed the reason why the establishment has fired her.
Earlier this month, worker Linsey Boyd was working a shift at the Mason Jar Cafe in Benton Harbour, located in southern Michigan, when a customer came in and racked up a bill of $32, as reported by WSBT.
Normally, customers are expected to tip between $3-$6 for that specific bill, however, when the man finished his food, he left a staggering tip of $10,000 for the staff.
The act of kindness was far from random as the customer - who wishes to remain anonymous - revealed that he was in town for a friend's memorial service, and wanted to honor his friend with the good deed.
The unnamed man had requested Boyd to split the gift amongst the entire team, which came out to a little over $1,100 for each employee, so that's exactly what she did.
"I just gave him a hug. I didn't even know his name at that point, but I gave him a hug. He then told me he left her a memorial of someone very dear to him and he wanted to do something kind and generous in her name," Boyd told the outlet.
Later, the cafe shared a now-deleted post of the receipt with the handwritten tip and the man's last name removed. In response, many people and publications reacted to the heartwarming story, per the Detroit Free Press.
However, what was supposed to be an upbeat story took a negative turn as Boyd claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that drama began to unfold inside the cafe days after receiving the sizeable payment.
The kitchen staff at the Benton Harbor restaurant reportedly felt aggrieved that they weren't receiving a cut of the tip.
In an interview with The Guardian, Boyd's lawyer Jennifer McManus revealed that Boyd informed her superiors about the upset and they allegedly asked her to name the people who vocalized their frustration.
In response, Boyd allegedly said: "I’m not going to give any of their names … because I don’t want to create a bigger issue. I would just like some assistance in getting this resolved."
According to McManus, the restaurant fired Boyd after she insisted on keeping the identities of those angered by the tip situation under wraps.
She alleged that management then asked her to take a mental health day off, as well as a night shift. They also instructed her not to show up to work on a Monday.
The waitress messaged the restaurant that same day to ask if she was being told "in a professional way to not come back," and then on Tuesday she was told via phone that she was indeed fired.
"One week I’m such an amazing, hardworking employee, awesome mother… couldn’t have happened to a better person," Boyd's post reportedly read. "Now, I’m without a job, for the first time since I was 15 years old."
The restaurant’s owners, Able Martinez, and Jayme Cousins, have refuted the ex-employee's claims, stating that the dismissal had nothing to do with the $10K tip as Boyd shared it with the rest of the staff. They explained that they could not reveal the details surrounding the release due to labor laws.
The couple said the restaurant paid the taxes on the tip and the termination was "not a decision made lightly or hastily," as cited by the Detroit Free Press. "We do truly care about our staff. We’ve had the same crew for 5-6 years," the post said.
"We have college girls that come home every summer and have been for four years now, we take our staff up north at the end of every summer season, we give donations for college funds for them, we kept them employed through Covid, we do everything in our power not to lose staff," they added.
In an interview with WOOD-TV, Cousins shared that it would not be "logical" for them to sack their worker over the tip, and explained: "WE give chances after chances to our staff, so we clearly would not let someone go for no reason at all."
The owner assured they did not come to the decision lightly and firing an employee is something the diner tries to avoid. "In this case, it was purely a business decision," they shared.
Boyd revealed to WNDU that she "drove out of town this morning to spend time with family and get away," following her rough week.