Fired Michigan server who got viral $10K tip refused to rat out complaining staffers who wanted share: lawyer

The Michigan server who received a $10,000 tip was fired after she wouldn’t rat out her coworkers who complained about not getting a cut, claiming the owners threatened to sue for “her entire state,” her lawyer said.

Linsey Huff – who also goes by the last name Boyd – collected the enormous gratuity off a $32.43 bill from a customer at the Mason Jar Cafe while he was in the area for a friend’s funeral earlier this month.

The anonymous man, who left the now-viral tip in honor of his late friend, had requested the $10,000 be split between the service staff, as eight of the servers walked away with approximately $1,200 each.

The kitchen staff Benton Harbor restaurant, however, felt snubbed from the generous gift.

The disgruntled back-of-house staffers had become angered with Huff for not getting a piece of the nearly 31,000% tip, and drama soon unfolded, causing problems within the staff.

Huff reportedly had gone to management to assist with calming the drama, but her bosses wanted to know who was causing the issues.

“I’m not going to give any of their names … because I don’t want to create a bigger issue,” Linsey Huff said according to her lawyer Jennifer McManus, who spoke with the Guardian. “I would just like some assistance in getting this resolved.”

McManus claimed the restaurant fired her client after she was unwilling to reveal her angered co-workers’ identities.

After she was fired, the divorced mom-of-two took to social media to shed light on the drama that unfolded before management had asked her to take that Sunday off as a mental health day, according to the Detroit Free Press, citing the now-deleted Facebook post.

Huff also detailed she was asked to take the Monday off as well, before she asked if they were telling “in a professional way to not come back.”

She was fired via telephone that Tuesday.

“One week I’m such an amazing, hardworking employee, awesome mother … couldn’t have happened to a better person,” Huff’s post reportedly read. “Now, I’m without a job, for the first time since I was 15 years old.”

Huff allegedly received a phone call from a Mason Jar manager, telling her the restaurant had retained attorneys to file a lawsuit against her unless she deleted the Facebook post.

McManus claimed the threat was enough for Huff to erase the post, that “truthfully” documented the firing, and the restaurant’s threat also included them suing “for her full estate.”

“She kind of chuckled [at that] and said, ‘Well, good luck – I’m a waitress. There’s not an estate here,’” McManus told the Guardian.

Cafe owners Able Martinez and Jayme Cousins refuted the claims and said Huff’s termination was “purely a business decision.”

Management at the Cafe became angered with Huff for posting about her firing and refuted her claims by saying Huff’s termination had nothing to do with the tip, and it was “purely a business decision.”

“I will say it had nothing to do with the tip. She did receive the entire tip, she did not pay taxes on it (the business did). Yes, she shared the tip at the request of the man that left it,” Martinez and Cousins wrote on Facebook.

“We do truly care about our staff,” the post added.

McManus slammed the restaurant’s ownership for firing Huff, pointing out the fracture between food service management and their employees.

“The people with the money … control the narrative, and the people that work for them understand that and often have to cower because of that,” McManus told the outlet.

McManus says she is only representing the former waitress if the restaurant does decide to follow up on their threats and sue Huff for damages.