Man Asks if He’s Wrong for Getting a Waitress Fired Over a TikTok Video

I think that most of us would feel pretty guilty about getting anyone fired from their job, but every situation is different…and maybe it’s called for sometimes…

Which brings us to today’s story from Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole?” page.

Read on to see what happened and let us know what you think in the comments!

AITA for reporting a server over posting a TikTok?

“May sound implausible, but setting: coffee shop in small-town America, most people know each other, so not really that out of the ordinary.

There’s a nice indie cafe a few blocks from my house, which I (28M) go to a couple of times weekly, servers all know me. This month, I had my mum with me, her visiting the US for the first time. Mum spent all her life in a SE Asian country, her English is not good, etc.

Anyway, I go to work one day last week, mum wanders over to the cafe. I get home that night, ask mum how her trip to the cafe was.

She says it’s nice, told me what she got, and f**k – I forget she doesn’t know about tipping here (where she lives, there’s a large service charge included so you don’t really tip in eateries, and def not in small ones).

COMPLETELY my bad, and entirely my fault for forgetting to inform her. I ask her which server, she describes someone I know as Jane (25ish F).

I go to the cafe the next day the minute it opens, sees Jane is working, and apologize profusely, explain my mum doesn’t know re: tipping, and give her a 70% tip (bill came up to around $10 so it wasn’t really breaking the bank). She’s understandably slightly cool, but I apologize to the best of my ability.

I thought that was that. No, 2 days later a colleague texts me a link to a TikTok. Jane apparently has a sizeable TikTok following where she talks about being a barista, her customers, how to make x or y drink. Nice stuff.

Except for a video from the day my mum visited, where Jane videoed the back and side of her head, made jokes about people coming over from “f**k knows” not tipping because it’s a “man eat dog world out there”, quietly barked on video (she didn’t seem to notice it was at her).

LOTS of shares and likes and comments, btw. Again, our town is 99% white, Jane wouldn’t really be encountering many foreigners at all, it’s not a no-tip epidemic.

Gave her the benefit of the doubt, went over the next day, and politely asked her to take it down. She said no, it’s her right, and it was her “degrading” experience. Manager comes over, Jane tells the tipping part and that she made a video “out of desperation” and she wouldn’t take it down.

I tell the manager that I came back, apologized, tipped her 70%, and explained my mum didn’t know.

I showed her the TikTok, and the manager’s face changes. She doesn’t discipline Jane in front of me, but from what I hear, she was let go immediately.

Now her mother is posting on her own and my FB, as well as hinting on the community FB group about certain people not respecting servers, and causing Jane to be fired. Several people (many who don’t know the whole story) agreeing with her, even discussing setting up a collection. Almost total belief that I am the AH, no mention of the TikTok.

AITA? Should I have dragged my 70 y/o mum in to apologize to Jane? What exactly can I do now?”