Grilled Cheese Tweet
In this age of social media that we live in, it is sometimes difficult to disconnect from others. With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the countless other apps that depend on our need to stay in touch with everyone, it is easy to forget that we don’t have to share every single moment of our lives with all the people who “follow” us. Too many times, we have heard stories of people who were burned for sharing too much information on their Facebook page or tweeting something that maybe should not have been tweeted. In some cases, one social media faux pas can lead to termination of employment.
Once upon a time, there was a guy named Brendan O’Connor who worked at a popular food truck in New York City called Milk Truck. He made fancy grilled cheeses and milk shakes. One day, a group of Wall Street dickheads from Glass, Lewis and Co. came to the truck and ordered $170 worth of food. After Brendan lovingly grilled their cheeses to a golden perfection, they decided that it was not necessary to leave a tip. Brendan asked them if it was their intent to be cheap assholes and they “hemmed and hawed” and walked away. Brendan, doing what all of us do who are involved in social media do, went to his Twitter account to share his thoughts. He tweeted to Glass, Lewis and Co. about the stiff. Well, the big bad governance and proxy advisers at the company didn’t like that one bit.
“Boo hoo,” they cried. “Someone tweeted something mean about us. We’re just big whiny crybabies and we’re gonna go tell on you!”
And that’s exactly what they did. They contacted the owner of the Milk Truck who then contacted Brendan and the next thing you know, Brendan had to hang up his spatula on the wall and turn in his apron. According to the New York Post, he was fired.
This brings up some very important questions: should Brendan have been fired for his actions? I suppose we can all agree that public “tip shaming,” although fun, is not very nice. On the other hand, stiffing someone isn‘t very nice either so if they would have just tipped in the first place, none of this would have happened. Had Brendan signed some social media clause for the job that restricted him from discussing the goings on at Milk Truck? According to Brendan himself in a piece he wrote about the the event, Twitter and Instagram were rather popular with the customers who often shared images of their sandwiches. It sounds as if the owner was a bit neurotic about the images though and if a photo of a less-than-perfect grilled cheese made it out into the world, he would make sure to let his crew know that maybe a sub-par sandwich had been served.
This got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be fun to fuck with Milk Truck? If the owner gets all wigged out every time one of his sandwiches doesn’t look right on Twitter or Instagram, why don’t we flood his Twitter account with pictures of jacked up burnt as hell grilled cheeses? The owner could have given Brendan a warning or better yet he could have told him, “Yeah those douche bags at Glass, Lewis and Co. suck balls, dude, you’re right. Fuck ’em.” But he didn’t. He fired Brendan and then apologized to the company who stiffed Brendan in the first place and started this whole thing. Here’s what I want us to do:
- Search Google images for “burned grilled cheese.”
- Choose a fucked up ugly ass picture of some skanky ass grilled cheese and save it.
- Go to Milk Truck’s Twitter page.
- Post the image to their Twitter page and say something like, “Yummy…” or “Wow, thanks a lot…”
- Go to Brendan’s Twitter page and show him some love.
Yes, this is childish and immature but damn it’s fun. I already did it and I am anxiously awaiting a comment from them. You know me and how I so enjoy stirring the pot, so let’s just think of this as a big bucket of fondue. Share the hell out of this post. The next time I go to Milk Truck’s Twitter page, I want to see photo after photo of some fucked up grilled cheeses and know that the owner is freaking out about it. And, Brendan, if you’re reading this, congratulations on getting fired. Not only did you get out of the grilled cheese business to focus on your freelance writing, you got lots of attention while doing so. It’s a win-win, right?
And just to reiterate, Brendan has nothing to do with this blog post.
Scott
Bringing my food to the table like a monkey bitch is not worth a tip
Brianna
I am super late on this, but wow. I probably wouldn’t have fired the guy, but I would have asked him to delete the tweet simply because it makes the business look bad – having staff just spontaneously post stuff like this on the truck’s behalf without any heads up can blow up in your face.
I own a truck, and people go crazy with the social media. Usually, some sort of tip is expected, because you have three people working their asses off in a truck that’s over 100 degrees inside, cooking some sort of specialty stuff as quickly as possible, to order, and right in front of you. I don’t expect some sort of 20% deal, but a dollar in the jar is nice – we try to give each order some special attention, this isn’t McDonald’s. You’re paying for quality and convenience and a little bit of experience, too.
So, yeah, poor form for those guys to tie up the trucks kitchen for probably an hour and not even toss the guy a ten for laboriously packing everything up, making sure everything was correct and not dealing with all the regular customers he could have been dealing with. It’s like a to go order at a restaurant – it takes extra time, so you give a little extra. Still, calling out the asses by name be dragging the businesses name into it is a bad idea – unless you’re the owner, never decide you are entitled to speak in behalf of your employer. You may be pissed, but it’s still a terrible idea.
PDL
I don’t know, are food truck employees paid as tipped employees or do they earn at least minimum wage? I tip 20% in restaurants but I’m rapidly getting sick of tip jars everywhere I go. While I don’t want to be cheap, I don’t see why I should have to tip the guy at the pizza counter. And I’m speaking as someone who worked in the service industry and really tries never to be a problem in any customer service situation.
BW – I’ve been wondering what your thoughts are on the sports (football?) player who left $3 on a $70 something take-out order.
melissa in houston
Ever heard of those constitutional rights like say free speech and freedom of the press. Yes his tweets are press. Looks like some rights have been violated to me
Id march on Washington for this guys rights. We gotta stand up folks and make sure we dont lose our rights.
Kyla
For the record: freedom of speech and freedom of press only apply to what the government can’t infringe on, much like most of the other rights contained within the Bill of Rights. What happened to Brendan was messed up, but unfortunately as a private actor Brendan’s boss was within his rights.
Completely separate topic: BW, I adore your blog! Growing up with a mother who waited many a table (and taught her children the importance of tipping), I am shocked by how people act in restaurants, and love your creative, well-written way of sharing your experiences!
PCC
Brendan’s asshole boss, Keith Klein, and the assholes at Glass, Lewis, are made for each other. Brendan, you’re better off without either of them in your life.
JC
HEAR FUCKING HEAR!
what happened to old mate milk truck IS illegal and i hope he had some union rep along the way
Carl
People suck. These people, who ordered all the food, suck. Someone, apparently, still has to stand up for those in foodservice / hospitality. I was a bartender for 12 years, and a server for 5 before that. When I was cutting my teeth, it wasn’t this bad. WTF happened to everyone? Older people are finding all the same bullshit reasons to either get out of paying or tipping. I’m very concerned about where we’re going as a whole. I thank you, BW, for not being afraid to put it out there, and your absolute eloquence at times in presenting your position.
vjones830
I get so disgusted when people saying that “tipping is not a requirement.” I don’t know how food trucks pay their employees, but in restaurants, tipping is required. When you go to a restaurant where you are waited on, you are dining under the assumption that you are going to leave a tip. The standard these days is 20% for very good service, 15% if you felt that improvement could be made. Anything less than 15% should indicate that the server failed his job in some way. In this U.S. culture, there is an understanding that restaurant guests pay the salary of the waiters. To say otherwise is just ignorance of the facts. There are countries that include the tip in the bill, and the guest has no discretion on what they’d like to leave. And the service in countries where the tip is included is usually not as fast and friendly as in our country. If I knew that I’d get paid either way, what incentive would I have do an A+ job, as opposed to a B+ job?
Cyndie
I don’t tip the ice cream man nor do I tip at a taco stand. Why in the heck would I tip at a food truck? If you want tips in food service go wait tables or tend bar, develop something that takes a little skill and talent, not flipping grilled cheese sandwiches.
As for firing him, no one can speak to what else this guy may have done in the past. Perhaps we should wait and hear both sides of the story before we start judging the owner. As for flooding the owner’s twitter, that’s simply harassment and I feel sorry for the damaged people who have nothing better to do in their lives than try to cause this kind of negativity. Shame on them, too!
Carl
So cooking food requires no skills or talent. Taking orders in a truck, and cooking the food at the same time requires no skills or talent. What rock did you just crawl out from under? Have you EVER cooked food?
Rachel
Someone seems a little dedicated to being a food truck-owner-who-will-fire-someone-to-suck-up-to-rich-cheap-assholes apologist. I sent an extra photo in, just for you.
I love everyone!
I got in serious trouble at work for writing some opinions on FB, no names were mentioned and (at that time) there was no social media clause. The people I was complaining about must have figured it out – because, again no names were mentioned! They had a $hit fit. Lesson learned – even though I don’t think it was fair…Jesus could read by FB now and not find any issues.
Debbie
Hmm – I’m curious to hear what the business owners and managers they employ think about this one. In my opinion, they’re the only ones who have the right to turn away business. I busted my ass to build up small businesses in this industry and happily backed my employees whenever a customer got out of line. But for this one? I would have fired him too. We need social media policies to tell us that calling the people who support the business that employs us, “cheap assholes” to their faces is wrong? Seriously? I wonder how he would have handled this if he had to pay the bills. And I wonder if he would then consider trashing and naming his business’s customers in a public forum to be the same thing as saying it to their faces. There are a lot of ways to get what you want out of customers – what he did isn’t one of them.
Roni
I’m not seeing any pictures.Maybe he is deleting them as they are posted?
Robert
That’s what it looks like. Not a single bad pic.
Serenity
Yes, and I saw a tweet calling them out, and when I went back it was gone. Go to their facebook page, they’re not getting to those as quickly, and a bunch of people have posted expressing their displeasure.
Serenity
I personally never say anything negative regarding work online bc it can bite you in the butt. I do think it was a little tacky of the employee to tweet it, and he should have known that someone douchey enough to not tip on such a large order, would be douchey enough to complain, especially since he tweeted it right at them. However, if he was my employee, I would not have fired him, just talked to him and tell him that sadly, sometimes you have to suck it up. And I would start adding a service fee to anything over 100 bucks. BTW, i looked for your burnt grilled cheese pic on their page, and they must have deleted it bc it’s nowhere to be found.
CG
> should Brendan have been fired for his actions?
Abso-fucking-lutely. His behavior was unacceptable, and I can’t believe you’re defending him.
One dick move doesn’t deserve another, and shaming a customer like that will never end well. Especially if this is a company that regularly orders from the truck.
Narcissus Inc
It was rude, yes- but firing him? Extreme. Especially firing him and then apologizing to the company that blatantly disrespected a Milk Truck employee. If I had someone have a $170 bar tab and then not tip me a dime, I would take pictures of the assholes, then plaster the internet with that shit and then never serve them again. I understand, sometimes people forget, no big deal, but the employee questioned their rude actions of stiffy unpleasantness and was scoffed at. They place a HUNDRED AND SEVENTY dollar order at a mobile grilled cheese and dont have at least a 20-spot to tip? Are you high? The company should have been the ones apologizing to the employee and at least covering a 20% tip to avoid bad publicity.
And the Milk Truck is definitely deleting the pictures off of their Twitter and pretending nothing happened. Who has their Facebook page address?
DiatribesAndOvations.com
Unless The Milk Truck has a policy in place regarding social media, and Brendan violated the policy that he had previously agreed to, he shouldn’t have been fired.
Companies across the nation are working diligently to create and implement social medial policies for just this reason.
Those Wall Street types can be the worst.
Michelle
Hey, I’d be pissed too, but if tips were a requirement, they would be included in the price of the food. Hell yes, he should have been fired, not just for commenting negatively on and identifying his EMPLOYERS customers, who just spent almost $200-money that goes to pay his wages-but he should have been fired for asking them for a tip and calling them cheap assholes in the first place-even though they were. Unfortunately, it is a part of the industry. Fortunately, (just as a tip is not a requirement) it is not a requirement to give back money from all those awesome people who overtip. It all works out in the end-unless you are a total jackass like Brendan sounds like he is. Maybe his attitude was part if the reason they were such cheap assholes.
Erin
The restaurant industry has worked hard to not include the price of labor in their food. The government expects you to tip, and thus allows employers to not pay wages with the expectation that you as the customer will make up the wage with tips. So while the truck takes in $170, if it took Brendan one hour to make that order, he made $5. I have zero sympathy for companies that under pay their employees and then get pissed when said employees get fed up with their crappy money. People that bitch about people that they don’t know being dissatisfied with bad tips by proclaiming tips aren’t required and that the employee must be rude are, themselves, total jackasses.
Michelle
Can we also tweet something to the douchebags? Maybe pictures of crying babies? They are double the dickshits for not tipping and then getting someone fired in this economy…don’t they just know how to block a tweet instead of getting their panties all bunched? Or yah know, just TIPPING!
Love this post
Kudos to you for speaking out! I am so sick and tired of these big companies getting people fired b/c the don’t like a Tweet or FB post. What ever happened to freedom of speech? If Brendan didn’t sign any sort of social media contract with that food truck, what do they care. It’s not like he tweeted from the food truck’s handle, it was his own PERSONAL thought & opinion. Big Brother is getting so out of hand these says, you almost have to be afraid to complain about anything. So sad – Thanks for sharing this!
Melsissa
I freaking love you bitchy! You always make me laugh! About to go do as you you instructed.