‘A Random Gift’: Georgia Olive Garden Manager Slams Accusations Restaurant Withheld $700 Tip from Employee
A Georgia restaurant manager is pushing back against claims that management withheld a former employee’s $700 tip, saying the customer’s card did not have enough funds to cover the transaction.
Brook Skyes, a former Olive Garden server in Fayetteville, Georgia, received the unusually large tip from a customer on May 31. But according to her mother, Buni Williams, management refused to release the money immediately.
“My daughter called me upset because one of her regular customers gave her a $700 tip and the manager said she could not get it until it was verified. But the customer was gone,” Williams wrote on Facebook.
According to Williams, Skyes became upset after managers told her they could not immediately process the gratuity. During her shift, management allegedly told her she could either get herself together and continue working or leave. The following day, the restaurant terminated her employment, citing her conduct during the incident.
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It remains unclear how much time passed between the disputed tip and the conversation about leaving work early.
Williams said different managers provided different timelines for how long the review process would take. Skyes later commented on her mother’s Facebook post and described her firing as “retaliatory.”
When reached by Atlanta Black Star, a manager at the Fayetteville Olive Garden declined to provide his name but disputed claims that the restaurant withheld the gratuity.
“He needs to have over $500. The team member would get 20% of the tip, which she did,” the manager said. “In this case, [the card] proved to have insufficient funds. So, the restaurant didn’t do anything wrong.”
The manager said the restaurant automatically deposits credit card tips onto employees’ pay cards at the end of each day. He also denied that anyone took Skyes’ money.
“Nobody stole her money, OK? Nobody withheld anything from her. Her termination didn’t have anything to do with the credit cards,” he said. “We never touched their money.”
Williams said the customer later contacted the family after seeing social media posts about the dispute.
“According to him, he has details he plans to share with her about what happened and how they allegedly tried to remove the tip from his card,” Williams wrote.
The manager also suggested that Skyes knew the customer who left the gratuity, though he did not explain the nature of their relationship.
“A random gift,” he scoffed. “If you read the credit card slip, obviously, they did know each other.”
Williams also claimed that a current employee told her management held a staff meeting and characterized the situation as a scam. When Atlanta Black Star asked whether he believed Skyes orchestrated the incident, the manager declined to comment. He added that previous media reports about the dispute were inaccurate.
According to Williams, the customer said he initially saw charges of $32 and $38 on his account, but did not see the gratuity. That account could be consistent with the manager’s claim that the larger transaction was never successfully processed.
Williams said the customer froze his card after learning about the controversy online. She said he later reported seeing an attempted $699 charge after the card had been frozen, causing the transaction to be declined.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to Skyes and Williams for additional comment, but had not received a response as of publication.