‘If another tip goes missing, you’re fired’: Cracker Barrel manager accuses worker of stealing tips.

Barrel manager accuses worker of stealing tipsPhoto by@clarisaithink/TikTok Tanapoom1545/ShutterStock JHVEPhoto/ShutterstockCracker

"Clearly he was trying to imply I was the one stealing tips". A former Cracker Barrel employee recalls how she was once wrongfully accused of stealing tips on the job.

The story unfolded on TikTok, through the Clarisaithink (@clarisaithink) account. The video, shared on Monday, has received over 56,000 views. In the video, she discusses her background in employment at Cracker Barrel.

She reveals, “It was a little bit more religious, and people were a little bit more uptight, a little bit more close-knit. So, like, I already was kind of the outsider, but things were going OK.”

But then, she had a misstep. “Month three maybe, my ex came to pick me up from work, and I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta go! My girlfriend’s here,’” she says. “That was a mistake because almost immediately, some of the vibes changed.”

What happened after the revelation?

She then reveals, “This one manager that was already kind of on the fence about me, like, … like, made it very well known that he did not like me.” She claims she was given bad sections and bad shifts, saying, “If there was, like, money to be made, he made sure I didn’t make it.”

She reports that eventually, this manager was focused on how tips were going missing from servers at the restaurant. “And it was always interesting,” she observed. “So only ever when this manager worked, somebody would like leave a five on the table. And by the time the waitress would go back to grab it, it would be gone. And that would be a consistent issue.”

The creator admitted that she had experienced it a couple of times herself, yet the supervisor started to implicate her as the culprit. He blamed her even though numerous instances of unauthorized use were recorded on days she was absent from work.

He said things like, “Isn’t it weird that tips only go missing when you’re working?” around other employees.

She assessed, “Clearly, he was trying to imply I was the one stealing tips.” He finally confronted her directly, saying if another tip went missing he would fire her. A tip went missing on a day she wasn’t working, and he fired her anyway.

What happened after

She then goes on to describe what occurred following her termination from Cracker Barrel.

“Lo and behold, it comes out, turns out he was doing it all along,” she says. “And then there’s a class action lawsuit, not even like 6 months later, for lost wages and for them cutting your hours without paying you, for them changing your hours without saying anything, and also for stealing tips. Who signed up for that class action lawsuit?”

She reveals, “It’s been like 8 years now, and it’s just now settled.”

A follow-up video, addressing inquiries regarding the financial compensation she received from the suit, discloses that the payment is anticipated to reach her within the next week following the lawyers informed her in August. The lawsuit involved over 300 individuals, and she anticipates that the attorneys will likely receive a substantial share of what she referred to as a “multimillion-dollar settlement.”

In August 2023, a legal complaint was filed by Top Class Actions in Tennessee, accusing the company of not compensating its restaurant staff for all their hours worked, leading to their wages falling below the legal minimum wage due to unpaid overtime.

Additionally, a 2021 legal case claimed that Cracker Barrel underpaid its tipped employees. This case argued that the restaurant was exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to increase the workload of its servers for less pay.

Mashed released an article on January 31, 2023, titled, “The Most Controversial Moments in Cracker Barrel’s History.” The article began with the statement, “Cracker Barrel has faced an astonishing number of controversies, lawsuits, and allegations against them, especially given their relatively short history as a restaurant chain.”

It then listed headlines from since the chain opened its first location in Tennessee in 1969. This included a 2004 lawsuit brought by the NAACP, which accused the restaurant of severe racism, followed by an investigation by the Justice Department.