After Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Stiffed A Waitress, Warren Buffett Sent A Check To Make Up For It

Waitresses have a hard job, made even harder when events beyond their control cut into their tip money. One Omaha restaurant waitress learned that lesson all too well recently when Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders withheld her tip. However, according to the Omaha-World-Herald , Berkshire headquarters caught wind of the act, and they sent the waitress a check to make up for it.

The case of the stingy shareholders started when the waitress on duty was trying her best to serve a packed restaurant full of customers. The patronage consisted of regular customers, others celebrating Cinco de Mayo and still others attending a Berkshire shareholders meeting.

Try as she might, the waitress couldn’t provide everyone with 100 percent quality service on such a busy shift. Because of this, the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders felt the service was below par and stiffed the waitress.

That outcome had to sting the server, and it’s not known at this point how word got back to Berkshire HQ. We’d like to think that a proactive restaurant manager listened to her story, and then called the company to let them know that Omaha was going to start tacking an automatic percentage to their bill. The percentage would be used to make up for the tip for taking care of large parties going forward.

Fortunately, word did get back to headquarters, and the company chairman, none other than Warren Buffett himself, asked his staff to contact the restaurant so that he could issue the waitress a check to make up for the missing tip. She also received a note of apology for the slight.

While the source of the tale isn’t known, the Omaha-World-Herald insists that the story is true. The story is also a part of Warren Buffett’s effort to ensure that everybody, “including Omahans who serve,” are entertained and have fun “during Berkshire’s special week.”

For the uninitiated, the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting happens every year, and it is a highly anticipated event. Those attending get to take in “nuggets of wisdom” from business magnate Warren Buffett. But keep in mind most of those attendees, and even Warren Buffett himself, are in a different pay bracket than most people in the service industry.

Just for kicks, let’s list three important points that Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders and others dining out can keep in mind that might garner some respect for what a server goes through to give everyone those burgers and fries on the fly.

When judging whether or not to stiff your server, nine times out of ten it’s the service coming out of the kitchen that is responsible for your wait, according to Food Envy .
The servers have to tip out the bartender, the busboy, and the host, among others.
Servers often work 12-14 hours a day to make sure you don’t have to grocery shop, prep your food, cook your food, plate your food, wash your dishes and finally clean your table.

On the other hand, the following type of service merits you yanking those dollar bills right off your table when you leave.