Customer Catches Donut Shop Employee Tipping Herself Without Permission
![Mustafa Gatollari - Author](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/Svmb6c7FP/200x200/mustafa-headshot-5-1715200618128.jpg)
Updated April 12 2023, 2:43 p.m. ET
![Woman Catches Employee Putting in Her Own Tip at Check Out](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/480x251/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 480w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/640x335/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 640w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/768x402/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 768w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/1024x536/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 1024w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/1280x670/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 1280w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/1440x753/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 1440w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/1600x837/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 1600w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/IRJrsfFRE/2160x1130/donut-worker-puts-in-own-tips-cover-2-1681314835492.jpg 2160w)
The US economy took a massive hit in the past few years, so it's understandable why there would be a number of folks doing whatever they can in order to make ends meet.
However, one TikToker's experience with a donut shop employee "left a bad taste in [her] mouth" when she noticed that they put in their own gratuity at check-out. Drea (@dreareza) spoke about her experience on TikTok, mentioning that while she understands what it's like to rely on tips to make ends meet she didn't appreciate the "shady" way in which the worker went about securing her tip.
To make matters worse, Drea said that she was planning on customizing an even higher tip for the worker.
Drea says in the video, "Something just happened that left a bad taste in my mouth and this has nothing to with the money before I go on with my story and, just a back story, I worked as a waitress for so many years, I worked for tips. And thanks to this I will never not tip someone."
The TikToker continued, "So anyways I went to buy my kids donuts because I had a doctor's appointment and I was away from them for a long time and I like to bring them something. And I've been there twice before I know their machine it's either 5%, 10%, or 15%."
It was on this donut purchasing visit that Drea had her negative experience, and it all began with the weird way in which the employee was situating the POS machine, which made it difficult for her to process her own payment.
The POS machines that Drea's referring to are the common touch screen ones we're all probably familiar with.
The worker behind the counter or in the drive-thru flips the screen around or holds it out for us, we put in our card and then select our own gratuity.
![donut worker tips herself](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/480x147/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 480w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/640x195/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 640w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/768x234/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 768w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/1024x312/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 1024w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/1280x390/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 1280w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/1440x439/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 1440w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/1600x487/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 1600w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rVX3vOPb4/2160x658/donut-worker-tips-herself-1-1681315668384.jpg 2160w)
But Drea noticed that the worker was kind of trying to keep her from keying in her own tip, even though she always customizes her own tips for employees. "I like doing customize because yes, get your tips you know, especially if you're a nice person."
Drea continued, "When I go to the window to pay she has the machine to the side not even like straight how they're supposed to put it so you can insert your card to the side." The TikToker said that she noticed the employee's hands were "kinda shaky" which caused her to question the situation.
She went on, "I'm like okay trying to put it in I'm struggling and I finally go like this and I see that she put the highest tip which I'm like okay whatever girl get your money but I thought you were supposed to let me pick you know? And I get it maybe you had s****y customers before that weren't tipping you but it's like just do nice things and nice things will happen to you."
![donut worker tips herself](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/480x128/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 480w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/640x171/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 640w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/768x205/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 768w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/1024x273/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 1024w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/1280x342/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 1280w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/1440x384/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 1440w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/1600x427/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 1600w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/rZEQYVRcj/2160x576/donut-worker-tips-herself-2-1681315678288.jpg 2160w)
Drea said that even though she's all about employees getting their tips, it wasn't the worker's place to key in her own tip and it's ultimately up to the customer to decide: "cause I was gonna customize that tip I was...like I worked as a waitress for so many years I know what it's like to want your tips."
Drea said that because the employee was emotionally investing in being shady that she couldn't possibly provide a pleasant customer experience "Because of that issue she wasn't acting very nice she was acting really sketchy and not nice so I was like can I have my receipt?"
This is what sounded the alarms in the employee's head, who Drea says pretended like she didn't hear her ask for the receipt "She said okay so she goes over there to get my box of donuts and comes back and said here have a nice night. I was like can I have my receipt she's like oh you want a receipt? I was like yes I want a receipt."
![donut worker tips herself](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/480x112/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 480w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/640x149/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 640w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/768x179/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 768w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/1024x239/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 1024w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/1280x298/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 1280w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/1440x336/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 1440w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/1600x373/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 1600w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/j3CQSiw4l/2160x503/donut-worker-tips-herself-3-1681315686324.jpg 2160w)
Drea explained her reason for asking for that receipt, "So I kind of did that just so she knows that I know what she did. That I'm aware of that and she was oh like okay and then she closes the window on me because one of her co-workers comes this way and closes the window on me they start talking with each other and when I told you she took longer to give me my receipt than what she took to give me my box of donuts...yeah, you can tell."
The TikToker said that she couldn't understand the weird behavior from the employee "She's being super sketchy about the whole situation and I'm just like why? If you only like, if you only knew that I wanted to customize that tip girl and give you more because 15% it's not even a lot. It's not about the money it's just imagine someone only has a little bit of money to buy their kids donuts with this times and you put the highest, like you don't know."
Drea concluded her video by saying even when she was working as a waitress and looking forward to tips she never engaged in that type of "shady" behavior.
![donut worker tips herself](https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/480x164/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 480w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/640x219/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 640w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/768x262/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 768w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/1024x349/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 1024w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/1280x437/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 1280w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/1440x491/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 1440w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/1600x546/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 1600w, https://media.distractify.com/brand-img/bksiRZd1D/2160x736/donut-worker-tips-herself-4-1681315640960.jpg 2160w)
Many commenters who saw Drea's post remarked that the employee's behavior was not OK, with one even remarking that the same thing happened to them at a donut place and that it ultimately ended up over-drafting her account.
Has this ever happened to you?