‘He was trying to imply I was the one stealing tips’: A former Cracker Barrel employee speaks out after wrongfully being accused of theft

Working in the service industry is tough, but some people have absolute horror stories, and one employee decided to share her experience on TikTok. She worked for Cracker Barrel, and things got uncomfortable quickly, resulting in an unfair dismissal. Her story is wild!

It all began in 2017 when TikToker @clarisaithink was hired as a fresh-faced 20-year-old. “Things were going OK at first,” she admits. She worked at three Cracker Barrels and was sad to leave the second one because it was so awesome, but she needed to move and became employed at a new Cracker Barrel. The experience started fine, but she described the vibes and noted how you could “tell it was a little bit more of a conservative area,” and the people were “more uptight and a little bit more close-knit.” 

When Clarisa joined the local Cracker Barrel branch, she worked with people who had known each other since childhood, making her feel like an “outsider.” But things turned horrible around month three when she casually stated her girlfriend was picking her up. “That was a mistake,” she said of sharing this information. “Almost immediately, some of the vibes change, and like they didn’t tell me, they wouldn’t let me know, and I’m autistic, so it took a while to see it.”

She claims that a manager started to hate her after her accidental outing. The manager took away all her responsibilities and made it seem like he did not trust her, despite the fact that nothing had happened prior to this to give him reason to doubt her. Her work privileges were also revoked; there were no more good sections or good days. Was it just a coincidence that this shift happened after she outed herself? Her comments seem to suggest it was deliberate. 

People share their thoughts on this crazy Cracker Barrel employee story

It’s hard to imagine this story getting worse, but it does. Clarisa claims that when the general manager realized she would not quit, allegations of missing tips started to surface. Can you guess who his suspect was? Yep, he alleged it was her! He made these allegations very loudly and publicly, saying to her, “Isn’t it weird that tips only go missing when you’re working?”

This story’s ending is infuriating because it was not the servers stealing the tips — it was allegedly the manager himself! So, when the class action lawsuit against the company was made for unpaid wages, she signed up to be a part of it, and after all these years, it has just been settled. Clarisa gave no information on how much the company had settled for, but the lawsuit was widely reported last year.

Many people are invested in this story and have been eager to share their thoughts in the comment section of the post. “Don’t these places have cameras?” one person asked, to which @clarisaithink replied, “I honestly don’t know. I don’t remember the cameras being in the main dinning room but there were tons of cameras so I’m sure they had them.” 

What makes this story even worse is that it does not appear to be an isolated incident and many people have experienced something similar! Other reactions include, “I had a manager try to pin stealing money on me, so I took it upon myself to search the cameras and leave timestamps for the ASM to see,” and “I’ve been treated lk that. I was the 1person that worked there that wasn’t related to the owners.”