Applebee's official reply

[Johonny]

29. I think as a general rule of any ethics course I have ever taken is

do not act in a way that if it became public would embarrass yourself or your company.

I this way the staffs actions do not seem to embarrass the company at all and certainly don't embarrass the waiter personally. Where clearly the costumer wrote a message that they are clearly embarrassed about. Thus in the realm of ethics this is not a hard one to figure out who behaved less than ethically.

As for recommending tips... not every American is great at math. Although in general I've seen restaurants give tip ranges. 10 % 15% 18 % instead of just a flat 18% Although for big parties I have seen this flat amount. Once again this is an Applebee's thing. Really good places often do this. As more than one person has pointed out the best way to solve all this is to just freaking pay food industry workers a real salary and stop low balling them and forcing the variability of tips to cover the difference.