That’s my take on it, too. If I won big, I wouldn’t stop working - working is good for your soul. You have to go to work so you can enjoy not working. If my co-worker didn’t quit, I would respect that.
Ana, your co-worker sounds like an admirable fellow. Good for him.
As long as they did their job without slacking off I wouldn’t care. I might be curious why they wanted to work instead of doing all the things they wanted to but couldn’t til now but if they didn’t become assholes then it would be fine.
If a guy got killed on the job, I suppose the family could sue them for his worth (which would be how much he stood to collect from the lottery). Maybe?
I think it would be really strange to not work AT ALL. What on earth would people do all day? And if you liked your work, your co-workers, your identity in the workplace or your reputation in your field - what a terrible loss that would be. Gah. All that’s left is to become Paris Hilton.
Howsomever - said lottery worker would be prohibited from complaining about work at all, ever. If co-workers bring up a legitimate beef, lottery worker has an obligation to put on a slightly lobotimized expression and say “I like it here”.
If you kept the job, you’d be taking it away from someone who really needs the job and the money. And plenty of good places are looking for volunteers.
Yeah, agreed. Especially if the job has health insurance, you’d be an asshole to keep it.
I could maybe see keeping your job if it’s really worthwhile, like you’re a famous surgeon or a musician in an orchestra. But your typical drone-work? I’d think the winner was lording it over me and the other workers by staying there. I would feel like I couldn’t complain about the job around him. He would make me feel really uneasy and self-conscious. If I won the lottery I’d probably still work somewhere, like as a volunteer (I could found my OWN volunteer center, with hookers and booze, actually forget the volunteer center), but I think you’d have to be either insane or a jerk to keep a nine-to-five job with a two hour commute.
Damnit. Didn’t think of that. Now, I won’t ever win the lottery since playing the lottery seems to be a prerequisite, but if I did play and did win I would like to keep my job, but I couldn’t do so in good conscience. There are people who need it.
That doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who won a lottery yet chooses to keep working has got to be the most contented worker in the place.
I think the legal term of this type of liability on behalf of an employer is known as “sour grapes.”
I don’t doubt your story, Blue Sky, but that has got to rank up there as the worst excuses to fire someone ever. It is only slightly less silly than a company arguing that a worker has to be fired before he does something vindictive because he’s not worth enough money.
I’d be happy to work with someone who got rich and didn’t quit their job. Hell, I work with someone who owns a huge amount of farmland that I conservatively estimate to have a value of at least $80 million – but I have no idea how much she actually earns from production on the land.
And, if I hit the lottery, I’d want to keep my job. It is pretty much what I’ve always dreamed of doing. Why should a sudden windfall ruin one of my real satisfactions in life? Should Neil Armstrong have been forced out of his job in the 1960s had he hit the lotto?
Anyways, I’m at work, and I’ve got to get back to messing around till quitting time. 
Funny, we were talking about the same thing last week when half the office chipped in to play the NY Lottery jackpot. I never play the lottery but it was worth a dollar to not be the only chump in the office who didn’t cash out. Didn’t win.
The think the “liability” people are talking about is if said lottery winner becomes insubordinate or lazy because he no longer need fear being let go. I can seriously imagining myself telling my boss “fuck off bitch” and throwing a stack of $100s in his face whenever he gets in my business.
I’m of the opinion that work is bullshit and if you win the lottery, why keep a job you hate? That said, you now have 8-12 hours a day that need to be filled and everyone else in the world is at work at that time. If you find your work fullfilling or it provides a social outlet, then you should stay. If it’s mind numbing drudgery, the last thing you should do is stay there out of a misguided sense of “work is good for the soul”. Go out and find something you really like doing.
You may have misunderstood me. I’m saying the lottery winner might decide he’s had enough and quit in the middle of a shift and cause problems for everybody else.
I’m with mssmith537. If I were close enough to the winner, the only thing I’d really consider bringing up would be encouragement to perhaps start their own business or do something that he/she would find more fulfilling that might not pay very much.
Well, for one thing, he’s got enough money to hire a lawyer if the company tries to shit on him. That’ll scare most managers.
People who don’t win lotteries do that fairly often. Why to hear some of the employers on this board whining, most people will quit on a dime and not work at all if given the chance. Or not.
For unskilled or semi-skilled laborers, maybe. Maybe even for people of moderate skills in various technical fields.
However, if you have unique contributions to make to your job, and if you’d be mighty darned difficult to replace, then you’d be doing everyone a favor by staying with your employer. Employment is not a zero-sum game, after all. Brilliant and talented people can help create jobs, especially when they’re driven by a desire for excellence.
No, this was already answered for me. The family wouldn’t need to sue for his worth; instead they’d most likely be inheriting it.
The work thing is indicative, to me, of the change in the workplace mentality.
A lot of the older people I have worked with in the past have always talked about how the younger folks have no sense of loyalty.
Personally, in the current workplace, I have been given no reason to have a sense of loyalty to any of my employers.
If I won the lotto, I would quit. I know all but one of my co-workers are the same way.
Also, if I were to quit, I would probably spend the rest of my life in school.
I’d quit my job, which isn’t bad, and go work a few days a week at what I really would like to do. Right now that is a very small operation that can’t afford me full time.
My 11th grade English teacher hit the state lottery for 33 million a few years after I graduated. I heard she kept her job. I thought it was bullshit because she was an awful teacher.
Plus she has horrible taste. Her and her husband built a monstrosity of a psudo-victorian house with blue vinyl siding.
Wow, those Germans have a word for everything!
I can think of two further situations: firstly, the winner is already millionaire - this actually happenned in the U.K. - and secondly, the winner might have some large debts that need paying and once those are paid, there isn’t enough left on which to retire.
And as others have said, if that money’s got to last you the rest of your life and you’re quite young, suddenly it doesn’t seem that much any more.