Lottery win bad news for gas station employeesPrevious TopicNext Topic

First of all it seems this is one of those times where you say "what a jerk" I mean YES I AGREE That the employees are under no entitlement to any of the commission, as whoever sold the ticket did it in the process of doing their job..HOWEVER....

If I was the owner I would have taken them out for a nice dinner or something...you know Like a celebration....I mean it would be a tax writefoff in itself right?? He would have brought a lot more good will upon himself that way..the problem here is that even though the owner may deny and contradict what the former employees are saying, the good will brought to his business and any future business also is now left to the mercy of people's individual opinions. and in this case I thin kthe average Joe would side with the employees, not the OWNER...That is NOT good for business!!!! I don't feel the employees should have gotten checks or anything like that...BUT COME ON...Letting them GO??? These people have FAMILIES TO FEED....WHAT A JERK!!! I wonder if any lawsuits or defamation suits will arise from this???

O.K. the employees find out that the owner of the gas station gets one percent of the jackpot 255K. Then the manager asks the owner if he's gonna share with them, obviously he's under no obligation to do so, then he terminates thier employment. What an ANUS! How painful would it have been to find four envelops and put $1000 in each one and say here ya go. That small gesture would have paid back big dividends.

Headline..........SERVICE STATION OWNER BONUSES EMPLOYEES WITH

WIN!!!!!

Local station owner thrilled with business from general public! Can't keep LOTTERY TICKETS in store............Employees say When You Shop and Work Here that Everybody WINS.................."we just came in to work the next day and there was an envelope with a month's pay"  WOW.......there were microphones and television and radio stations wanting to find out if we really were lucky"........I'll say.........It's great to work here".........(Just let a little go......and maybe a lot will come back)...........beaudad..............Would've been nice if it were true..................that owner is a JERK!

I think the manager was a greedy a hole for taking the entire bonus for himself.  He would have gotta alot farther giving the employee's a small portion of the money.  The workers might not have "deserved" the money for just working in the store and punching a button to print a ticket, but he would have gotten off cheaper given them a little than what they thought they deserved.   The owner could have probably given them each 500 bucks and they would have been happy, but when they didn't even get offered anything they probably convinced each other they were owed half the money!    However it really does anger me when I go in a gas station and buy lottery tickets and the clerk will ask it I will split the jackpot with them.  WHAT??? Your punching a button!  You aren't giving me any money for tickets.......I don't owe you Anything!   I recently stopped going to a store because a clerk kept asking everyone buying tickets if they would SPLIT the money with them...not give them a piece..SPLIT!    I told them to buy their own tickets and quit going to that store!    END OF RANT....LOL

Maybe if those clerks had given the type of service that Jorma Hogbacka (the Canadian 649 winner) of St. Catherines got from the waitresses at Tim Horton, the winner of the $25.5M jackpot would be looking them up to give them a check for $30K too. 

Yesterday, Hogbacka gave Melissa Grivich, 24, of Welland and Sithorn Chuon, 24, of St. Catharines their tip, a cheque in the amount of $30,000, scribbled with the words "Have a nice day" on them. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266200

Obviously given from the heart.

But you have to note, the waitresses were not actually employed by Hogbacka.

A gas station here (MI) seldom has employees that stay long term or are very hard working or loyal.  Afterall they are minimum wage (or slightly over) unless they themselves become management.  They are not mechanics (few gas stations have mechanics - most are self-serve gas), they only punch a few buttons, handle the stock, sell lottery tickets and make sure the all the cash is there at the end of their shift.  That is a lot of responsibility but about on par with a fast-food job.  Nothing wrong with either.  Been there, done that.  If anyone knows of a gas station that gives bonuses of $1,000 or more, kindly let me know, I think I could be good employee worthy of that kind of bonus.

It's ashame that such greed has risen on both sides. By law the owner dosn't have to share the profit he has made. The employees should have not attempted to ask for any of the winnings as well.

The owner should be glad that he has employees that feel greatful to take charge and run the business (take care of) as if it was their very own. This shows pride, and thankfulness that they have a job.

The owner should have given some sort of gift to them to show his gratitude. If they were such bad employees, they should have been let go earlier.

The employees can bring suite! Not on behalf of the winnings, but on behalf of the time they are let go (I.E. after the winnings). The stipulation must include the fact that they should have received some sort of rating on how well they had been performing their jobs prior to the release, and or their mistakes ( Ex. being late). This all should have been in writing. (If it's not in writing, then it wasn't done!) This fact runs true for both parties!!!!! If the owner didn't put it in writing, how can he suddenly fire them???

If the employees were evaluated (good or poor) how were they released "especially all at one time" ????? There must be warnings and or some sort of discipline applied prior to the release.

I'm more than certain a good judge and or jury can and would see clearly of these facts. If what I think is true, someone had better do some fast rehiring......................

Beaudad....

That would have been a great headline and story!

Any act of kindness is good for the soul (esp. with times being the way they are).

I agree $500 each wouldn't have killed him and probably been more than they make in a week.

Anyway of course whatever you put out there comes back so I would hate to be the owner.

In this economy I hate that anyone would lose their jobs especially over something as silly as this.

That's sad to hear that the same folks that kept that place going are the same folks having to find other work.  Although the owner wasn't obligated to give them anything, it would have been nice to give them all at least a thousand dollars.  Well what goes around comes around.  He better hope the new employees don't rob him blind!  Karma, Karma

You're probably right, $500 each wouldn't have killed him but it might have been insulting to them if they felt they were entitled to a lot more and the outcome might have been the same.

When Jack Whittaker won the largest PowerBall jackpot ever, he bought the waitress at a local café who served him coffee every morning an $80-$90K home which he thought was an upgrade from the trailer she lived in.  When asked later what she thought about his gift to her, she said she thought with the money he won he could have afforded a nicer home for her with $1M or so to help with the future upkeep and taxes.  As it was, she felt with her waitress job and the house he gave her she was worst off because she couldn't afford the maintenance cost and real estate taxes. 

Any business in a state that provides a bonus to the retailer that sells a jackpot winning ticket needs to have a clear policy on where that money goes.   Heck, they need to be clear on to whom belongs the dime found on the selling floor and who still owns what goes into the dumpster. 

The real question is whether the owner ever told the employees they would be in for a share (and what kind of share) if their store sold a jackpot winning ticket.   

BobP

During my brief stay in Florida many years back I worked at a gas station/party store that was part of a fairly large chain in Florida and elsewhere, someone at another location in the area won whatever the main FL jackpot game was, I think it was around 40M at the time but I'm probably wrong, well the place that sold the winning ticket did share either the full or a portion of the commission with the employees.

That is exactly why she probably is still working as a waitress and has probably lost the house due to unpaid property taxes because of that stanking entitlement attitude a lot of Americans have today!  This lady was a total ingrate!  I bet she talks bad about the customers that even leave 15 percent tips...probably mutters that they could at least give her 20 or 30 percent just for saying, "How you doing there" just after you had just put a fork full of meat in your gullet or "Here's your bill" while you are still eating (that by the way is rude IMHO; restaurants overseas realize that the patron is in control...so if the patron wants to take his/her time enjoying the food, atmosphere, and company/conversation of others, so be it; I prefer to have to ask for the bill rather than it being thrust on the table while I am still eating...when that happens, even if I was on the fence about ordering dessert, I don't even consider it at that point as the placement of the bill on the table signals that that waitresses service to you is over...good luck if you need anything else.).

But really American people can be so ungrateful for things like this.  JW didn't have to give her an additional dime!  And she was upset he didn't give her 10 times what he did give to her?  What a @ss she was/is!  If someone I knew had just won or come into some big money and gave me just say a Benjamin Franklin out of their thousand or million dollar haul, I would still be thankful for that because in my view, that is $100 more than I had before that person so gratiously gave it to me.  Seriously!  That is why I don't give street beggars any change because for one, it can set you up to be robbed or worse.

I don't think this owner has anything to worry about concerning fall out from firing those employees...if anything, it would have more to do with the petroleum products he sells. 

Also, by and large, convenience store employees are unloyal...sure most convenience stores have security cameras to thwart or catch any robbers and thieves...but they also install those cameras to catch employee theft as well.  Let's give this thread a break...on the lottery playslip rules, it says a bonus will be paid to the store that sold the winning ticket.  Whoever OWNS the store receives that bonus, otherwise the statement would say something like, "The store and all associated employees will receive a percentage bonus of the winning sold ticket...last time I checked, NO playslip says anything like that.  Just like I don't believe any convenience store owner shares the stores profits with said employees, I don't think most would even consider sharing a lottery bonus.