If You Won the Lottery, Would You Be at Work Tomorrow?

Just answering the question of working if you win the lottery….

The answer all depends upon the work you do. If you are a person who is blessed to work a job you love, with people you love, and you think you are making a difference somehow with your job, you’d probably keep working.

But what if you’re working some minimum wage job cleaning overflowing toilets… really, you’re gonna pull the “dignity of work” card out if they win the lottery?

Also, there is a difference between working on your terms, and working under some clueless boss who is taking advantage of you. Many have never worked a job where they felt used, helpless, and taken advantage of.

No one would work under those conditions unless they had to.

So… walk a mile in the other person’s shoes before you judge them :-)

Some excessive idealism there sometimes!

Plus, there’s “where you get your paycheck” and then there’s “the work you do.” These don’t have to be the same. So you could win the lottery, quit your “paying job” but continue to work, only at something that you can do independently. Which could be a great move.

I agree with the spirit of what they’re saying, though: you can hate your work because you’ve been led to believe it isn’t important, or that it’s inferior, in which case, something sad and wrong has happened.

Or you can hate your work because you haven’t been able to find anything else, and due to the curse of sin on the world, your work doesn’t align well with your skills and values (or the work is great but the management/workplace environment is awful, etc.). There’s no shame in quitting in those situations if a door for something better opens up.

For my part, I might take a day or two off if I was suddenly wealthy, but I’d be back to work within the week…. to help them wrap things up and replace me. I’d put in my two weeks because it’s part of the commitment I made. Probably I’d work longer until they were able to replace me, and I’d help train the new person.

That done, yeah, I’d be gone… to work on ways to maximize the potential of my new situation.

… but not because I don’t see value and dignity in my current work. (a) I’m way past that theologically/philosophically, (b) it’s very good work for me! So I’m part of the % that is pretty happy with what he has. I’m blessed and grateful.

It strikes me that if I were to be hit by a large inheritance or winning lottery ticket, I’d definitely take at least a few days off simply to handle the tax and other implications of that money.

But after that, what I did would be something I felt significant. Perhaps even cleaning toilets if that were a pressing need—it’s worth noting that a huge part of the Mayo Clinic’s early success was due to the fact that they were an early adopter of “listerization”, spraying carbolic acid in operating rooms to reduce the risk fo infection. It’s not the best pay or working conditions, but you can make the argument that guys like Ralph Norton from “The Honeymooners” have as much to do with our current health as the Mayo brothers did.