An Ohio office had a lottery pool. Any employee could contribute his one dollar a week and be included on the elusive jackpot, should they win. The odds are actually in the favor of office pools. Most office pools do win on a regular basis. However, they don’t always win the jackpot. This particular Ohio cabinet business, however did win the jackpot. $99 million would be split between 22 co-workers. (And I’ll bet at least 21 and a half of them have already become former co-workers after resigning to live the life of luxury!)
But, Howard “Sour Grapes” Hairston contends the split should include him as well. Due to a back injury, Howard had been out of work for about 15 weeks. During that time, he thought there was an implied rule that present co-workers would cover for those who were absent. So, he didn’t bother to communicate, during those 15 weeks out, that he wanted a cut. His co-workers, on the other hand, contend that they attempted to contact ol’ Sour Grapes but he didn’t return emails or phone calls so they didn’t chip in the $1 each week for their injured co-worker.
You can already guess where this is headed, right? In the unfortunate American tradition, Howard is suing his co-workers for his part of their winnings. As ridiculous as this seems, Howard is not the first absent employee suing for their fair share. There’s the case of the Florida golf shop worker who swears she gave her dollar to “someone” the day after they bought the ticket (and won). There are the city employees (also in Ohio) who told their co-workers they wanted in on the jackpot. Failing to pay their dollar entry they still wanted their cut of the jack pot. Well, who wouldn’t, I ask!
One does not need to be a human resources guru in order to understand that when an employee is absent from work, the work place will not close down and that the business will continue, as usual, without the missing employee. This is not the fault of the employee or the employer. This is the way of the world. And thank heavens for it!
One time, I missed school and my neighboring teacher brought donuts. Sadly, the other teachers did not save me one. While I consulted with my principal on the possibility of my leaving work to go to the donut shop to make up for what I missed, he told me, and I quote, “Fat chance.” Pun intended. By that same token, though, I missed school on a different occasion and we had a student pull a fire alarm "by accident". The sub had to safely exit the building with my students in tow and then bring them back into the building and attempt to be productive despite the fact that anyone who knows kids knows it’s pert-near impossible to get them settled back down after a fire drill! I did NOT ask the principal to repeat that day just because I was absent.
I am very sorry that Howard missed his chance. Such is life. The good news for Howard is that there’s always a lottery going on somewhere… but I know for a fact that the gaming commission of any state requires that you PAY before you play! Better luck next time, Howard! In the meantime, fire your lawyer and let our court systems deal with real issues like child abuse, drug trafficking and Randy Quaid’s crazy self!
