Tom Barnett, owner of Barnett Management, won the coveted prize thanks to high ratings, great customer service reviews and stellar corporate inspections, but when it came time to enjoy the flashy prizes he received, Barnett and the other franchise owners decided they wanted to sell them.
"The award needed to go to the people who got us here. It was the right thing to do," franchise co-owner Shelley Krispin said. "We're all better when we have people who work for us long term."
After selling the car and expensive watch, Barnett pooled some of his own money in with the other franchise owners and were able to give out a total of $120,000 to more than 100 employees across their 24 Burger King locations in Arizona.
"I just couldn't believe it. I was in shock," 15-year-old Charity Callahan said. "It was almost an entire month's worth of pay for me. They made us all feel appreciated."
"For him to give us that was really emotional," store manager Sandy Olson said.
The bonuses reportedly ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per person.
The first job I had where a bonus was given to supervisory employees, I was introduced to the concept of giving up at least a part of the bonus to the employees being supervised. I carried on that tradition for several years till I had a store manager who threatened to fire me if I passed on my bonus to the other employees.
Let's call him Stan, since that's his name, and name the store he managed as well - a Safeway store in Alaska.
I used a work-around to pass on the reward to the other employees and asked them not to tell so I didn't get fired.
It was just another one of those lessons about how psychopathic the corporate world is becoming.
I would be surprised if that franchise owner doesn't get some grief for his kind actions from the corporate executive staff.