Basic Trope: A wealthy character works for a living, rather than just living it up.
- Straight: Alice, a schoolteacher, wins millions of dollars in the lottery. Despite this, she does not give up teaching.
- Exaggerated: Alice is the school janitor. She wins the lottery, but still continues to be a janitor.
- Downplayed:
- Alice keeps working, but cuts down to a part-time job rather than a full-time job.
- Alice goes Back to School full time.
- Justified:
- Alice loves her job, and wants to keep doing it for the personal satisfaction it brings her.
- Alice tries lounging around all day for a while, but eventually she finds that it gets boring and goes back to work.
- Alice wants to teach her kids An Aesop about the importance of hard work.
- Alice wants to keep her skills sharp, just in case the worst happens.
- Alice has a highly specialized and important job that not just anyone can do.
- Alice donated all or most of her windfall to charity, rather than keeping it for herself.
- Alice doesn't want to lose her benefits.
- A Fool and Her New Money Are Soon Parted, and Alice ain't no fool.
- Inverted: As soon as she finds out she's won the lottery, Alice tells her boss to Take This Job and Shove It.
- Subverted:
- Alice is seen enjoying herself on the beach, not working.
- Alice quits her job for this school district.
- Alice did win the lottery, but she didn't win the Gazillion-Dollar Jackpot. Instead, she won a few hundred or a few thousand: enough for a vacation (or to put towards one), but not enough to quit her job.
- Double Subverted:
- Because it's summer vacation. She comes back in the fall. But at least she doesn't have to scramble to find a summer job like most other teachers do.
- Because she's moving to Hawaii, and eventually gets a job teaching there.
- But the next time she plays, she hits the Gazillion-Dollar Jackpot, and decides to keep teaching.
- Parodied:
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?
- Alice wins the lottery, but she only wins a small amount, not millions or billions. People are still amazed that she continues to work.
- Zig Zagged: New Job as the Plot Demands
- Averted: Alice does not win the lottery.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I hear Alice is still teaching, even though she won the lottery."
- Invoked: Alice wins the lottery, but she's got a job that she likes.
- Exploited: Alice can use her extra money to have a One Hour Workweek, or to buy things she wouldn't normally be able to buy on her teachers' salary.
- Defied: Alice decides she's just going to live off her lottery winnings for the rest of her life, maybe investing so that the money doesn't run out.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
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