Some people work hard without expecting anything in return. They do their job in exchange for their paycheck, and they are happy with that. That is all they expect.
Other people want gifts, recognition and rewards to be happy with life. Not saying rewards aren’t deserved for a job well done, but it’s much sweeter when someone who was perfectly happy without them gets the ultimate surprise.
Kevin Ford has been working at a Burger King location in the Las Vegas International Airport for the past 27 years. Although he works at Burger King, he doesn’t work for Burger King. His employer is actually HMSHost.
After working at Burger King for 27 years without ever missing a shift, his manager brought him a gift, a bag full of goodies like a movie ticket, candy and a Starbucks cup. Ford thought it would be nice to do a video unboxing of the gift as a shout out to the kindness of his manager. He posted the video on Instagram, but he never expected it to get the reaction that it got.
One person who saw the video posted it on Reddit, and many people commented that after so many years of hard work he should have gotten a much nicer gift. They didn’t know that it was given to Ford by his manager, but they assumed it was probably either his manager or co-workers who put the gift together instead of upper management since it wasn’t even Burger King logo swag.
After Ford’s video got so much attention, his daughter, Seryna Ford, created a GoFundMe for her dad. She explained that her dad worked at Burger King as a single dad to put his daughters through college and for their great health insurance. She added that he plans to keep working there until he retires. She wrote, “In no way are we asking for money or is he expecting any money but if anyone feels like blessing him he would love to visit his grandchildren.”
It turns out that many, many people felt like blessing Ford. Watch the video below to learn more about Ford, and to see his reaction when the TODAY show surprises him with some surprise visitors.
At the time of publication, Ford’s GoFundMe has raised almost $250,000.
Why do you think so many people have felt the desire to donate to Ford? Does your employer ever reward you with gifts? How would you have reacted if you had received a gift similar to Ford’s after working at the same company for 27 years?