McDonald’s monopoly tickets?

[Greencherry1]

A girl I work with (I’m her line manager) spent £200 on McDonald’s for lunch desperately searching for the third green ticket she needs to win a Mini Cooper. She didn’t get it. Then she spent the next hour crying about it. I like to think I’m a sympathetic manager and let people leave early if they need to and support them if they are having problems but to me this was totally ridiculous so I pretty much told her to suck it up and get on with her work. Then at the end of the day I get pulled in by my manager and he tells me that I’ve really upset this girl and maybe I should’ve been more supportive (I’m pretty sure he didn’t know why she was actually crying just that she had gone to him complaining I was picking on her). Now I feel bad, she’s the youngest employee that I manage (19) but I’m sure 10 years ago when I was her age I wouldn’t have behaved like that (this isn’t the first incident like this, she’s a bit of a drama queen) So who is being unreasonable?
Also what is to stop people swapping tickets with others online?

What a waste of money -Big MAC

I woyld have just said sorry to hear that but you have to realise it's the gamble you pay with doing something like that and left it at that.

It's hardly your fault she's reckless.

Ywnbu.
Your manager was out of order. It also does not bode well for the future that she went running to him, or that a young member of staff was able to get him to undermine you.

What did she do with the £200 worth of food? How silly. Mc Donald's always make two pieces of the set easy to come by and the third is like a 1 in a million chance of finding it. Guess they do it for people like her

Presumably you explained the situation to your manager ?
Also had a conversation about him undermining your management of staff, and, if there were an issue with your people management then you'd like a proper meeting about it, and how he is going to support you to change?
What did he say to that ?

Oh dear, she doesn't sound as though she has a great grasp on probability. There are 20 to be won across the whole country, over all the weeks they are doing monopoly. Two of the stickers will be easy to get, the third they will have printed 20 of. So swapping online is pointless - the winning tickets won't be floating about on eBay.

With around 1200 branches in the uk, she could buy every single McDonalds meal produced in that restaurant every single day for the whole promotional period, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds and still only have a 1 in 60 chance of getting one (although probability doesn't quite work that way, it'll be one in millions and millions each time still, but the example helps put it in perspective). Maybe gently point this out to her before she blows another £200 - she might even feel better that she missed out if she realises it wasn't a near miss.

Your manager should not have gone over your head. Telling her to basically suck it up was probably doing her much more of a favour than indulging this kind of behaviour. I might be tempted to tell him so! YANBU.

Both the 19 year old and the manager need to get a grip and start acting like professionals.

That's so crazy that the only way I can explain it is that she has a problem similar to a gambling addiction. Some people do it with lottery ticketd. It makes no sense otherwise. She probably wasted money she couldn't afford, is now skint, and it's dawning on her that she's got nothing to pay bills. If this is true then she probably does need support tbh.