You may never need another payslip. That does not automatically mean you should walk away from a job you enjoy, people you love working with, a trade you are proud of or a routine that gives your week shape. Real UK winners have done everything from quitting immediately to turning up the next morning — and some who left eventually went back because they missed the work, the people or simply having something to do.
If money stopped being the reason you worked tomorrow, would there still be something at work worth keeping?
A lottery win removes financial necessity. It does not remove purpose, friendships, skill, identity or routine. If you dislike your job, the win may finally give you permission to leave. If you genuinely like the work and the people around you, staying — perhaps with fewer hours or different responsibilities — can be a perfectly rational choice.
For the first few days, the immediate question is simpler: are you calm and rested enough to work safely, and do you want the normality? The long-term career decision can wait until the win has been verified and you have had time to think.
Financial freedom gives you more choices than simply “stay” or “leave”. The best fit may be a version of work you could not afford to choose before.
The most useful evidence here is not a slogan. It is seeing how different winners actually behaved once money was no longer the reason they had to work.
The 20-year-old trainee gas engineer from Carlisle won the first Lotto jackpot of 2025 and was back out working with his father the next morning, fixing blocked drains. He said he was too young to stop, wanted to finish qualifying as a heating engineer and needed a reason to get up each day.
Source: ITV News, January 2025
After his EuroMillions win in 2019, the self-employed Sussex builder said he would complete his outstanding window and conservatory jobs and expected to keep doing something afterwards. His business partner could still call on him for help.
Source: ITV News, November 2019
Pittard left his McDonald’s job after winning, bought a home, married and took holidays. Eighteen months later he returned to the Cardiff restaurant. He said there was only so much relaxing he could do and that he missed the people he had worked with.
Source: Evening Standard; also reported by The Guardian
The Thompsons left their previous jobs but repeatedly returned to active working life, including running a holiday complex and later a restaurant. Elaine described inactivity as something that drove her back towards having a project and a working routine.
Source: The Guardian, March 2004
Forrest, managing director of a Cumbrian company, said after his 2009 Lotto win that he had no intention of giving up the organisation where he had worked since leaving school. His response is a useful reminder that a long career can be a relationship and an identity, not just an income stream.
Source: The Guardian, March 2009
Years after the 2012 EuroMillions jackpot, Bayford returned to retail through a music and memorabilia shop. Contemporary coverage reported that he enjoyed being involved with music and retail again; other reporting described boredom as part of the reason for returning to a working routine.
Source: The Courier, June 2016
For some people that is heaven. For others it gets strangely empty. Work can supply things money does not automatically replace: a reason to get dressed, people who know you for what you do rather than what you own, small daily problems to solve, progress, humour, competence and somewhere you are expected.
The lesson from the winner stories is not that millionaires should keep jobs they hate. It is that financial freedom and purposeful activity are different things. You can remove the need to earn without removing the need to matter.
A job with a decent boss, good colleagues, enjoyable work and flexibility may become better after a win because the financial fear has disappeared.
If some of your closest everyday friendships are at work, leaving can remove a social network at the same time as your life is changing everywhere else.
Skill, responsibility and being useful can still feel satisfying when the money itself no longer matters.
Financial independence may allow you to work four days instead of five, refuse overtime, change responsibilities or take longer breaks.
If the win remains private, work may be one of the few places where nobody is treating you as “the lottery winner”.
A jackpot does not create an obligation to preserve a bad job for the sake of looking sensible. If you were exhausted, bullied, commuting for hours, working nights you hated or staying only because bills left you no alternative, the win may give you the breathing room to stop.
Money can remove the financial reason for tolerating a workplace you already wanted to escape.
Try fewer hours, a different role, a new employer or self-employment before deciding you never want to work again.
If the people, activity and purpose still add something to your week, there is no rule saying wealth has to take that away.
Academic evidence points to something more nuanced than either “everyone quits” or “money changes nothing”. Winners tend to work less as wealth rises, but employment can remain important for reasons beyond pay.
A 2004 study of actual lottery winners found that both the size of the win and how central work was to a person’s life were significantly related to whether they continued working. In that particular sample, 100 of 117 respondents were still working, although the sample and era mean that figure should not be treated as a modern UK jackpot rate.
A large Swedish lottery study found that prize wealth reduced earnings and hours, but the effect was described as modest and persistent rather than an automatic mass exit from employment. The researchers also found no significant effect on occupation, employer or work location.
A recent study using British Household Panel Survey data found no single household response to lottery wins. Work-hour effects differed between men and women and by prize size and household circumstances — another reason not to pretend there is one correct post-win career decision.
This is not a score that tells you to resign. It separates income from the other things your job may be giving you.
If the salary became irrelevant, would you still enjoy at least part of the work?
Would you genuinely miss the people you work with?
Does the job give you a sense of usefulness, craft, progress or responsibility?
Could fewer hours or different responsibilities make the job much better?
Was the job already damaging your health, family life or happiness before the win?
If money stopped mattering tomorrow, what would you do?
This is different from deciding whether you want a career after the win. The next morning is mostly about whether you are fit to work, whether you need privacy and whether you can avoid doing anything irreversible while still in shock.
| Situation | Practical option | What to remember |
|---|---|---|
| You slept, feel steady and want normality | Go to work | You do not have to tell colleagues about the win simply because you turned up. |
| You need space but are not unwell | Ask for annual leave or agreed unpaid leave | Employers can refuse particular holiday dates, so use the normal request process and check your contract. |
| You are genuinely unwell or unfit to work | Use sickness procedures | UK employees generally self-certify for the first seven calendar days; sickness should be genuine, not a cover story for winning. |
| Your job is safety-critical and you have barely slept | Do not force yourself through a hazardous shift | Driving, machinery, clinical decisions, site work and similar roles deserve a stricter test of fitness and concentration. |
| You already know you want to leave | Still check your notice and benefits first | Lottery wealth does not cancel your employment contract, notice period, deferred bonus, pension or other employment rights and obligations. |
After a major win, salary can suddenly feel trivial. Other parts of your employment may not be.
UK Reddit discussions about lottery wins are remarkably divided. Some people say a large jackpot would make resignation immediate; others say they would cut their hours, do something meaningful or keep working because they know they would become bored without structure. Anecdotes from people who say they knew winners also describe both outcomes — rapid exits and people continuing much as before.
Community discussions are useful for understanding the questions and emotions around a jackpot, but individual Reddit stories are not independently verified and are not used here as evidence for legal or financial claims.
You can if you feel rested, safe and want the routine. Real winners have done exactly that. If you are exhausted, distracted or in a safety-critical role, taking legitimate leave may be more sensible.
Yes, some do. Others leave, reduce their hours or return later. Research suggests both the size of the prize and how important work is to a person's identity influence what happens next.
Because work can provide purpose, friendships, routine, competence, status, community and enjoyment. Removing the financial need to work does not automatically remove those benefits.
Yes. There are well-documented UK examples of winners returning to paid work or starting businesses after finding that endless leisure did not suit them. Luke Pittard returned to McDonald's after saying he missed his workmates, while Elaine Thompson described inactivity as driving her back towards work and projects.
Then the win may give you a chance to keep the part you love while removing the parts you tolerate for money. You might stay unchanged, reduce hours, take more holidays or negotiate a different role.
You no longer have the same financial reason to stay. Even then, checking your contract, notice, benefits and immediate plans before resigning can prevent an emotional exit from becoming an unnecessarily messy one.
Not automatically. Your employer may need to know about leave, resignation or changes to your work, but that does not necessarily require disclosing the reason. See our separate guide on telling people at work after a lottery win.
Sickness absence should be used when you are genuinely unwell or unfit for work. If you simply want private time to think, annual leave, unpaid leave or another agreed absence is the cleaner route.
You can resign, but UK employees will usually have a notice period and their contract may require more than the statutory minimum. You and the employer can sometimes agree another arrangement.
Potentially. For many winners this may preserve the best parts of work — colleagues, skill and routine — while creating far more freedom. Whether an employer agrees to a particular change is a separate employment matter.
Research generally shows reduced labour supply as wealth rises, but not a universal stop. One large Swedish study found modest, persistent reductions in earnings and hours; a separate study of actual lottery winners found work centrality was strongly related to whether people kept working.
You can work again. A jackpot gives you options; it does not lock you into permanent retirement. You can return to your profession, retrain, volunteer, start a project or choose a completely different kind of work later.
If your job was only ever a way to pay the mortgage, the answer may become obvious. But if it gives you friends, pride, a craft, responsibility or somewhere you genuinely like being, walking away just because you can may not make your life better.
You are allowed to keep the job. You are allowed to change it. You are allowed to leave it. And you are allowed to discover six months later that you miss having somewhere to be.