It’s the morning of a big lottery draw you’ve entered. The numbers match. You’ve won a huge jackpot. The question is: would you hand in your notice, or keep working?

On Monday, that very question will be considered by the lucky winner of Spain’s popular £2bn prizepot, Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad (Spanish for “extraordinary Christmas draw”). The main jackpot, El Gordo, is £3.5 million, with the draw taking place on the morning of 22 December.

While many of us would fantasise about leaving working life behind after coming into money, answers to that scenario aren’t quite as clear-cut as you might think. New data from Employment Hero’s newly launched Employment Uncovered suggests Britain is far more divided on the question than popular imagination would suggest.

Work Is Still Doing More Than Paying The Bills

The figures, drawn from aggregated insights from more than 100,000 employee records across small businesses and a national survey of 1,000 UK workers, show that four in ten (40 per cent) say they would continue working even if they won the lottery. Almost the same proportion (43 per cent) say they wouldn’t. That split points to a deeper tension in how people view work today, not just as a source of income, but as something bound up with identity, purpose and structure.

Responses by age group are particularly revealing. Among younger workers, the pull of work remains strong. Nearly two thirds of people aged 18 to 34 (61 per cent) say they would carry on working after a lottery win. That figure drops sharply as respondents get older, falling to just 30 per cent among those aged 45 and over.

This pattern becomes clearer when you look at how younger workers relate to their jobs. Nearly six in ten people aged 18 to 34 (57 per cent) say work forms a central part of who they are, suggesting that for many early in their careers, work is tied closely to identity, not just income.

Identity, Autonomy And Where You Live

Geography also plays a role. Londoners are the most likely to keep working after a big win, with 53 per cent saying they would stay in a job even if they came into serious money – perhaps due to the capital’s disproportionately higher living costs. 

The strongest attachment to work, however, is found among those who work for themselves. More than six in ten self-employed and freelance workers (61%) say work is more than just money. For this group, work often represents independence, personal pride and a sense of ownership, making the idea of walking away altogether far less appealing, even with financial freedom.

What This Means For Employers

Clearly, the assumption that people work purely out of necessity isn’t quite true for everyone. At a time when retention and engagement remain stubborn challenges for employers, that matters a great deal. If people are choosing to stay in work rather than feeling forced to, the overall experience of work itself has become a far bigger factor in whether they stay or go.

Given that younger workers especially appear motivated by more than salary alone, it’s important that employers consider more ways to provide them with opportunities to grow, feel trusted and shape their work. Employers that focus only on pay risk overlooking what actually keeps people engaged once basic financial needs are met.

A Question That Reveals Something Bigger

As El Gordo tickets are checked and dreams briefly run wild, the data suggests many winners would not disappear from working life altogether. Instead, they might simply work on different terms, with more choice, more flexibility and a clearer sense of what work is for.

In that sense, the question is no longer whether people would work if they didn’t have to. It’s what kind of work they would choose to do.