So you’ve won the lottery….
07 Mar 2005
Imagine settling down in front of Eamonn Holmes on a
Saturday night only to rack up six numbers and a bonus ball? It’s the
stuff of dreams, especially if Sundays are noted for work-induced
despondency. Yet, while a resignation letter is your likely response to
a win, would it really make you happy?
Since it’s first draw
on 19 November 1994, the UK National Lottery has created over 1600
millionaires and workplace syndicates show how desperate we are to get
rich. A recent £5 million win by a 14 strong call centre syndicate
in Ormskirk and the win of over £14 million by 25 members of the
Gymphlex syndicate in Lincolnshire are enough to send the trickle of
sweat down any MD’s back.
The resignations following any
lottery win are inevitable. According to Camelot, operators of the
National Lottery, 87% of workers are employed when they win yet just
27% carry on working.
Tom Naylor understands. He won £15
million in 1998 and immediately knew what he’d do with his
Staffordshire based lorry driving job. He even told his boss where to
stick his pay slips.
“I wrote a resignation letter saying
that due to unforeseen circumstancesI’d never have to work again,” he
says. “When I went into work my colleagues made a huge fuss. Then my
boss appeared, pushing through the crowd to tell me that I owed him
three days pay. Everyone fell silent. So I reminded him that I’d
resigned and he owed me a week’s holiday. He stormed off and it was one
of the best moments of winning.”
However, while many dream
of resigning the reality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Camelot
statistics show that a third of jackpot winners start or buy into
businesses. That’s because many winners miss their working lives more
than they thought possible. Dot Renshaw is the head of player services
at Camelot and oversees the advisers helping winners deal with
windfalls.
“We tell winners not to make rash decisions and
to think about what they want from life. We also tell them to think
about the implications of having money. Winning conjures up various
emotions and it’s easy to make decisions that could be regretted later
on.”
Believe it or not the decision to resign is one of
them. Some winners admit to feeling isolated upon resigning because
they no longer see friends. Others agree that the shopping doesn’t
satisfy intellectual challenges. Some winners admit that without a
career they even question their own identities.
Barbara
Derry from Middlesex is one such person. She won over £2 million in
2000 and resigned from her job with a courier company.
“Resigning
was a culture shock. I’d worked all my life so when I got my P45 I
cried! I hated that I was called a housewife and that I no longer felt
I was contributing to society.”
Which was why Barbara started her floristry business fulfilling her desire to work even if she didn’t have the need.
“People
think I’m mad because I get up at 5am to go to the flower market. But I
get the benefits of working without the financial pressure. I don’t
rely on the business to pay my mortgage and my floristry van is a
Mercedes 4×4. It’s the best of both worlds.”
So it’s not all
manicures and sun beds? Research suggests that unless you are just
paying the mortgage, leaving work creates a void that is difficult to
fill. No longer setting the alarm clock or meeting deadlines sounds
wonderful, but without them your routine disappears. Which means
resigning from your job isn’t enough - you need to fill the space
that’s left.
“It is easy to think that material things bring
happiness,” says Ceri Roderick of occupational psychologists Pearn
Kandola. “But your needs go deeper than that. You must know what your
key values are. How important is your network of friends? How will you
support your self-worth? How important is social standing to your
lifestyle? These are vital to the way change our lifestyles.”
However,
change itself can be problematic even if leaping into the heady world
of fast cars is a dream come true. This is more pronounced when the
change is as sudden as a lottery win. Anyone who has left work knows
how hard it is even after months of thought. So how does it feel 48
hours after hitting the jackpot?
“I was so terrified that I
didn’t want the money!” says Watford based Julie Jeffrey, who won £1
million in 2002. “Change scares me and I was relieved when I didn’t
have to stop work as a cook at my local fire station. The win gave my
family £20,000 a year for life, so I could keep working. The boys
think it’s hilarious that a millionaire stacks their dishwasher!”
Which
goes to show that resigning isn’t always the first thing on a winner’s
mind. However for wannabe winners, who know exactly what they’d do with
their contracts, there are also ways of resigning. Apart from not
making kneejerk reactions it’s also best not burn your bridges.
Planning is key, even if you have £15 million to spend.
“Think
about what you are doing,” says Sally Campbell, a career management
expert. “If you can talk to your boss about it do so. It may be that
you love your job and hate your company which makes a big difference to
your decision.
“Anyway, you never know who you may need
later on. If you’ve won the lottery you may never have to work again
but when it comes to your charity work you could at least still tap
your boss for cash.”