Point taken. 
Since I’m only 10 weeks away from the end of the school year and I manage a specific activity that I enjoy, aside from teaching, I’d finish my year.
I’d tell them right now, however that the moment my last grade is in the system, I’m gone.
I would also start not holding back on any opinion I have on a few mediocre individuals, I’d be waaaaay open saying what I believe, not mincing a single word.
Those of you who say you’d stay because you are so vital to your employer; what happens if you die today?
Well, that sucks. Seriously, what sort of answer does one expect? The work would go on but it would make a lot of people very unhappy for a while, and the company would lose some money. We don’t have enough money to hire a backup me (we’re that even possible; I have some very unique knowledge which is not highly marketable but which suits my position perfectly), so I’m creating them by training my replacements. I’m only 6 years away from optional retirement and it is on people’s minds.
Would the thought cross my mind? Probably. Would I still stay and help out? Yes. It’s called being a grown up, buckety. Perhaps someday you’ll understand.
My contract clearly states that I have to give a minimum of 4 weeks notice prior to dying, so today is right out.
Let’s just say I wouldn’t be worrying about it too much.
I would lose all my vacation time and sick leave.
Such an inane comment.
There is nothing childish about recognising that a massive change in personal circumstances is also very likely to change your perspective on work issues. We aren’t talking about walking away from your children, but walking away from a job that in the vast majority of cases is just a business transaction.
Many of your reasons for continuing to work are swept away in an instant, yet some people believe they would continue to work on for those same reasons!
If you love your job and actively enjoy doing it then thats one thing. But to stay on because other employees might have extra work if you leave, I’m sorry but your sense of responsibility there probably won’t survive the reality of being a new multi-millionaire who can now go off and do whatever you want.
I’d offer to finish out my two weeks or cash to make up any hardships incurred if I left early. If it was a place /people I liked, I’d consult for a bit on stuff they needed help with.
I would come in long enough to sign my retirement papers and wave goodbye to my co-workers. Something I was told when I was young, never make yourself indispensable as an employee, you will never go anywhere. In some ways I have done that but I would consider it my managers fault for not have more people trained in what I do. My employer has over 600 folks with the same job title as me, they can find one of them to do my job.
If you’d asked me a couple of years back, I would have said “yes, of course.”
However, after my last employer laid me off with zero warning as soon as they could save a dime by doing so, I now say, “Fuck 'em, I’m gone.”
If the jackpot was large enough all my employer would see would be a Me-shaped cloud of dust and some cartoon speed lines.
Would you, though? If your employer pays out accrued vacation time when you leave employment then presumably they’d pay it to your estate/dependents.
That doesn’t help me any.
The *feds *don’t pay out accrued vacation when you leave?
I would feel obligated to help train a replacement. Yes, I would stay long enough for the new person to get a grasp on the job.
If I still worked at a large corporate, I’d just walk away. I hated the last few years I spent doing that management bullshit anyway.
I currently work much shorter hours, and for much less pay for a small local charity. I love what I do, it makes me feel like an actual socially useful person for a change, and I like my co-workers and all the volunteers. I’d hate to let them, and our service users down. £100 million is a hell of a lot of money, so I think my dilemma wouldn’t be so much as whether to keep an association with the charity (I’d definitely need something to provide continuity in my life), but how to best use my money to help the place without messing the whole thing up. I could fund the operation in perpetuity, and not really notice, but is that necessarily the best thing to do?
I think the point some posters are trying to make is that the work dynamic fundamentally changes when you don’t NEED the job anymore, and your employers know it. Any threats of firing you have a lot less punch than before, and so do any financial enticements. And it probably makes disciplining you a lot more difficult- unless they’re willing to fire you outright for doing something like violating the dress code, or showing up late every day, or deciding that you really want to take 4 weeks of vacation instead of the 2 you’re allocated, you (the rich employee) have them over a barrel. Why would you care if you get written up? And if they do fire you, so what? You still have plenty of money to live out the rest of your days doing what YOU want to do.
And that’s a freeing thing, I imagine. Not having to actually care about what your boss thinks has to be an interesting feeling.
Just to be clear; I wish everyone a long, healthy, prosperous life. Just offering food for thought.
I’m not in a specialized role, and I work PT as it is, so I’d probably just go ahead and quit.
The thing about staying on in the role is that lottery winners are made public. Even when the winner tries to disguise himself, it usually leaks out. And even though I consider my co-workers my friends, I’m not deluded enough to think that that great chemistry wouldn’t change the second they found out. We’d no longer be on the same “Man, this place sucks but we’ve got to work for a living” plane. So, to spare us all the awkwardness and invariable jealousy that would follow, I’d just ride off into the sunset.