To escape the grind, young people turn to 'mini-retirements'

Ms Marina Kausar was not sure what to call the three-month break she took after quitting her job.

- Isabella Kwai

After working in a series of jobs in finance and technology, Ms Kausar, 30, was feeling stressed and overworked. In December 2023, with a bit of savings built up, she quit without another position lined up to focus on things that had fallen to the wayside while she was focused on work.

"I had more time to work out. I was eating better, sleeping better. It was just like a full reset," said Ms Kausar, who lives in Houston. "For the first time in my adult life, I didn't have this looming cloud of 'work'."

Eventually, she came across a term for her hiatus that resonated with her: "Micro-retirement."

For most people in the United States, being able to save enough money to not have to work is a faraway ideal. Discontented employees who do not have the means to leave the workforce have turned to "quiet-quitting", "acting your wage" or simply using their holiday leaves.

Now, many younger workers are opting not to wait until retirement, and are leaving an extended gap between jobs to invest in other parts of their life. But not everyone wants to call it a sabbatical: Some people prefer the term "mini-retirement" or "micro-retirement".

"Sabbaticals are seen as the thing that an organisation offers to you for paid time off, and then you come back to that job," said University of Washington assistant professor Kira Schabram, who is researching such breaks. "People are just taking it into their own hands."

A "mini-retirement" can take on many forms: taking extra time after being laid off to consider other paths, asking for unpaid leave or building in a long stretch after voluntarily leaving a job.

Of course, many people cannot afford to take time out of the workforce, and Prof Schabram said that those who do take these breaks tend to be much more financially stable.

But for the workers who can manage it, she believes the "micro-retirement" is on the rise.

LESS FEAR OF CHANGE