These days, retirement could come early.
A growing cohort of young employees in the workforce are taking a “microretirement” — also referred to as an “adult gap year” — for months or even years at a time to fight corporate burnout.
The distant cousin of a sabbatical, the miniretirement refers to young workers taking a chunk of time out of their careers to travel, focus on passions or pick up a new side gig while they’re young, rather than waiting until their 60s.
Anaïs Felt, a 31-year-old content creator based in the San Francisco Bay area, has “never felt better” after taking a microretirement this year.
“I’ve never felt healthier. I’ve never felt more rested,” she said in a viral TikTok video. “It’s been amazing and I highly recommend it.”
In the caption, Felt noted that the break is “totally worth it” if you have the money. She’s “childfree” and had saved up “a sizable chunk” of funds before quitting her 9-to-5.
In a subsequent clip, the former Silicon Valley product manager explained that, at the 10-year mark in her career, she was facing burnout, which plagued approximately 44% of American employees, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Felt, who said she couldn’t bring her “best self to work” if she continued to hop between roles, is part of a growing movement of young professionals taking a months-long break to focus on health, well-being and more.
Morgan Sanner, a 27-year-old human resources worker in Ohio, told New York magazine’s The Cut that she felt inspired to follow in the footsteps of other people — who she noticed were “taking significant breaks” from their careers — after going abroad for the first time.
“I think Gen Z is interested in less traditional models of employment, in general,” she said.
“For example, we’re far more likely to freelance or do contract work than previous generations. I hope that as we become a bigger part of the workforce, miniretirements become more doable and more normalized.”
Brittany Foley, 26, who used to work as a consultant in Boston before her miniretirement, decided it was time for her so-called gap year since she doesn’t “have kids or other dependents,” she told The Cut.
“With other people my age, there’s so much pressure to chase promotion cycles and raises, and everyone is so burnt out,” she explained.
She embarked on her micoretirement with a year’s worth of money saved up and a part-time gig as a waitress, paying for her own health insurance and moving to a more affordable apartment while she spent the break writing her book.
At the time, she was gearing up to pitch her book to agents while her funds dwindled — and feared that her break would not work in her favor when she returned to the consulting world.
“I wish becoming a server or doing another noncorporate job wasn’t frowned upon that way,” she said. “Working part-time to support yourself and pursue your other passions shouldn’t be a mark against you.”
Jes Osrow, the co-founder of the consultant firm The Rise Journey, recently told Business Insider that it’s important to think about what it would mean to return to your former industry.
“Is it returning with a new set of skills, or when you’ve reached a certain financial benchmark?” she told the outlet. “Setting these goals helps ensure that your time off is meaningful and intentional, giving you clear metrics to measure success.”
Cara Nicole, 28, told The Cut that “it’s all about how you sell it.”
“We should be able to communicate to a hiring manager, ‘Hey, I took this time to refocus, and now I’m coming back with more energy than ever, knowing that this is exactly what I want to do and where I want to be,’” she explained.
She also believes that there’s no time like the present when it comes to retirement.
“I’ve known people in my family who planned their retirement for decades, only to pass away right before or right after. Or they got sick in a way that prevented them from traveling the way they wanted,” Nicole said.
“The reality is, yes, there are trade-offs to not bringing in an income for a period of time. You don’t want to YOLO-spend your way through life. But you also have to accept the reality that you’re going to die someday, and you can’t take your money with you.”
