Fed up with being overworked or unfulfilled, some young people are quitting their jobs to take “mini-retirements,” a trend that caught the eye of a Times journalist.
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It’s not every day that a person asks a total stranger deeply intimate questions about their life, career and goals. But there I was, on the phone with someone I had found on the internet. And I had big questions, like, “How much money have you saved?” “Why did you quit your job?” And, “What exactly do you want to do with your life?”
Even before becoming a journalist, I have been ceaselessly curious — probably uncouthly so — about the philosophies people hold when it comes to their jobs, routines and money. I am the passerby who cannot resist glancing into people’s living room windows if the blinds are up. But aren’t we all? I like to think there are gems to be gleaned when people are honest about their successes and troubles, especially when it comes to finances and work.
So I perked up when the term “micro-retirement” — essentially a career timeout — came across my social media feeds a few months ago. Anecdotally, I had also heard stories of people, largely corporate professionals, who had quit their jobs to travel, work on a side project or spend more time with family. As a reporter who covers breaking news and digital trends for The New York Times, part of my job involves keeping an eye on online shifts in global conversations.
But if people were leaving their jobs in these uncertain economic times, how were they planning it? Why were they doing it? And the million-dollar question (no pun intended): How were they funding it?
I began scouring social media for mentions of mini-retirements and asked around my own social network. My editor, Joel Petterson, and I agreed that we wanted to find people from a diversity of industries who had used their hiatus for different experiences. I also wanted to find people who would be transparent about their finances.
But talking about money can be difficult. Some people I initially spoke to were reluctant to talk about their experiences publicly, perhaps out of fear that strangers on the internet would criticize their choices.