It’s no great secret that the way we work isn’t really working. We know that everyone is burnt out; that we all spend our weekends bed rotting or staring at a blank wall; that we return from our little holidays feeling just as stressed out and drained as when we left; that no matter how ambitious and driven we are, no matter much we devote ourselves to our beloved career ladders, if we’re really, really honest with ourselves, our jobs simply don’t love us back.
In fact, according to one recent study, more than 35% of employees in the UK regularly arrive at work early or stay late, with younger people being more likely to work longer hours than their older colleagues. Some young people (almost a quarter, according to one study) are even taking on multiple jobs to make ends meet. Because, for the most part, jobs that would have once been considered well paid now no longer provide enough stability — a 2023 report found that cost-of-living crisis caused 84% of UK workers stress and anxiety. It’s no great surprise that 29% of workers aged 25-34 reported feeling burnt out in 2024 — that’s up from 23% the previous year.
Simply put, young people feel that they are working too hard for too little reward — and it’s taking both a physical and a mental toll. So what’s it all for? Well, we are told that it will one day all pay off. Retirement. The time when we are finally allowed to reap the benefits of decades of work and actually enjoy ourselves.
It’s all rather depressing when you put it like that, isn’t it? So depressing, that some young people have begun to question the system altogether: why are we working while we’re young anyway? Why can’t we take time off now rather than later? Why don’t we create a new system that offers just a little bit more balance? Why don’t we, take a micro-retirement?
The basic idea is that instead of working flat out until you reach retirement age, instead, you take mini retirements every few years. You work and you save for a few years, then you quit your job and you simply live for a year or so. Then the cycle repeats.
“This growing trend seems to be, in part, a reaction to hustle culture, which has long glorified constant productivity and burnout,” explains Auria Heanley, co-founder of Oriel Partners, a London based PA recruitment agency. “Instead of deferring enjoyment and rest until traditional retirement age, younger generations are rethinking what a balanced, fulfilling life looks like.”
Liz Wizdom, a 30-year-old from Naples, Florida, is one example.
“I think I might have been underestimating unemployment,” she says in one video, before explaining that she went on a micro-retirement by accident after getting laid off. “I heard this term called micro-retirement which is where instead of waiting until the end of your career to do all your retirement, you take breaks throughout your career instead and just, like, micro-retire for a year or two and I think I might rebrand my unemployment as micro-retirement,” she went on.