Is this some weird american way of describing a vacation?
The blogger is Swiss from the looks of it.
Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
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Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#22Great idea! I have micro retirements every year for 30 days. My company calls it vacation, but micro retirement is a better term I like. Even more than that, I have nano retirements every now and then. We call them holidays. What a lame term, I know.
I am very fond of pico retirements, I mean, going home at 5 pm and not working until 9 am the next day. I highly recommend everyone to try such.
One level above that is something I do every week - I simply... don't work, for TWO WHOLE DAYS a week. That gives me time to relax, sleep in, do maintenance and cleaning jobs in and around the house. I do it at the end of the week, maybe someone from marketing can think of a clever name for that period of the week.
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#23We should really make a name for press and blogosphere legitimizing (by the virtue of mere coverage) all those silly trends that really just are a response to late-stage capitalism. "Analog bag" being the most recent example.
I'm a fan of the phrase "analog emoji", :)
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#24Anyone NOT doing this between jobs?
In-between jobs you are stressed to find the next job, that's not a good background for vacation.
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#25It's no revolutionary idea, but the comments here are dishonest when they compare a 3-month leave to standard european vacation. I would say most middle class europeans take like 10-14 day long vacations. I sometimes travel for a month and that is already abnormal.
I second that, EU here. Most of my colleagues take either 5 days (which creates 9 days free in a row effectively, when combined with weekends) or 10 days (which creates 16). Any normal vacation over this requires special approval and I know only 1 person that even wanted that. The only cases when someone is away for longer are medical leaves after severe accidents (in practice unlimited) or parental leaves (could me maxxed to ~1.5 years when done smart, but doesn't happen in practice).
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#26Here in the U.S., the idea of taking even a few weeks off between jobs as a way to refresh oneself is a real luxury because of the way health insurance is tied to employment.
I have wanted to do this each time I've left a job, but a lapse in health insurance would have been too risky for my family, and COBRA is too expensive to be anything other than an option of last resort. So, the most time I've had between jobs over the past 25 years has been a couple of days.
If health care were not so tightly tied to one's employer, I could see people saving up and taking a few months off every 3-5 years as they change jobs. For me, a summer off with my kids would be a tremendous joy. But I don't think I'd be able to afford it until I retire, and by then my kids will be all grown up.
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#27Stefan Sagmeister talks about taking 5 years of your retirement and interspersing them into your working years in this great talk, pertinent moments at 01:30-02:00:
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#28Is this some weird american way of describing a vacation?
The kids called it Quiet quitting, and it is a result of an asymmetric power distance index with capital investment managers.
Loyalty is almost never rewarded in the long-term for North American tech sector burn-and-churn, so jumping firms every year or two is common place. Mostly because gullible boards believe all workers are fungible, and in many cases they are right as most graduates do share a common history. =3
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#29Here in the U.S., the idea of taking even a few weeks off between jobs as a way to refresh oneself is a real luxury because of the way health insurance is tied to employment. I have wanted to do this each time I've left a job, but a lapse in health insurance would have been too risky for my family, and COBRA is too expensive to be anything other than an option of last resort. So, the most time I've had between jobs o…
Leaving a job is a “life event” so couldn’t you then go out and get a simple marketplace plan? Last I checked it was only a few hundred dollars per month for a single individual?
Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
#30So like a vacation? I'm wondering why retirement is a good term for this. A sabbatical is already a break that's smaller than a retirement, and this is shorter than that. A 3 month gap between jobs is kinda just taking a break. A label might help explain it on resumes if anyone is checking for gaps though of course.
So you don't worry so much about having excessive, big, capital R Retirement, you can retire too! Just mini retirement.