Isabella Kwai of The New York Times writes about her reporting on a story that documented how young people were taking career breaks.
Kwai writes, “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.”
Read more here.
