Zara was about to turn 30. So she decided to retire

3 days ago 8

In 2023, on the verge of turning 30 and after seven years of full-time work, Melbourne woman Zara Lim decided that this was the ideal moment for her to retire.

“After being locked down in COVID for so long and working very hard in my early to mid-twenties, I wanted to celebrate the end of my twenties with a career break,” Lim says.

Like many retirees, Lim resigned from her job and used some of her savings to fund travel and tick items off her bucket list.

“I climbed Mount Fuji, road-tripped through the Norwegian fjords, catching a glimpse of Northern Lights, I experienced cherry blossom season in Korea and tried out the digital nomad lifestyle,” she says.

Zara Lim took a “micro-retirement” to recalibrate as she headed into her thirties.

Lim, now 30, is among a growing number of Gen Z and younger Millennial workers who are choosing micro-retirement, a term coined in 2007 that is now gaining renewed popularity on social media.

“The idea is that retirement doesn’t have to be a fixed, clearly defined period at the end of your working life,” says Sugumar Mariappanadar, senior academic researcher in human resources management at the Australian Catholic University.

“Rather, it’s possible to restore your human energy and levels of wellbeing by dipping in and out of it, with small or large career breaks, or micro-retirement.”

While employees have traditionally taken holidays, leave or sabbaticals to recharge their batteries, many micro-retirees are opting to resign from their jobs completely and take extended periods of time, usually months, away from the workforce.

“Looking at long service or sabbaticals, this break is provided by the employer, while micro retirement is often a voluntary choice to terminate their employment and live through personal savings or government support,” Mariappanadar says.

Social analyst and demographer Mark McCrindle says the micro retirement trend is partly a response to discussions about longevity, as many Australians live longer and work later in life.

“People are sprinkling their retirement years or taking those career breaks, or those years of freedom, the post-work years throughout their life rather than just at the conclusion of a career,” he says.

One of the greatest benefits of the trend is its emphasis on work-life balance and wellbeing.

“A micro retirement means that it’s not retirement – they’re not tapping out, they’re not quitting work or not saying I’m not going to be a contributor any more,” McCrindle says.

“They’re saying: to do that, I just need this micro refreshment, and that’ll gear me up for the second, the third or the fourth chapter.”

For Lim, this is exactly what her 18-month break, from mid-2023 to the end of 2024, did.

“I’ve always been a workaholic, so taking this micro retirement forced me to slow down and take a break,” she says. “I saw a big impact on my mental health and happiness, and the accumulation of experiences during that time was priceless.”

More Gen Z and young Millennials are choosing to “micro retire” to pursue interests such as travelling.

For 24-year-old Georgia Jones, from Sydney’s northern beaches, her two three-month micro retirements – in 2023 and 2025 – not only allowed her time to recharge but also to pursue other opportunities.

“My first micro retirement was spent travelling and just relaxing, but the second I stayed at home and used the time to work on my art and graphic design, which is something I’d been doing in the background for years but never had enough time to put my full attention into while working full-time,” she says.

Jones, who studied marketing at university, says her previous and current marketing roles are important to her, but she hopes one day to pivot her career, turning her graphic design side hustle into a full-time job.

“Micro retirement allowed me the time to work towards this goal because I had savings to fund my time off, and without kids or a mortgage and still living at home with my parents, [it] meant that I could dedicate a lot of time to creating art and also developing social media platforms and a website to promote my work.”

The career landscape is changing, says McCrindle, and micro retiring suits the new scene, especially for younger generations like Jones’, who use the opportunity to invest in themselves and their future.

“The whole career trajectory of life has changed,” he says, “with a lot more upskilling, retraining and career reinventing. It’s not a career ladder, it’s more of a jungle gym. You move sideways and across.”

While micro retirement might offer some benefits, Sarah McCann-Bartlett, chief executive of the Australian HR Institute, says resigning from your job may cause issues.

“[It can] put holes in your work history, which may make you less attractive to future employers,” she says. “It can sometimes take a while to get a new job once you’ve concluded your break.”

It can also have a negative impact on your financial future.

“If you’re not on paid leave, then you won’t be contributing to short-term or long-term savings, especially superannuation,” she says.

Mariappanadar agrees. “The Australian Bureau of Statistics has indicated there’s more than 34 per cent of current employees actively looking for more work, so why would any employer give an opportunity for micro retirement? They would say, ‘OK, if you’re leaving, you’re gone. We’ll find someone else’.”

Both Lim and Jones say they found jobs quite quickly after deciding to rejoin the workforce, but they had concerns before taking their micro retirement.

“Working hard through school, uni and then into a full-time job, taking a break without a job or financial security scared the shit out of me,” Jones says.

“But I also knew I would most likely be working for the next 40 years, so pursuing my passions and actually enjoying my life needed to be a priority.”

It has paid off, with Jones now working in a marketing role three days a week and pursuing her design business in her free time, while Lim reports an improved work-life balance.

“There is so much to life outside our work selves that is waiting to be experienced,” she says.

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