BCBusiness
More British Columbians are taking a beat with a self-funded “micro retirement” early in their careers, rethinking the concept of work, hustle culture and career tracks
Klaryssa Pangilinan loved her job. That is, until she didn’t.
After seven and a half years running the HR department for a Vancouver-based media company (no, not this one), Pangilinan knew she needed to make a change. But instead of finding another corporate gig—or any gig, for that matter—she quit with no concrete plan. At least, other than to reconnect with herself.
Pangilinan, 30, is part of a growing number of Gen Z and millennial workers who are embarking on micro retirements. These self-funded career breaks are being seen as a way to combat corporate burnout, offering people the chance to travel, spend more time with family, work on hobbies or figure out their next move. (And, unlike a sabbatical, they generally take place when someone has saved up enough to leave their current job and not work at all, or work sparingly, for months at a time.)
“Mondays used to be my favourite day, and then the moment came where I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t really like Mondays anymore,’” says Pangilinan. “I still love HR, but I kind of lost that spark. I needed to find that again, and really take the time to see what was important for me.”
Pangilinan left her job in December 2024 and has spent the last number of months rediscovering her passions. She’s training for a half marathon, and loves being able to go for runs during the day, without worrying about rushing back to the office. She’s baking and cooking more, experimenting with homemade pasta and from-scratch cakes. She went to New York to look after a friend’s dog, because why not. She is putting together a plan for her own HR consulting firm. She’s also spending more time with her family, including her toddler nephew and her parents.
“Family is important to me, but a lot of times you have to work around your work schedule,” she says. “I really wanted to embed in it a little bit more and put more focus on that.”
The concept of micro retirement was popularized in 2007’s The 4-Hour Workweek by American author and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss. Still, it seems to have taken on renewed energy over the last couple of years, as people continue to struggle with burnout. An October 2024 study by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health and Mental Health Research Canada found that approximately one in four Canadians experience burnout, and that nearly 70 percent of Canadians experience pre-burnout symptoms such as fatigue, irritability and lack of motivation.
“There has been this emerging idea that maybe people can take micro retirements, or take slightly divergent or different kinds of approaches to work and life,” says Kevin Lee, an assistant professor in the organizational behaviour and human resources division of UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
Lee points to William Whyte’s 1956 book The Organization Man, which outlined mass organization’s impact on humanity and the workforce. “It coined the archetype of the Organization Man,” explains Lee, “which was essentially this guy that would go to work and do the nine-to-five thing, and go back to his family in the suburbs—and he would do this for the next 30 to 40 years, and then he’d retire.”
What’s happening now, Lee argues, is a major shift in values: “With recent generations, especially after the pandemic, we have been seeing a lot of people come to new understandings of what they want from work.”
Modern corporate life is certainly not perfect. Employees are consistently expected to do more with smaller teams and fewer resources—that is, if AI hasn’t already come for their jobs. And on that front, job security seems to be nothing more than an abstract concept. Meanwhile, the cost of living keeps going up, but salaries aren’t rising to match. It’s understandable that people are exhausted, and that they might want something different from their working lives.
“You’re not retiring; it’s not the end of your career,” says Pangilinan. “You’re going to go back into the workforce. But it’s where you can pause and determine what you want to keep doing: shift your focus, switch careers, or just take a break and go back out there.”
Of course, micro retirements are still far from being universally adopted, or even understood.
“This trend has been a bit puzzling for people who grew up in other generations, or who grew up with a different understanding of what work is within the context of one’s life,” says Lee. “I think there has been some pushback.”
At the same time, he sees this as an opportunity for companies and hiring managers to adopt more compassionate worldviews.
“I do think there is a benefit to HR departments and hiring managers considering what micro retirement means more broadly,” he says. “If we think about what HR was meant to do—which was actually redesign workplaces so that they were far more human—I think there is something to be said about the fact that micro retirement, and the presence of micro trends, reflects something about our current moment, about our current culture.”
And as long as someone who took a micro retirement can outline what they learned from it, thinks career coach Sally Yue Lin, it doesn’t need to be seen as a negative thing.
“People are taking a micro retirement because they want to explore different skillsets, different interests,” she says. “It’s being able to say, ‘I intentionally took this break, because this is something that’s really important to me, and this is how it’s made me a better human,’ when they’re interviewing for a future position or coming back to a position.”
After all, the average career is long. Micro retirements remind us that the benefits of hard work can be enjoyed sooner and more often.
“Humans are working longer because we’re living longer,” says Pangilinan. “So why do we need to wait until we’re actually retired at the age of 75-plus to do all that fun stuff? I think if we can embed it, we’re going to be more satisfied and more happy, as well as better employees.”