The platitude “kids just don’t want to work these days” is usually invoked with hard-to-miss side-eye. If you’ve heard it, or said it, you know. But some of the youngest members of America’s labor force consider that mindset worthwhile, rather than cause for reproof, and it has the paradoxical effect of producing an exceptionally strong work ethic. Think if it as a scaled-up version of working for the weekend. As summer starts, some of these workers are planning merely a long weekend here or a two-week trip to Tokyo there. Others, though, are planning something far grander, and far longer, than a typical vacation. Gen Z and millennial workers are calling such big breaks “micro-retirements.” Yes, that’s just TikTok-speak for sabbatical, but it’s catching on as younger generations rethink their relationship to work. HSBC’s 2025 Quality of Life study found that 37% of 10,000 survey respondents planned to take a mini-retirement, lasting six to 12 months, prior to their real retirement. Roughly half of those said they were penciling in multiple departures from the workforce. And a full 87% of survey respondents who had already taken a micro-retirement said it improved their quality of life (we suspect the other 13% may have some deeper problems). The catch? Those surveyed held assets worth from $100,000 to $2 million. While career coaches and personal finance experts told The Daily Upside that a micro-retirement can be fruitful for some workers, if properly and meticulously planned for, the buzzy trend is certainly not advisable for everyone. “For most people, stepping away from the workforce in that way is much harder in practice than it sounds in theory,” Jared Porter, co-founder of fintech retirement platform 401GO, told The Daily Upside. Hardly shocking, we know. Still, anyone swept up in the fantasy of Instagram Reels videos should consider a few critical nuances and a little simple math. Here are the Do’s, the Don’ts, and the