Adult Gap Years Are On the Rise, but Are They as Good as They Seem?

Here's a non-groundbreaking claim: time off from work is really great. I'll even go out on a (very short) limb and say that most people would agree with me. A few days of paid vacation here and there is nice, restorative even, but now imagine taking off an entire year.

An employment hiatus, if you will. Well, that possibility is becoming a reality for some working professionals, because "adult gap years" are on the rise. As the name quite literally implies, an adult gap year is effectively when people take an entire year off work.

The concept originated in Europe, but has quickly made its way stateside, especially since the start of the pandemic, with more and more burned-out millennials , and even some zoomers, taking sabbaticals and so-called "mini retirements." Now, what you do with your year off is entirely up to you — there are no rules, regulations, or restrictions. Joelle Moray is a licensed counselor and author of " What Are We Doing?! Radical Self-Care for the Hustle Culture .

" Merary Simeon , PhD, is a human resource executive and co-founder of Zera Consulting . Logan is a 34-year-old marketing professional who took an adult gap year from October 2022 until September 2023 to focus on his mental health. "I visited a friend who lives in England for a few months, then another friend who finished up medical school in Italy, then we took a trip to France for a couple days since it's so close by, then I visited my parents in North Carolina," he says.

"I also picked up s.