Anyone taken Self Elected Break from Working?

Commander of Awesome Senior Pwner
24,621 posts 244 reps Joined May 2010
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 5:02 PM

Curious if anyone has elected to quit a job without another job lined up? If so, what did you do in between jobs, was the experience rewarding? How long did you take, etc...

For those that have had time off without it being your decision, same questions but I'd imagine the experience was a bit different.


Belly35 Elderly Intellectual
10,015 posts 56 reps Joined Nov 2009
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 6:18 PM

I close my companies and walked away from working for about 2 months ... hated not doing anything that seemed to have value or reason. Did not like how I was feeling about myself and what my future was looking like. At 69 years old Im to young to not work... I figure 2 more years and I will stop and enjoy what I have earned

Yard work can only do so much, pistol range nobody around to shoot, work on my truck nothing wrong with it, fixing the small house project, learned early if you get those done the wife will find more .. slow to finish those jobs...   Contacted an old customer and took a job 7:30 to 4  having a good time and enjoying life and what i do.  I still have time to work on my other project that i will pursuing as a career in the next few months if all goes as planned. 

BRF Senior Member
11,621 posts 111 reps Joined Nov 2009
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 6:23 PM
posted by Belly35

....pistol range nobody around to shoot

Perhaps you meant to add a "with" to your statement?

;-)

like_that 1st Team All-PWN
29,228 posts 321 reps Joined Apr 2010
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 6:39 PM

My wife's friends took an entire year off to travel the world.  They obviously loved the travel, but they have been struggling to get back to reality and struggled with restarting their careers. 

Heretic Son of the Sun
20,517 posts 205 reps Joined Nov 2009
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 7:14 PM
posted by like_that

My wife's friends took an entire year off to travel the world.  They obviously loved the travel, but they have been struggling to get back to reality and struggled with restarting their careers. 

I have a four-day weekend and I struggle to come back to reality for about half the next week!

24,621 posts 244 reps Joined May 2010
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 7:22 PM
posted by like_that

My wife's friends took an entire year off to travel the world.  They obviously loved the travel, but they have been struggling to get back to reality and struggled with restarting their careers. 

I've heard of people doing this, and without work exp/degree in a very high demand field like Software Eng, I'm confident I would not enjoy the travel. I'd be too freaked about finding work once I returned. Plus not working for a yr would really get in the way/slow down my FI plans.

Fab4Runner Tits McGee
6,997 posts 64 reps Joined Nov 2009
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 7:33 PM

A friend of mine just quit his job to relax/travel for a while. He's in his early 30s. He obviously has some money saved, and he also owns a duplex. He has always rented out one side, but will rent the other while he's gone.

 

 

Verbal Kint Senior Member
1,062 posts 16 reps Joined Jul 2017
Mon, Aug 20, 2018 10:01 PM
posted by Belly35

nobody around to shoot

Don't think I'd hang around either

 

Automatik Senior Member
15,737 posts 99 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, Aug 22, 2018 7:41 PM

My best friend did the year work visa thing in Australia. Basically if you're under 30 and can prove you have X amount of cash they will grant you a year working visa.

He won't admit it but I'm guessing he regretted it after the fact. The experience was amazing but he drained all his funds and had a tough time getting back to where he was prior to leaving regarding his industry. He also did it with his girl at the time, which went south very quickly.

It's not something that would be in the cards for me unless I was exactly where I wanted to be career wise and had a fat bankroll. Neither apply currently. 

thavoice Senior Member
15,437 posts 42 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, Aug 23, 2018 1:32 AM

I actually just did this and start my new job Monday.

My employer, ILLEGALLY, cut my hours 25% after my deployment. I accepted it for a bit because I enjoyed the time off.  They the twunt came out with the April schedule and it was a 30% cut so I said fuck it.

I had money saved from being deployed, we sold the house and made some jack on that and skipped town and got a house 50 yards from a lake.  We moved early May.  So, officially I have not had a full time job since the end of April.  In the meantime I have worked some part time with the Army, including a two week stint.   I had known this job I was getting was in the making and was banking on it.   I thought about getting a factory job in the meantime until I officially got hired at the job I was looking at but instead got some work at the Unit.

I am glad I did so as I got likely 3 years of projects around the new house completed and the time off has been pretty good.

 

I took a big leap of faith and glad I did.   

SO it was basically it was 3.5 months off. I would say I worked 25 of those days for the Army.

Yes, it was definately nice. I hadnt been unemployed like this is, well, since I was in high school.   I am glad I did so. I got so much done and was nice to get a break!

OSH Kosh B'Gosh
4,424 posts 18 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, Aug 23, 2018 10:53 AM

I took a couple months off as I stepped away from one coaching job. It was absolutely miserable working with the head coach. Although I was a graduate assistant, I was the only assistant. He was worthless and did nothing. I needed to focus on my job search and future, as I knew my contract was done once my Master's was done.

Thankfully, it worked out. I ended up with a job. I was able to go interview places focus on networking, applying, etc. without that worthless guy giving me meaningless tasks to do. I hated doing it for the team, they were absolutely miserable with him. But, I knew it's what my family needed for our future. It cost me some living expenses and a small chunk of the tuition.

In our current situation, I couldn't do it without picking up another temporary job. We have way too many bills. In the next 5 years we will alleviate ourselves of those bills and it could become easier to make those decisions.

QuakerOats Senior Member
11,701 posts 67 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, Aug 30, 2018 3:42 PM
posted by Heretic

I have a four-day weekend and I struggle to come back to reality for about half the next week!

 

 

I hear ya …….I was just at the Wyndham Championship for a long weekend, took till Thursday to regain my footing.  :)

Heretic Son of the Sun
20,517 posts 205 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, Aug 30, 2018 3:50 PM
posted by QuakerOats

 

 

I hear ya …….I was just at the Wyndham Championship for a long weekend, took till Thursday to regain my footing.  :)

Lol, "I'm finally back in the swing of things...JUST IN TIME FOR ANOTHER WEEKEND!!!"

FatHobbit Senior Member
9,058 posts 68 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 2:05 AM

My wife took the kids and is in the process of moving to Germany. She wants to try for 6 months and then she wants me to sell our house and follow. (The whole thing is a giant cluster fuck) If it somehow works out for her, I'm not sure I'm going to move because the pay is shit and the taxes are high. But if I do move I think I'm going to take a couple or 6 months to travel around the U.S. Maybe buy a camper. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do. 

friendfromlowry Senior Member
7,778 posts 87 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 7:06 AM
posted by FatHobbit

My wife took the kids and is in the process of moving to Germany. She wants to try for 6 months and then she wants me to sell our house and follow. (The whole thing is a giant cluster fuck) 

Sounds like you have a story to tell. 

Heretic Son of the Sun
20,517 posts 205 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 11:32 AM
posted by friendfromlowry

Sounds like you have a story to tell. 

...yeah. That definitely sounds atypical.

FatHobbit Senior Member
9,058 posts 68 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:02 PM
posted by friendfromlowry

Sounds like you have a story to tell. 

Lol it's not much of a story. I was a dumb ass and married a German. I have an older daughter and when she graduated my wife wanted to move back to Germany. I looked into it a little. I'm a software developer/ dba/ data analyst. I looked for jobs and they pay 50k euros. But they also have 35-48% income tax. And 19% sales tax. Property and cars are more expensive. We have a small 5 acre farm here. (And a mortgage) That would cost millions of euros over there. My wife insists she is taking her horse. No thanks. She took the kids over this summer and looked for jobs. She couldn't find a job so she changed her mind. Then she found a job and changed it back. Then she came home to pack and changed her mind again. Then she decided she didn't really try and changed her mind again. I'm fine selling the farm but I'm not dumping the equity from it into her pipe dream so I can move and make a lot less money. She has a 6 month probation period with her new job and she wants to try it and see how it works out. I'm probably going to get dry fucked before this is all over. 

Automatik Senior Member
15,737 posts 99 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:20 PM

I'm somewhat confused. You're divorced/seperated? still together? 

QuakerOats Senior Member
11,701 posts 67 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:29 PM
posted by FatHobbit

My wife took the kids and is in the process of moving to Germany. She wants to try for 6 months and then she wants me to sell our house and follow. (The whole thing is a giant cluster fuck) If it somehow works out for her, I'm not sure I'm going to move because the pay is shit and the taxes are high. But if I do move I think I'm going to take a couple or 6 months to travel around the U.S. Maybe buy a camper. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do. 

 

Kann nicht verstehen

FatHobbit Senior Member
9,058 posts 68 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:35 PM
posted by Automatik

I'm somewhat confused. You're divorced/seperated? still together? 

We're still together. She thinks I'm going to sell everything and move in 6 months. Even though I told her I have no interest in moving to Germany. Best case for me is that she can't afford to live there and comes back here. At the very least she needs to come up with 7500 euros to ship her horse by then. 

FatHobbit Senior Member
9,058 posts 68 reps Joined Nov 2009
Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:36 PM
posted by QuakerOats

 

Kann nicht verstehen

Es ist total schieße

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