Employee explains why one year of break from working every 5 years should be considered healthy

Corporate employees have been facing burnout at a staggering rate in recent times. As per a survey by Zippia, 77% of employees have experienced feelings of burnout in their present job position. This is primarily because the job pressure is often so much that individuals have nothing in their life except their professional responsibilities. This also can lead to dismal performance in professional life. Therefore, u/Tiredworker27 puts forward a proposition of taking a one-year pause from work after every five years. This would help in ensuring that the gap is not so large that they are unable to cope with the new developments in the industry and at the same time give them a mental break from the rigorous lifestyle. People responded with varying opinions listing the pros and cons related to the unique proposition.

Tiredworker27 begins the post by providing context as to why he has come up with this proposition. He shares that for the past 15 years, he has been working at the same job and is now planning to quit. The quitting is not a result of trying to find better opportunities, but because he wants a break. He has saved enough that he would not need to work for a year and could actually use up his savings to do things that he missed out on in these 15 years. This includes traveling the world, reading, taking care of his body and spending quality time with his loved ones. The only issue in the whole plan is his fear of having a gap in his resume.

The employee does eventually want to come back to work after his break. He knows that it would not be possible for his present organization to give him such a long break. Therefore, in all probability, he would have to look for another job. While trying to analyze his prospects, he came across many posts where individuals who have undertaken such paths were treated as 'lunatics' when they tried to return to the workforce. This bothered him, as he expresses, "If you dare to quit the hamster wheel for one year there is supposed to be something wrong with you?"

He dislikes the fact that individuals who want to prioritize their mental health are viewed with such a negative perception. He writes, "It's sick that this is seen as 'something wrong." In his opinion, the present corporate environment is such that the productivity of individuals has massively increased. For the profit that individuals provide to the companies, such breaks should not be a difficult thing to arrange for the corporations. However, they do not do it because they want to keep the system running the way it has till now, for their benefit.

However, for the sake of the mental health of workers, he thinks it should be the norm to have a one-year break after five years of working. He believes that it will bring a healthy work-life balance. Moreover, it also helps people to remain creative on the job. Burnout harms an employee's productivity and makes them feel stuck. For individuals to work at their full capacity they need to be healthy both emotionally and physically. This break helps them to achieve that and hence the system in place should change to provide for such a break.

The comment section was in agreement with the Redditor's proposition. u/lightpendant wrote about their positive experience due to taking breaks, "That's basically what I've done for the past 20 years. Wasn't my long-term plan initially it just worked out that way. It's been good." u/beprovoking gave a suggestion regarding addressing the gap in the resume, "I completely agree with you. I’ve seen people say they circumvent all of that by simply saying they took off to be the caretaker of a loved one. People usually drop it after that and don’t ask questions because of how poor taste it is."