Back in the early 1980s, the idea of taking a gap year was non-existent. For every job opening, there were 100 qualified applicants – the unemployment rate was sky high.
Today, labor is scarce and can do what it wants to do – hence, those with the money can now take a gap year holiday to “rejuvenate” from their work life.
Silly article: Breaking from routine with a mini sabbatical or ‘adult gap year’ can be rejuvenating | AP News
About the author: “Colleen Newvine is the product manager of the AP Stylebook at The Associated Press. She is the author of “Your Mini Sabbatical.” She and her husband have lived temporarily in New Orleans, San Francisco and three small beach towns on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, among other mini sabbatical locales.”
Because writers – it’s always writers – can easily work remotely and think everyone else can do that too.
A problem for many, in other fields, is they cannot walk away from their work for a year – their skills atrophy and their fields advance rapidly.
Yet here is another example: At 29, my grown-up gap year made me happier and healthier – how to plan yours
A number of college students – typically “rich kids” – pursue a “gap” year after high school or college graduation and use that for global travel.
This is mostly a rich kid phenomenon. Most of us cannot afford to take off for a year to travel the world. Many of us had to be employed as soon as we could after our college completion.
In many fields you have studied specialized courses and developed very specialized skills – walking away from those for a year will lead to skill loss – and a challenging time returning to your field.
“Gap years” seem to be a pop meme of writers and journalists, who paradoxically, often attended expensive private schools and work in fields not earning high salaries – presumably they came from well to do families and can then write about their gap year travels.