No job, no problem: For some, a 'funemployment' summer after quitting sounds like a perfect plan

• Some people in between jobs are embracing what's known as "funemployment."
• It's a term that describes unemployment as liberating and empowering, rather than scary.

Delia Pena, who was laid off from her data-entry job in late March, has many things she wants to accomplish this summer.

A road trip across the South with her teenage niece; finishing the epoxy collage she's been working on for weeks; wrapping up the second season of the podcast she hosts; and lots of yoga.

Conspicuously missing from those plans? Looking for a new, full-time job. "I want to take a beat and decide how I'm going to live my life," Pena, 37, told Insider. "I'm entitled to have some fun. It doesn't need to be a rat race."

Pena, who makes money delivering for DoorDash and ghostwriting blogs, said she's unfazed by recent economic uncertainty. "I'm not concerned about getting a job later. I'm pretty resourceful."

Pena is embracing what's known as "funemployment" — a term that describes joblessness as liberating and empowering, rather than depressing and scary. Instead of worrying about finding a new gig as fast as possible, the funemployed enjoy their time off by taking trips, spending time with loved ones, and rekindling their creativity.

The label has been part of the vernacular for years, but TikTok and Instagram have a way of recycling old ideas and making them feel new again. And at a time when Gen Z's approach to work-life balance — with the emphasis on life — is in the air, certain talking heads can't help but weigh in. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Suzy Welch, the NYU professor, said she was unsure whether funemployment was "brilliant or bonkers."

Randall Peterson, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, told Insider that taking an extended period between jobs "as a time for reflection is healthy," as long as "you're not just burning through cash."

The pandemic changed the way many people think about work and helped clarify what they want out of their lives, he said. "We've long had this Protestant work ethic where work is its own virtue and hard work is part and parcel to a well-lived life," he said.

"But the pandemic drove home that what's important in life is relationships. Many people are realizing that work is not where they find the most meaning."

When in-between jobs, recreation calls

More than three years into a pandemic that's shifted people's priorities about work and life, surveys suggest that many people feel both burned out at work and restless in their jobs.

So when an opportunity for time off presents itself, some are seizing the chance. Roughly 28% of recently laid-off workers said they planned to take some form of break before starting their next job, according to a January 2023 survey of more than 2,000 US adults who'd lost their jobs in the second half of 2022 conducted by ZipRecruiter.

Fresh figures from the Labor Department suggest that they're not crazy for doing so. While the so-called Great Resignation, the unprecedented period in which workers quit for new, often higher-paying jobs — might be on its way out, the employment market overall looks strong. Layoffs remain low, and there are roughly 1.8 open jobs for every unemployed worker.

Because resume gaps no longer hold the same stigma and people can make extra cash doing gig work, a period of funemployment sounds just about perfect for some, said Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter. "People now have more freedom to hop in and out of the labor market," she told Insider.

To be clear: Not everyone is so lucky. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and the vast majority of people who lose their jobs look for a new one right away, noted Pollak. But many of those who have bit of leftover pandemic savings and perhaps some severance are taking their sweet time.

Wren Taylor, 35, enjoyed her summer of funemployment last year after being laid off from her corporate marketing job. Living off her severance and savings (she has health insurance through her spouse), she learned to bake a perfect baguette, started a vegetable garden, wrote a novel, and backpacked California's Trans-Catalina Trail.

Many of the older hikers she encountered told her that they wished they'd done the trek when they were younger, fitter, and had better knees, but they could never fit it in around work.

"Their comments affirmed that I wasn't wasting my time," she told Insider. "Up until that point, I'd spent my whole life hustling in my career."

Wren started applying for jobs last fall, just as her self-published novel began earning some real money. During job interviews, she said that all she could think about was the freedom she'd lose by going back to a traditional job. So she made the decision to become a full-time writer. "After a while, my corporate career didn't feel like the shiny sparkly dream it was presented as," she said.

"It feels weird to say, but all of the income I earn now is through writing novels, and I absolutely still work 40 hours a week."