So, I gave three months' notice to my company so I can quit and have a year off. I've just had enough. It's been ten years and there are no opportunities for promotion for me, and the work isn't interesting or challenging. The pay is extremely mediocre and I have to sit in the same chair for eight hours a day under fluorescent lights. I feel like it's slowly smashing my mental health.
Anyway, when I quit I said the reason was that I want to hang out for a year and just be a person, walk in the park, be outside, and all that. It was like my reasoning didn't compute for them, as if the notion of leaving just to not be grinding away for a while was an alien concept. I do work in Japan, and maybe the idea of a year out is a bit more uncommon here, but I was surprised at how surprised they were when I told them. One guy burst out laughing.
The reason I want to quit is I have some savings (enough for a year off, anyway) and I want to enjoy life without work for an extended period before I am old, decrepit and losing my marbles. I don't see what isn't relatable about that. I don't see why everyone with even the slightest chance (i.e. as fortunate as I have been) isn't rushing to do the same thing.
Either way, it's shocking that anyone would be taken aback that someone might be eager to escape an open plan, brightly lit, yawn box like the place I work at. The fact that anyone can tolerate it in the first place is amazing.