I quit being a corporate slave and spent a year as a NEET, and now I'm healthy in both mind and body

Introduction

I resigned from my company at the end of last November, and after six months of studying abroad, I returned home. Now, I am set to resume working next month in December. That makes exactly one year in between. To be frank, I think it was an incredibly valuable year for detoxifying my mind and body.

My days at my previous job

My previous workplace was so heavily monitored and controlled that it was called “North Korea.” For example, no matter how small the mistake, it was never forgiven. If you made a mistake, you would be put on the guillotine at the weekly report meeting, forced to confess in front of the members by saying,
“I committed the mistake of...” and then receive judgment. After spending five years in such an environment, the little confidence I originally had almost completely vanished, and I developed a personality where I was always afraid of something. Seeking my lost soul, I decided to make a
“defection”
in the form of studying abroad.

The disease called growth addiction

During my time abroad and after returning home, I read various books. What I noticed at a bookstore I visited for the first time in a while was that books criticizing “a society that constantly demands growth” or describing how to survive within it were selling well. This seems to go by the name of “neoliberalism.” Originally an economic ideology, it has now permeated down to the individual level, creating a culture of self-responsibility and an obsession that one must always keep growing.

My previous workplace was the very embodiment of that. Working as a cog in the company, accumulating experience and growth, and stepping up to the next job—that was considered the natural order of things. In the North Korea department where I was, for example, we would analyze others' mistakes using frameworks and eventually turn them into our own achievements by saying,
“I reduced the error rate by X%.” It was an environment where you were thoroughly drained, using others' mistakes as fuel for your own growth story. Perhaps that is why it became such an unhealthy environment, with people desperate to find others' mistakes or trying to cover up their own.

I am not denying neoliberalism itself. Rather, perhaps my workplace was simply misunderstanding “growth” and turning it into insidious bullying. Nevertheless, if I had known about this concept sooner, I might have understood the abnormality of the workplace and its background, and been able to keep an appropriate distance.

A Waddle Dee-like way of life

Besides reading books, I played games for the first time in a while. Better late than never, I played “Kirby and the Forgotten Land (released in 2022).” There, the Waddle Dees cooperate to build a town for the protagonist, Kirby. I was incredibly moved by that sight. There was no neoliberalism or growth nonsense there; just Waddle Dees purely using their strengths to build a town, create entertainment facilities, and spend their days peacefully and leisurely. Each of them was living at their own pace, simply, peacefully, and contentedly. I realized that this was the form of happiness I had been seeking, and it became a guideline for my job hunting.

In addition to that, through a solo trip to Taiwan, visiting my grandmother, and drinking parties with people who had quit my previous job (a gathering of defectors), I feel like my true self has gradually returned.

Summary

I ended up with a one-year gap in my career in my late twenties, but I spent a fulfilling year because of it. If it were the old me, I would have panicked, thinking,
“I shouldn't have a one-year gap,” and would have been desperate to get certifications or study English. However, now, I have almost no obsession that I must make effective use of my time. I want to gradually shift from a life driven by the pursuit of growth to a peaceful, Waddle Dee-like way of life.