It's only really an option if you've been paid handsomely enough to rack up some savings beforehand though, and being able to take 6 months or a year out of work entirely at your own expense isn't an opportunity affordable to everyone.

I managed a month and it wasn't enough. Not a chance I could have managed much more than that though without eating into my emergency funds and becoming anxious.

Voluntarily taking unpaid time off is a massive luxury.

I see folks take them when they're laid off because it takes so long for folks to get a job offer.

The/one problem is it's not predictable. It might take a year. You might get an offer next week. When I was a month between jobs in the dot-com aftermath, it would have been nice to have known that I'd have something like 6 weeks between jobs. But, of course, at the time it could have been either a very long time or I'd better take whatever was on offer.

Yes, "fun-employment" is essentially the new sabbatical.

You'll probably find that "fun-employment" as a term is mostly used by people who were collecting a very nice paycheck and don't have a lot of serious responsibilities.

Half-right. In my experience, it's often younger folks out of school, with no kids, who make low wages and live with their parents. It's folks for whom unemployment insurance is a great benefit, assuming they were at their previous job long enough to collect it.

That's probably another category for whom employment seems like sort of an optional activity at least for a bit. I admit I hear it--at least in my circles--from decently-paid tech workers who are ready to take some time off,