The Day I Discovered Doing Nothing is the New Luxury Car

A few weeks ago, at a music festival full of people who smell like compost and regret, someone asked me how work was going.

Without thinking, I replied, “I’m decentring work.”

Photo by pen_ash

Now, to most people, that sounds like I’ve joined some sort of spiritual cult where we wear linen trousers and hum at sunrise. In reality, it just means I’m working less and lying down more.

Apparently, this is part of something called “the rest revolution,” which is a cultural shift where doing nothing is considered not just acceptable but aspirational. Like a Rolex but without the time-keeping or the €20,000 bill.

It is fuelled by trendy buzzwords like “quiet quitting,” “micro-retirement,” and my personal favourite, “lazy boy jobs” which all translate to I’m sick of flogging myself for pennies while Jeff Bezos buys another yacht.

And they’re right. We’ve reached the point where many jobs demand more hours, more stress, and more meetings about meetings, but give you less money, less stability, and about as much long-term reward as a used sandwich.

One in ten people in Europe are now telling their bosses to shove their “return to the office” orders. That is not rebellion. That is survival.

Why work like a lunatic when you can… not?
Here’s the thing. Work has become a bit like modern F1. It used to be about the thrill, the passion, the chase. Now it is all spreadsheets, sponsorship logos, and pretending to care about team synergy.

So people are taking “micro-retirements” which are little breaks where you stop pretending to be productive, sit on a sofa, and remember what your own living room looks like in daylight.

Of course the financial experts will tell you this is bad for your pension. But pensions are like unicorns now. Yes, they supposedly exist, but by the time we get there, some banker will have bet them all on AI-generated tulips, or the planet will be underwater, or we will still be working at 99 because the retirement age is now “when you die.”

Rest — the ultimate luxury product
What’s truly ridiculous is that we’ve even managed to monetise rest. We buy €300 mindfulness retreats and €80 scented candles because we’re too fried to work out how to just stop. We are “optimising” downtime like it is an Olympic sport.

We are so overstimulated by screens and “productivity hacks” that the idea of sitting in silence feels illegal. We crave peace, but instead we spend money on courses teaching us how to nap properly.

The conclusion
I am still working, but I am no longer trying to win at work. I have stopped treating rest as a guilty indulgence and started treating it like fuel. You don’t floor a car without petrol unless you are a Tesla drive,r in which case you just sit there waiting for the charger.

So yes, maybe I am “decentring work.” Maybe I am lazy. Maybe I am ahead of the curve. But when the choice is between spending my best years sending emails about meetings or sitting in a pub garden with a pint on a Tuesday afternoon…

I know exactly which one I would choose.