The "Weisure" Lifestyle

[Eclipse]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/11/weisure/index.html



(CNN) -- The line dividing work and leisure time is blurring right before our eyes, says one expert, and it's creating a phenomenon called "weisure time."

Many who haven't already abandoned the 9-to-5 workday for the 24-7 life of weisure probably will do so soon, according to New York University sociologist Dalton Conley, who coined the word. It's the next step in the evolving work-life culture.

"Increasingly, it's not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun," be it "in an office or at home or out in the street," Conley said. Activities and social spaces are becoming work-play ambiguous, he says, as "all of these worlds that were once very distinct are now blurring together."

I've done billable work in EOC's during downtime, plenty of CAP during work hours, and plenty of both during "off" hours.

Its been that way for me for a long time - most of my career, such that it is.  The flexibility to do your work "anywhere" comes with the responsibility to get it done, no matter when or where.

I realize that some people have location-specific jobs, its hard to build a building, make a widget, or put out a fire with a Blackberry, but there's also a counter-phenomenon that I've seen where by people with less flexible positions resent the flexibility of others, while not realizing their day has a "hard-end" at 5pm.

I'd be willing to bet that were it not for "weisure "time, a lot of hyper-active CAP folks would be a lot less involved.  Its also an interesting, perhaps mentally deficient, paradigm that what many of us consider "fun", most others would consider "work".

[Spike]

I used to keep work, play and home separate.  Now I blend all three together.  I have fun at work, fun at home, and fun during play.  Not having fun and being happy leads to stress and stress leads to heart attacks, and other negative outcomes.

I am lucky to be able to work when I want, play when I want, and have the freedom to basically do whatever I want.  There were people that have called me crazy for not working a strict 9-5 workday.  Looking back, I think I have been successful in business because I don't.

I have a policy at work that reads "work to standard, not to time", which means that employees need to accomplish their jobs and tasks assigned to them, instead of working just to fill the 9-5 time period.  As soon as they get their jobs or assignments done, they can leave the building and come back the following day.  However, if they don't get the jobs or assignments done, they may have to spend a few extra hours that evening getting it done.

I read in time magazine last year that most American employees working a 9-5 job actually only do about 4 hours of real work, 2 hours of socializing, and 2 hours of personal work.       

[Eclipse]

I have a policy at work that reads "work to standard, not to time", which means that employees need to accomplish their jobs and tasks assigned to them, instead of working just to fill the 9-5 time period.  As soon as they get their jobs or assignments done, they can leave the building and come back the following day.  However, if they don't get the jobs or assignments done, they may have to spend a few extra hours that evening getting it done.

That's always been my attitude, especially with direct reports - treat adults like children and they will act like children when you need something.

Sadly, though things have shifted somewhat in the tech sector, the traditional corporate and government environments still expect that "face time = work time".  I guess I can understand when you're dealing with a unionized situation where every nuance and option is in a contract, but for the average worker its just not true anymore, especially for on-call, salaried people.

One of the best jobs I ever had was supporting a medium-sized manufacturing company as a 1-man shop.  The whole place was remote-accessed, and it didn't matter where I was and no one cared.  I had 15 hours days and I had 5-hours days, but bottom line was I answered the phone when it rang.

[dwb]

I have a job with standard business hours.  That doesn't mean that sometimes, during a crunch or while on travel, we work a bunch of extra hours.  As we like to say, we get all of the drawbacks to being salaried, with none of the benefits.

Mostly, it's because we have to bill the government for our work, and working in the office is built into the rates we charge the government.  Thus, we lose the traditional salaried employee flexibility.

Fortunately, we're not on a constant death march, as some people in our industry have been known to be.  We keep to our schedule, we have adequate manning, and all in all, it's not a bad gig.

I'm not sure how I would handle a job that I never really left.  I see people constantly twiddling on their Blackberry, and I just don't think that blending of work=home=play would suit me.

That said, if it were the only work I could get, I would of course take it.