The weisure way of life

I was on my way home from the Licensing Show in Las Vegas and chatting with the man next to me. He was telling all about his good luck (or his skill as he described it) at the poker table. He had taken a week’s vacation to gamble hard (he looked it) and was looking forward to catching up on his sleep.

What I found amazing was that, despite his being on vacation, he said that his customers were constantly calling him and that he was answering questions while exhausted and hung over.  It did not seem to occur to him that he could turn the phone off.

This guy was plainly engaged in “weisure.” What’s weisure?   It’s engaging in work and leisure at the same time, and is apparently a new phenomenon.  I say apparently because when I Google the word “weisure” I come up with 95,000 hits.

According to a May 11, 2009 article on the CNN website entitled “Welcome to the ‘weisure’ lifestyle,” we are moving into a 24/7  world in which we never escape work. 

 
Dalton Conley, aNYU sociologist who coined the word "weisure’ says that:   "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…Activities and social spaces are becoming work-play ambiguous, [as] all of these worlds that were once very distinct are now blurring together."

He goes on to say that the higher you move up in business the more time your job takes up. That means that busy men and women have no choice but to engage in work and play at the same time.

What are the tools of “weisure?” All the familiar culprits: Computers, iPhones, iPods, Starbucks and social networking. If you are texting a friend while you are talking to a business colleague you are engaged in weisure. If you are enjoying a cup of coffee at Starbucks while you conduct business over your cell phone you are also engaged in weisure.

I have to tell you though, at least in my opinion, weisure is a new term for a very old practice. Anyone who has taken a client out for drinks and dinner, engaged in a game of golf with business associates or attended a conference at a resort has engaged in weisure. So, at least to me, it’s not new. It’s just that modern technology has made it more invasive.  

Thanks to Mary Couzin and Nate Scheidler for putting me on to Weisure.