WORK AND LEISURE

Relationship in Everyday Life between Work, Leisure, Boredom, Entertainment and Relaxation



Relationship in Everyday Life between Work, Leisure, Boredom, Entertainment and Relaxation

Introduction

There has been growing interest among both academic and professional society with regards to the association between work and leisure in everyday life. Furthermore, there is sufficient evidence from academic research that generational values vary, and that young people give emphasis to achievement of work/leisure balance more than their predecessors. Several theorists have presented their work in this regard. Numerous researches have been conducted to define the relationship that exists in everyday life between work, leisure, boredom, entertainment and relaxation. Two of the most commendable studies in this regard include the “Work and leisure in everyday life” by Henri Lefebvre and “Escape attempts” by Cohen and Taylor.

Work and Leisure

In the context of the subject, Leisure refers to an undifferentiated global activity which is difficult to distinguish from other aspects of everyday life. Leisure, itself is of a very contradictory nature. Leisure embraces opposing possibilities and orientations, of which some tend to impoverish through passivity while others are more enriching. It is a new social need with a spontaneous character which social organizations have directed, sharpened, shifted and modified, by offering it various means of satisfaction.

Work and leisure play symbolic roles in structuring identity. There are similarities between work and leisure, and both have varying, flexible and contextually changing meanings. It is difficult to understand the nature of the relationship between leisure and work, and the nature of the difference between leisure and work. This is because leisure stands in a relationship to work and everyday life but in ways other than through opposition and hierarchy. Leisure represents practices related to many social processes. In other words, it refers to the backstage of everyday life. Work and leisure do not have meaning in an individual's life as opposites but as differences within lived life as a whole (Moore, 1999, 29-31).

Discussion

A growing inspiration to understand the relationship and then balance the work life with the personal life is associated to the long hours that many individuals devote their work. It is agreed that many UK organisations have are responsible for this scenario as they encourage a long hours culture, to the extent that more than twenty per cent of the total workforce and a significantly higher proportion of managers and professionals work more than 48 hours a week. This culture is partially perceived to be the outcome of downsizing and the more demanding workloads with which those who remain in employment must contend. This has also led to submerged definitions of leisure and work in everyday life (Bennett, 2002, 147).

The relationship between leisure and work is not a simple one. The two words are at one and the same time united and contradictory; therefore, their relation is known to be dialectical. Leisure cannot be separated from work. For instance, a man is still the same man even after his work is over and when he is resting or relaxing or ...