Introducing Weisure

Continuing our look at CNN.com's special series on work-life balance, I point you to this article that introduces a new word to the lexicon: weisure. As you might be able to guess, weisure is a melding of work and leisure; weisure time is spent doing a little bit of both, like checking your Blackberry messages at your kids' soccer practice. According to the article, weisure is fast becoming a lifestyle choice, in which it is usually ambiguous whether you are working or living; you are doing both, 24-7, easily switching from one to the other at will.

In many ways weisure is a welcome innovation. If you are a member of the creative class in the knowledge economy, whose job it is basically to think, you already know that work is doesn't always fit neatly into defined time boundries. You don't just turn your brain off at 5 pm (I hope), and good ideas have a way of popping into your mind at odd times. The rise of technology that allows us to capture and share these ideas, when and as they happen, undoubtedly is a good development that boosts efficiency.

In fact, I think fully embracing the weisure lifestyle is very alluring, particularly if you have an employer that supports it. Think about it: what if you could do your work whenever and wherever you wanted. Want to spend the summer at your family's cabin in Maine? No problem, we're paying you for your ideas, not your presence. Decide to move the family to Hilton Head for the slower pace of life? Great, just keep doing the work and check in at HQ once a month. You're a night owl but not a morning person? Fine, we won't schedule any meetings before 11a. It would take self discipline, an understanding boss, and explicit, measurable performance metrics, but it is certainly a compelling vision. (And similar in concept to the Results-Only Work Environment practiced at Best Buy and other companies, as explained here.)

But there are a couple of reasons for caution in embracing the weisure lifestyle. The first is reflected in a quote by author Dalton Conley in the CNN.com article:

"For the first time in history now, the higher up the economic ladder you go, the more likely you are going to have an extremely long workweek."

The shift over the past century from the rich being called "the leisure class" to being known as the "creative class" (implying creating, i.e. work, rather than leisure) is a topic for another time. For now, I simply point out that once it is established that you CAN work everywhere, it is not a big leap to believing you SHOULD work everywhere. And as you strive to draw the line between work and leisure, when there is a conflict, which one usually wins?

Suppose you take a one week vacation, and you notify the office of your intent to check your email and phone messages once during the week, on Wednesday. Which is more likely to happen: (a) you are so relaxed that you forget to check messages until Friday; or (b) the little blinking red light draws you like a moth to a flame on Monday, you discover an urgent issue that "requires" your immediate attention, and you end up spending an hour a day of your vacation on work issues? You see the problem: the balance between work and leisure in practice can easily end up much more lopsided than you intended. In fact, we may end up with"worksure" rather than "weisure"--the work is much more prevalent than the leisure.

The second caution about embracing the weisure lifestyle is to realize that we do not live in a vacuum. If you are all you have to worry about, then by all means embrace working and living 24/7. But most of us--I would say all of us, even the unattached among us--have relationships of some kind with other people, and those other people often ask for, and even need, our UNDIVIDED attention. When there are no boundries on our time, it becomes very hard to give that undivided attention. As cool as it is that our offices can now fit in our palms, if carrying that "office" prevents you from holding the hand of your toddler, or embracing your spouse or significant other, or lending a helping hand to your elderly parent, then what is the point? The office in your palm will not comfort you when you are lonely, or cheer you up when you are sad, or encourage you when you are weak. The work will not love you back, no matter how much you love your work.

So embrace the weisure lifestyle, counting your blessings that you live in an era when you are able to take control of your time to an extent unthinkable to workers just a generation ago. But beware lest that technology allow the work you are trying to balance instead grow to new levels unimaginable to you and the loved ones around you.

Having It All?

I stumbled across an online series on work-life balance on CNN.com this week, entitled "HAVING IT ALL: Work-Life Balance". There are several interesting topics covered in the articles in this series, and I'll comment on a few of them in the next couple of posts. But let's start with that title.

HAVING IT ALL. Is that really the goal? I believe that trying to have it all--the unchecked desire to accept no limits on money, stuff, achievements, status, hobbies, or time--is the genesis of the rat race. We want all the work we can get, without sacrificing our home life or hobbies. We want leisure to pursue our hopes and dreams, without sacrificing our career ambitions. But there are only 24 hours in the day, and the number of our days is limited, so we can't have unlimited wants. Thus every day we face micro choices with our time and attention that reflect the macro dilemmas of our lives: career vs. children; status vs. spouse; work vs. play; finances vs. friends. Presumably a series on work-life balance should help us decide NOT to try to have it all, but rather to have just enough: just enough work to satisfy our ambition, and just enough life to satisfy our soul. Finding that dividing line is an intensely personal quest, and where to draw the line is often difficult to discern.

Present Tense Living is not about having it all, it is about deciding what you WILL have. Many of us are blessed with a wealth of opportunity and choices: jobs, where to live, choices of stuff, travel, hobbies, etc. We can choose, and choose we must. If your ambition is strong and leads you to a demanding career that requires long hours, then by all means go for it--do your best, do it for the Lord, and don't look back. But make that choice fully aware that your choice means you won't be able to have the same family life, or pursue the time-consuming hobbies, of someone who chooses a slower track. To pretend otherwise will only frustrate you.

Similarly, if you choose a slower lane on purpose in order to leave plenty of time for cultivating relationships and hobbies, then don't lament you relative lack of material resources and long for the material goods that you can't afford but the person working twice as much can. We can't "have it all"--both time and money with no limits--and so we must learn to be content with what we do have, once we have been explicit about the choices we make.

So don't get caught in the trap of trying to have it all. It's impossible, and you have to be deliberate about where you draw the lines in your life. Make sure you choose where to draw them; don't let someone else draw them for you. To the extent that a series on work-life balance can help us make that decision, then it will be a welcome tool indeed.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry

This blog preaches a lot about living in the moment and enjoying every day. Who is actually doing it? The OECD has released their latest survey (2006 data) of time use in developed countries, and the Economist has printed a chart here showing two of the key lifestyle components for various countries. On the horizontal axis is total time sleeping per day, while the vertical axis represents the total time eating and drinking every day.

My first observation: who knew Americans sleep so much? Nearly nine hours a night, according to the chart, only 15 or 20 minutes less than the world-beating French. One question for the OECD: whom did you interview here? Most people I know seem perpetually tired and are lucky to get anywhere near 8 hours a night, let alone close to nine. Perhaps that's because the majority of my friends have small children, which are proven sleep destroyers. But seriously, if almost nine hours is the average, who are the people getting more than that?

My second observation: Vive la France! To come top of the chart in either one of sleeping or eating/drinking would be reason for pride, but to top the league tables in both is truly a feat to be commended. This opens up many questions for further study, such as: is the sleeping related to the drinking? Does anyone in France work? Did they count the time Americans spend eating in their cars?

I like the title to the Economist chart, which alludes to "simple pleasures." They are indeed; sleep is free, and getting enough improves life in so many ways. We have to eat to live, of course, but to take time to eat a proper meal, savoring the food and enjoying the company of those with whom you are eating it, is a life-affirming use of precious minutes in your day.

Let's do our part to boost America's standing in the world: eat at the table with your family or friends, slowly and well, and go to bed early tonight!