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.