Details

Parent Category: Lower-Intermediate News Lessons

Category: Business Lessons

Written by Chris Cotter

Businesses and employees have looked at the nine-to-five workday and concluded that work must now invade leisure time and leisure time must invade work. The idea has been called "weisure time" by sociologist Dalton Conley. The new word explains the next step in the balance between the personal and professional lives of adults.

Increased responsibilities at work are one reason for weisure time. Because people work more than before, they must keep in touch with colleagues and business associates while they hang out with their families on the weekends. In addition, creativity and teamwork is an important part of people's jobs these days, so people enjoy keeping in touch to some extent. They don't mind as much if both sides of their lives mix.

Computer and social networks are important in weisure time. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media services encourage people to stay connected during business hours. Talking with friends is pleasurable, and it makes the day move faster. Social media also lets people easily maintainconnections with coworkers during off time.

Conley explains that weisure time is an effective solution at the moment, but employees may not always be willing to mix their personal and professional lives.