The opinion expressed by billionaire businessman N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys fame, some time ago that a 70-hour-week, work ethos was essential for ‘nation-building,’ while sharing insights into his own gruelling schedule had sparked a huge debate. This was compounded after the death of a young employee who apparently struggled to cope with the toxic work culture in India’s corporate space. It drew attention to better mental health support, humane work conditions and re-evaluating pressures on young professionals. This brings us to the moot question of attitudes towards work and leisure in our ecosystem where everything we do is based on expectations, validation and comparison with peers. It is undoubtedly sapping the essence of our ability to enjoy work and leisure in equal measure. The pressure to be constantly busy, lack of clear boundaries between work and personal life, financial struggles and anxiety over traditional gender roles have impacted people across the spectrum.  Dedication to work is a positive attribute, but the ‘hustle culture’ where long working hours are seen as a sign of dedication is leading to burnout. Conversely, leisure too is seen as one of the ‘items on a bucket list’ undertaken not for one’s own sake but with the notion of ‘keeping up’. Call it balance or attitudinal change, one needs to adopt newer approaches to work and leisure applicable to people of all ages, professions and classes.

In his 1962 book “The Decline of Pleasure” American novelist and literary critic, Walter Kirn observed, “We are all compelled to read for profit, party for contacts, gamble for charity, go out in the evening for the greater glory of the municipality and stay home for the weekend to rebuild the house”. Decades later this view of leisure has taken a turn for the worse with the same regrettable consequence of looking at it in terms of usefulness.  We take this to such lengths that even leisure which is supposed to be relaxation from the daily grind, begins to look like a chore. We truly live in a world where nothing has meaning unless it leads to something else. Walking down the street unhurriedly looking at the small shops on the wayside, pursuing a hobby for the love of it, a leisurely stroll listening to music or sitting on a park bench talking to friends about impersonal events (personal issues can lead to high blood pressure and stress) are activities that are steadily on the decline. I often remember a beautiful poem that we learnt at school titled “Leisure” by Welsh poet W. H. Davies which warns us that the hectic pace of modern life has a detrimental effect on the human spirit. It goes

What is this life full of care,

 We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

 Most people sadly, do not enjoy what they do in their leisure time even if they indulge in it as their goal is to click pictures and post them online to make others envious of their perceived good time. This doesn’t work because it gives rise to fresh stress when expectations of positive reactions are not met with.

 Work or leisure activities remain pleasurable only when they are done with passion and purely for ourselves. Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Kieran Setiya calls such activity ‘atelic activity’ to state that their value is not derived from ‘telos’ or ultimate aim. The constant validation from external sources required for both work and leisure and the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) make us insecure, unhappy and agitated. Mentally enslaved by these factors we have lost our freedom to pursue the futile, fail at things repeatedly or realize that results aren’t everything. We certainly need balance and an attitudinal change as motivational speaker and author Wayne Dyer repeatedly emphasized ‘When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change’. These words are not mere ‘word play’ but a mantra that enables us to enjoy both activity and lack of it without guilt.