Two centuries ago the work ethic relegated fun and leisure to a status of meaningless, idle frivolity. Fun got into bad company, spending its time hanging around slackers, time-wasters, malingerers and other undesirables. Managers felt fun wasn’t just unemployable, they saw it as a direct competitor to work.
Sound familiar? You may well know some managers and workaholics who still see fun and leisure that way. Until recent times, when discussing projects with a potential client, I tended not to mention the ‘l’ word until well into the discussion.
The massive changes, pressures and stresses of 21st century living have put paid to all that. Leisure is now back in business. It’s providing natural solutions to some of the biggest problems facing business today – stress management, sustaining high staff productivity, self-esteem and resilience, and stimulating creativity and innovation, to name just a few.
All this is nothing new in the course of history. Leisure has always had a core role to play in the natural order of personal growth, talent development and the realization of personal potential. The mad way we live today has provided the kick in the guts we needed to remind us that fun and leisure offer much more than simply having a good time.
