What’s the opposite of work? A typical answer to that question might be leisure. Many people try to divide life into two parts: Productive time and unproductive time. Everything is as simple as that.
In this view, leisure time is wasted time. Work is the only time when we make something of ourselves. Anything else is just unfortunate loss. In this view, life is made for work, life is justified by work, and everything in life directs itself towards work.
The problems with this view are obvious. A happy life demands rest. Treating ourselves like machines is no path to dignified work.
Leisure and Laziness
But it’s easy to see why many people approach leisure with caution. Our idea of leisure today is typically passive consumption. When we think of rest, we think of things like watching TV or browsing YouTube for hours without any direction in mind. Our only idea of leisure is aimless and inactive.
This sort of leisure is undoubtedly a sort of laziness. And sadly, it is the first thing many people think of when they think of leisure. Leisure is just this unproductive time away from work.
Neither of these views lead us to a healthy understanding of work, life, or ourselves. The meaning of life isn’t simple productivity, and the meaning of rest isn’t simple laziness. If we take either to be the truth, everything will be dissatisfying: No amount of productivity can make your life meaningful, nor can any amount of binging leave you feeling rested. You can devote yourself to either, but neither will work.
What’s the compromise? What are we missing when we reduce leisure to simple unproductivity? What should our leisure be like? And what can this teach us about work’s place in our lives?
A Different Perspective
Josef Pieper talked about this question in his book Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Pieper was a German philosopher who wrote at length about cultural problems in his time. Leisure dealt with what he saw as an incorrect understanding of both work and rest, as well as his own solution to the problem.
The problem, Pieper argues, comes from the sentiment that we do not work to live, but instead live to work. All too often, we consider work to be the center of our lives. Work is where we look for meaning, work is where we prove our worth to others, and work is what we hope we’ll be remembered for when we’re long dead.
Even many people who don’t want to work agree with this: It’s common to hear people who say that they don’t want to work since they can’t find a ‘meaningful’ job. They still see work as the justification for life—they just don’t see any way to achieve this.
Pieper proposes another view: We work for the sake of leisure. This may sound to us like a sort of “working for the weekend” mentality: Work is done simply so we can have enough money to party or travel or do whatever else we might find pleasurable. But this sentiment isn’t intended as some endorsement of laziness or reduction of work. Instead, Pieper argues that this gives work a new and profound sense of dignity.
Work and Leisure in Relation
The ancient Greeks’ word for work simply translates as “not leisure”. Pieper brings this up to show that work, for the Greeks, only has meaning in relation to leisure. There is no way to make sense of labor without rest. This is because work, for the Greeks, has leisure as its purpose. Doing work without the promise of leisure is simply running around in circles with no end in mind—it’s incomprehensible.
If leisure is not just laziness, what is it? Pieper defines leisure as the things that we do for their own sake. We don’t need a reason to sit on the porch on a warm morning and appreciate the sunrise. We don’t need a reason to spend time with friends and family. These things are simply worthwhile for their own sake.
Leisure, far from being laziness, is often the most active and engaged part of our lives. Things like working for our communities or engaging in personal projects are often the places where we are most active. Leisure doesn’t mean doing nothing—it just means doing something for no particular reward.
A Complementary Relationship
We might think of work and leisure as opposites. However, complements seems to be a better term. These are not opposed ideas. Instead, each perfects the other. When we understand the value of leisure and what things are really worthwhile for their own sake, we can finally understand what it is that makes work worthwhile.
We work to bring about something good. Hard work is valuable because it lets us bring these good things to fruition. There’s no point in working hard if there is nothing good that will come of it. Work needs purpose and direction like anything.
When we look at leisure as a complement to work, we see clearly where it gains this dignity. Work is our path to this fulfillment. Work leads us to this ultimate fulfillment.
It’s not hard to see why we’ve lost this classical understanding of leisure: So little that we do today is done for its own sake. How often do we see lessons offering to teach us how to turn our hobbies into side-hustles? How often are we encouraged to think about building a network with friendships, instead of simply appreciating those around us? Everything must be useful.
Changing Our Understanding
This, too, has its roots in that understanding of work mentioned earlier. When work is where you find your meaning and justify your life, leisure becomes worthless and even an obstacle. Everything, then, must become a kind of work for it to be worthwhile. If music isn’t useful, why listen? If sports aren’t useful, why play? We have to justify everything by this utilitarian logic.
There is another strange consequence of this view of work: Rather than work being for the sake of leisure, leisure is instead done for the sake of work. We don’t work to be at rest; we only rest so that we’re ready to work. Every bit of rest we have becomes a mere break from work. In the classical view, there is leisure and not-leisure; now, there’s only work and not-work.
It’s easy to see how under this sort of view mere laziness could be mistaken for leisure. When there’s no point to leisure except for getting ready for work, there’s nothing to do with leisure except try to relieve the stress from your time on the job. There’s nothing to do except decompress.
In the process, we lose the meaning of both work and leisure. When they are separated from one another, we lose sight of what it is that both mean. Work and rest don’t go against each other. And, importantly, neither one is above the other. They are both needed to form a complete life.
This is great. You’ve articulated the ideal quite nicely and made the case for reconceptualizing leisure and its connection with work.
I assume the aim is for people to adopt that reconceptualization, because the aim is for people to enter into the proper relationship with work and leisure. It might be worth pointing out, though, that reconceptualizing will only go so far in the absence of material reforms in labor arrangements.
“It’s easy to see how under this sort of view mere laziness could be mistaken for leisure. When there’s no point to leisure except for getting ready for work, there’s nothing to do with leisure except try to relieve the stress from your time on the job. There’s nothing to do except decompress.”
Often, precisely because of how our economy is structured, there in fact is no point to leisure except decompressing and steeling oneself up for the workweek. In these circumstances, understanding the true point of leisure is idle.
P.S. What is the Greek word for work? That’s such a lovely tidbit!