Blending work and leisure: a future digital worker hybrid lifestyle perspective

Abstract

Work performed by digital means is one of many societal transformations caused by the prevalence and continuous adoption of digital technologies. Free of the constraints of location and time, digital work has the potential to disrupt the mental and physical separation of work from leisure. Using an exploratory qualitative approach based on narrative futuring, work and leisure orientations of future digital workers are imagined in relation to digital technologies. Insights were obtained from twenty-five digital workers who were asked to imagine their digital worker selves in 2030. Borrowing from aspects of the Serious Leisure Perspective supported by the Mobility and Connectivity paradigms, future types of digital workers are proposed. Findings indicate a trend towards increased dissolution of the distinction between work and leisure. Implications for the organizations managing this type of worker are discussed, along with reflections on the changing nature and meaning of work and leisure.