Leisure Essay, Research Paper

John Bell

Sociology

2/10/00

Where Is All My Time At?

Leisure is defined as freedom from the demands of work or duty. Everybody

needs leisure in their lives, to balance the stress of work and life. Leisure helps

re-energize and relax people, so they can perform activities well in their lives. People

use their free time (leisure time) in a variety of different ways; engaging in outdoor

activities, entertainment like watching movies or television, or just having time to

themselves.. Another activity people enjoy doing is just socializing with family and

friends. Leisure is an essential part of our lives, and the only problem with leisure is

when can we enjoy it? In our society we have a hard time finding time to relax and take

a break from our stressful lives.

The amount of leisure time a person has can be related to the type of person that

certain individual is. There are many factors in which you can take in account: age,

marital status, gender, families, etc. These factors figure into the certain stage of a

persons life. There are three stages, beginning, mid-career, and near-retirement. The

beginning stage involves people from the ages ranging from 19-30 years old. These

individuals are just beginning their careers and are striving to be successful. They spend

more time focusing on their job, trying to find ways to advance, and less time relaxing

and enjoying leisure time. They compensate their leisure time for their careers.

Mid-career stage includes individuals ranging from 30-50 years old. In this stage people

have been in their field for some years and are settled down with families. In this time of

their lives they will be looking for more leisure time, because they are going to want time

away from work and time to be with their families. They basically know what their

status is at their job and now find time to slow down and start focusing on other aspects

in their lives. They might do this by cutting back on the hours they work a week. The

near-retirement stage are individuals ranging from the ages of 50 and up. These people

are on the verge of retirement and are planning what to do with the rest of their lives.

After their careers are over they are going to have nothing but time on they hands. At this

point of there careers they are working lesser hours and responsibility at their job is

decreasing. This helps make the transition from working to retirement much easier.

I made a survey and issued it to three people who fall into the three stages. The

survey consisted of a variety of question like age, gender, occupation, wages, leisure

time, and activities. The first individual who took the survey fell into the beginning stage.

This person is a twenty one year old black male. He is a full time student at Illinois State

and workers part time as a life guard at a indoor pool. He is not married and has no

children. He works twenty plus hours a week and only makes $6.30 a hour. He works

five days a week, but sometimes takes morning shifts on Saturdays. He considered

leisure as any time away from work and school. He said he does not get a lot of leisure

time, because he does not have any time to just relax. He has class all morning then in

the evening he works and comes home and studies. The only leisure time he has is over

the weekends. That time does not compensate for the stressful hours of work and school

during the week. The survey of this individual from the beginning stage has shown me

that being a full time study and working part time, leaves basically no leisure time. Also,

shows how people in the beginning stage have no time to relax, because their schedules

are so busy.

Next I gave a survey to an individual in the mid-career stage. This individual was

a forty year old Black male. He is married and has four children who ages range from

nineteen to twenty six years old. He works construction and earns $40 plus an hour and

works 30 hours a week. He said he has leisure and he uses it. He goes to bars with

CO-workers after work some days, or comes home and socializes with his family. He

said his leisure time is any time with family and friends and away from work. He said he

probably spends three days during the week doing leisure activities for a few hours. He

works to provide for his family so that they can enjoy life. He values his leisure time,

because it take his mind away from all his responsibilities.

The final stage is the near-retirement stage. In this stage an individual is just

about to call their career quits. The individual who took the survey is a white sixty year

old female, married with three children. She is a nurse and only works twenty five hours

a week. when she not working she is working in her garden, or doing things around her

house. She considers that her leisure time and she says she has a lot of it. She said she

has leisure time everyday to either kick back and read a book, or just relax. She said she

cannot wait to retire and go done to Florida and live on the beach. The main thing she

said about retirement will be not having anymore stressful responsibilities she got from

work.

Out of the three stages I have found out that the beginning stage is the most

stressful and takes up a lot of your time. There is a positive, because it seems to get

better over the years. During the mid-career stage people?s focuses change, because

work is not the focal point of their lives. Families are getting started and that now shifts

a persons focus. During this stage, like I said before work is not the only priority, now

people are looking to take that vacation and taking shorter hours to be able to relax and

spend time with their family. The near retirement stage is the best time to catch up on

your leisure time. People are not working long hours, they spending more time doing

other activities. In this stage of a persons life they are trying to finalize what they are

going to do with all their free time. The stages basically go from no time to a whole lot

of free time. Leisure is important in our society, because it helps people escape from their

responsibilities of work or other stressful things.