Leisure Essays - Leisure, Quality Of Life, Working Time, Retirement

Leisure 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