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.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital work
• work
• leisure
• work-leisure relationship
• serious leisure perspective
• narrative futuring
• letters from the future
• lifestyle
• worker types

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mattia Rainoldi

Mattia Rainoldi is a Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of Business and Tourism at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and Head of the eTourism Lab. His research focuses on the transformative impact of digital technologies on various aspects of tourism and organisational processes. He is currently a PhD candidate at Bournemouth University.

Adele Ladkin

Dr. Adele Ladkin is Professor of Tourism Employment at Bournemouth University Business School. Her research interests and publications are in tourism employment and education, human resources management, employee wellbeing, labour migration and mobility, and the use of digital technologies for work-life balance whilst working on the move. She has conducted UKRI funded research in the area of tourism work. Professor Ladkin was joint Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Tourism Research from 2003-2009, is Associate Editor for Annals of Tourism Research, and European Regional Editor for The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. She is an Honorary Professor at the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Dimitrios Buhalis

Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He is Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University Business School in England. He is currently Visiting Professor at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR China. He is the Editor in Chief of Tourism Review and Editor of the Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. Professor Buhalis has written and co-edited more than 25 books and 300 scientific articles. He is one the most cited authors and has been recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher 2020 and 2021 by Clarivate™.