That's from the highest rated comment at "How to Create a Family ‘Bleisure’ Trip/Combining work travel with a change of scenery and time with the kids offers respite from the daily grind, but it takes planning. Here’s how to make it happen" (NYT).
The article, of course, is striving to make "bleisure" — business + leisure — seem like something you could jauntily throw together and enjoy, but it still sounded exhausting. The illustration — showing a woman and daughter laughing in the pool while the father sitting poolside with a laptap smiled too — made me smile... in derision.
And that coinage, "bleisure," only makes it feel worse. Why not "bleasure" — for "business" + "pleasure"? If you hear it, that's what you might presume. There's a standard phrase "mixing business with pleasure," but that was something one did in the old days — not now, with poolside laptops and your children splashing in the pool. By the way, make sure your child doesn't drown while you're fixated on your email. Not everyone has a smiling spouse in the water tending to all the children competently while you do nothing well.
ADDED: The conventional phrase about mixing business with pleasure is: Don't mix business with pleasure. Also... if you're sitting poolside working on your business laptop and it looks like your child might have a problem, how much attention do you give to securing your laptop before you plunge in?
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Sounds like my vacations
John Henry
Working on a vacation is a choice.
Somehow the French manage to go away for an entire month and not worry about this shit.
A classic case of “humble brag.” Haven’t needed to use that term for a while. “I’m really important,” is the message here.
Why "bleasure"? Why not "plisness"?
"It seems the only jobs around anymore that let you truly disconnect are the ones that don’t pay enough for you to be able to afford to take a vacation in the first place. Our economy is broken for all but the uber wealthy and it’s ruining our family lives and health as well. Something has to give."
This sounds about right. Now I wonder if the people who liked that comment in the NYT can take that sentiment and connect the dots to why so many folks like Trump and his policies. I'm assuming Bleisure was used because Workcation already exists and has a negative connotation. I haven't read the article but the premise sounds like a wealthy lord giving 'helpful' advice to his peons in an effort to try and squeeze more value out of them.
Time off, aka vacation, is a benefit. It isn't a requirement that a business give you vacation time - paid or unpaid. Employers are free to decide whether to provide vacation benefits, and if they do, they can establish their own rules regarding eligibility, accrual, and usage. State laws vary on some of the details, but none say you must give - paid or unpaid.
Companies that offer jobs that pay the bucks, usually known as salaried jobs, include vacation time as part of that enticing package to get you to buy into the illusion that you'll get to enjoy those big bucks you earn. When you take that salaried position, you also forfeit a 40 hour work week.
It's the price we pay for being a productive nation. Not to worry, though. AI is going to take most of the jobs, and everyone will have plenty of leisure time.
Gosh, why not just hire someone to go on the vacation with your family so you can keep working?
I billed 32 hours (which means I worked well over 32 hours) on a family vacation 20 years ago. Once you could access your files by email, any concept of "time off" simply died (at least for attorneys). I also was back at work the Monday after my son's Friday birth, because while my boss told me how important it was to bond with the new baby and support my wife, don't forget that I would have to "make up" for the hours I missed.
I agree with the headline. However, I don’t work on vacation. They don’t pay enough and I don’t mind letting them know. Then again, I got a good company that discourages anything like what is described. They do so on grounds of mental health and corporate security. They wouldn’t want a work laptop logged in and siting next to a pool.
This author needs to learn how to delegate. As was said in an earlier comment, working on vacation is a choice. If you are taking annual leave, then take annual leave. Phone off, laptop closed. The world will exist when you get back. Along with a backlog of emails, yes.
If you are not grooming your replacement and really have no one to step in for you when you take leave, that is a failure on your part.
Karen of Texas, a business may not "have" to give you time off, but if they do so to entice you to work for them, they are wrong to then not let you be off on your vacation. Bait and switch is frowned upon everywhere else.
Earnest Prole said..."Somehow the French manage to go away for an entire month and not worry about this shit."
Actually most of Europe is absent for a month in the summer.
Earnest Prole said...
"Somehow the French manage to go away for an entire month and not worry about this shit."
And somehow you seem to not notice what has happened to France as a result.
Fortunate to work in health care IT where I both get paid enough to take vacations and the culture is such that no one expects you to work. Maybe the odd emergency, which I would rather spend a little time dealing with than a lot of time when I get back.
It seems that such people don't have actual jobs and need to be 'present' else someone realize they aren't needed.
"Your leisure is our pleasure..." Spud
Red staters pronounce it "Blee-zhure"; blue staters "Bleh-zhure".
People need to step back. This is not healthy, mentally or physically. If you're that essential to your business that it will crumble without you, you need to deligate more.
"The graveyard is full of indispensable men" (attributed to Charles de Gaulle).
I also agree with stlcdr. A person that would make up a term "bleasure" is probably not a corporate executive that really is essential to the business. They are likely a person that takes on too much workload rather than, as even others noted, delegating or allowing others to do the work, or it is workload that should be easily managed yet they are not capable of it.
This article was ordered up by the billionaire-class Ochs-Sulzberger family that owns the New York Times, to convince you idiots to keep working while you are on vacation, ruining it both for you and your family.
Fuck this gaslighting bullshit.
What if you have a different version of this "problem"? What if you really love your job and the people you work with, and you almost feel guilty for getting paid for it because it feels like you're on vacation all the time? (This is not a trick question.)
Rarely works. My wife was very independent and science oriented so she had a blast touring Linnaeus's original gardens in Uppsala and the Lasa Museum down in Stockholm while I slaved away in Enköping and Brö but YMMV. Also a trade show schedule does offer that kind of flexibility if you can limit your direct involvement to specific meetings and let the junior staffers run the booth.
In Germany, (at least before they decided to destroy their economy by going green and refusing to buy cheap Russian Natural Gas), you got 20 days a year off for a 5 day work week. If you worked more, say 6 days, you got 24 days off.
That's everyone. Lots of companies to attract skilled workers, give them 30 days off.
And the German Defense Company I visited, also had a free caferteria that served great food, and people drank beer at lunch.
BTW, I eventually got 20 days off, after 15 years in corporate america. The Krauts get it on Day 1.
But y'know damn lazy poor Germans. Sittin' round in their dirt huts drinkin' beer all day. Not like 'murica!
Agree with the consensus here though: a vacation is a complete separate animal, requiring a disconnect from work. Although once you're a director or SVP many corporations expect your availability by phone at all times pretty much.
From the post: "...how much attention do you give to securing your laptop before you plunge in?"
Pssh. When I close my laptop, the screen locks and you have to know the code to get back in. I suppose someone could lift the device and hack into it, but that can happen remotely if you aren't careful.
I once had a boss who "encouraged me" to take my laptop with me on vacation. I told him, I wouldn't want to do that, since it contained secret company info that might be disclosed if the laptop was stolen. Even worse it might be stolen in a foreign country. Think of the damage!
Actually, I didn't want to work. So, laptop stayed at work. (Source: "Secrets of a fomer worklife". By rcocean, esquire.)
The only problem with long vacations is going back to work. Its much tougher after you've been away for 3 weeks vs. 1 week.
I started a full-time business at 25, and continue to run it now at 65. We've been fortunate to have excellent employees that we give the autonomy and authority to make most day-to-day decisions. I take regular, long (multi-week) vacations, as do our employees, and everyone carries the load for those who are away. Of course, I'm still available for big issues if they occur. And we all get paid very well: Too well, probably. Some of our employees have been with us for over 30 years and won't leave :).
I don't know if this would scale well into a larger organization or different business type, but building a great team, compensating them well, and giving them autonomy to be productive seems to have worked for me. Maybe this guy should try it.
my sister decided to become a teacher because of the long summer vacation. I decided to make more money, so ruled that out. I often look back and think I made the wrong choice.
Would've been nice to have taken 2 months off every year for 30 years.
Shouting Thomas said...
A classic case of “humble brag.” Haven’t needed to use that term for a while. “I’m really important,” is the message here.
8/7/25, 6:05 AM
——————————
The number one job of a manager is to build and manage a team. If this person is a manager and work cannot do without them for a few days they are doing their job poorly.
If they are an individual contributor they have a horrible boss.
“A’s hire A’s and C’s hire C’s.”
I have worked in France, and yes, the workplace had very civilized amenities, and they wander in in the morning when they feel like it, but they also work late by American standards, and 'lazy" is not a term that I would ever have applied to any of my French coworkers. The problems in France have little to do with the French work ethic, and everything to do with their benighted political class.
Most liked comment? Most of the people who liked it are kidding themselves. If you're an office worker (and not if you're not), vacations usually mean working harder the few days before and the few days after, but there are very few jobs where you can't unplug while you are away.
Most people vacation just fine.
Somehow the French manage to go away for an entire month and not worry about this shit.
In my experience generally, it is because Euros and the French in particular don't give a shit to the extent Americans do. We truly take pride in our work, which is a direct inheritance from our shared Judeo-Christian heritage where God commands us to work for our living and tells us to do it well as if we are doing it for Him. Not saying that's YOUR personal motivation, I'm just saying after seeing Americans work in a huge variety of industries and take pride in excellence and high quality, I just did not find the same motivation over there. Swedes come close, but the French are a vastly different animal.
We had factories near Bauge, France south of Le Mans in the wine country and in the Spanish northwest just south of Biarritz. The like to say "you live to work we work to live" but in reality I have more vacation days then they do. I just spread them out over the year so I get a lot of time away from work. Work I love to do most days. But I have no trouble disconnecting 100% now, having transitioned into such a senior position they overpay me now for doing a lot less.
"Red staters pronounce it "Blee-zhure"; blue staters "Bleh-zhure"."
Yes, I realized that after I published the post. "Bleisure" rhyming with "pleasure" would be using the British pronunciation of "leisure." I think that's what I say. The American pronunciation of "leisure" rhymes with "T-shirt" (without the final T).
Back when I was still working in operations, when somebody was taking a few days off, the first question we would always ask each other was "Are you taking your laptop?" There were breaks, and then there were actual vacations. While we always left copious handover notes, there were always details that sometimes prompt a question or need a reference. Hence, a 'break' was different to a 'vacation'.
That magical moment when you're on a plane and the last few millimeters of the wheels leave the runway -- never gets old.
It's easy to forget that many have not had the opportunity to fly, to see the ocean, see snow, see the desert. It's easy to take holidays and travel for granted.
Travel is what makes for quality of life that is impossible to match if you are stationary. We have a summer lake home in northern WI where I meet a lot of locals who have never been outside the country. Some who have never been outside the state. I have even met some who have never been outside their county. It's not always about the means. For many, this is how they were raised. Holidays are a revelation. The key is to have the ability to make that choice.
I get a lot more done when I work 5-6 hours 7 days than if I work 8 hours on 5 days.
I also do better with 4 and a break of a couple 2-3 hour sessions.
If people want to be really productive they will be productive. It is the same mettle that makes a good citizen. The best workers don't need someone looking over their shoulder all of the time.
There is much truth in the clipped AA story. However, each of us has choices, and that person financially is making decent money.
There is no Nirvana. No Utopia. We have to all suck it up, Buttercup.
kak at 746. Your best post ever. Wish you were not so unhinged on this site. Cheers.
“Not everyone has a smiling spouse in the water tending to all the children competently while you do nothing well.”
Yeah! And not everyone has a child, too!
That guy should just shoot himself.
It's gotten worse with text messaging than emails. Have a text ready that reads, "The person you are trying to reach has requested his cell service be suspended until (date and time). Please try to send your message after that. Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Seems sexist. Shouldn't they have the husband in the pool with the kids while the woman works at her laptop and smiles?
They really need to stop trying to make up words for old concepts.
Bleisure sounds like blah-leisure. Like scrolling through your phone while sitting at a beach.
Some random reactions:
- in the finance industry, taking your vacations is mandatory. This forces someone else to get into your accounts and make sure you’re not growing the next London Whale or other scam.
- yesterday we wound up mentioning Mad Men. Remember the summer story arcs where the women and children went to the Hamptons while the men stayed in Manhattan to keep working? That is the alternative to bleisure.
- in other words, the alternative to taking your work with you isn’t leaving it at work; it’s you staying at work, much longer.
- and of course I thought of the classic 3L Althouse pic of the future Prof taking care of babies while working on her outline or law review note or whatever, well into the night. In other words, this stuff is not new or particularly dependent on specific technologies.
RR
JSM
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/05/althouse-studying-for-her-last-law.html
"Pssh. When I close my laptop, the screen locks and you have to know the code to get back in. I suppose someone could lift the device and hack into it, but that can happen remotely if you aren't careful."
So your answer is you'd take care to close it, but not to prevent stealing the whole thing and you said nothing about making sure it didn't fall in the water when you jumped up. Your kid is growing (or so you thought) and good for you, you jumped up and let the laptop go flying wherever.
I remember 70 years ago, walking by the side of a pool with my parents and my younger brother, who was walking right along the edge of the pool just toppled in. My father reached right in and pulled him out, then marveled that he had not given a thought to his watch, which had gotten submerged. He was pleased with himself that he'd proved in a pinch what a good father he was.
How about you and your laptop? Do you — after closing the lid — just jump up as if there were no computer on your lap?
Extremely triggering topic and comments.
I have to question the competence of people who cannot organize their work place and workflow to the point it cannot be interrupted for a day, a week or two. Think about.
What are the odds that any of those emails and calls were anything important?
I suspect that person is just frustratingly neurotic.
Although once you're a director or SVP many corporations expect your availability by phone at all times pretty much.
Yeah, as I sat last night at dinner with my wife, who is a director at her company, who was on the phone causing a waiter to come back three times to take our order. The difference, particularly at this moment, is she works for a business that operates more hours than she normally would during a day. Directors and higher are given the luxury to flex their time, but as they are singularly responsible for operations happening across more hours of the day than they can actually work, then they need to be available longer hours. But when they go on vacation, they delegate, because the business needs someone to be available, and it is good training (and warning) for those that aspire for these roles.
I can't believe a director or higher believing they can have business and leisure simultaneously. They aren't that stupid.
The commenter Althouse quotes is an ambitious mid-wit who's most likely in a position that's above their level of competence and is worried that the other ambitious mid-wits in the office will get a leg up on them, if they take a vacation.
Earnest Prole said...
Somehow the French manage to go away for an entire month and not worry about this shit.
The whole of Europe shuts down during the month of August so they can take their "holidays". It's the only time the ambitious mid-wits can truly relax because all the other ambitious mid-wits are also on vacation.
" of course I thought of the classic 3L Althouse pic of the future Prof taking care of babies while working on her outline or law review note or whatever, well into the night"
That was the only time I stayed up past midnight to work on law school things. It was the take-home exam in Federal Courts, my last exam. On the other side of the room was the baby I'd given birth to a few weeks earlier. It was not a typical night.
Quick tip: Don’t vacation where someone is going to steal your laptop when you’re saving your drowning child…
I like that picture. Hadn't seen it before. The GOAT blogger in the making and no one knew. Everybody thought she was working on becoming a lawyer.
" Your kid is growing (or so you thought)"
I meant: Your kid is drowning....
We’re just wrapping up two weeks. It meant check-ins at the office, clearing emails and sending a couple wires for clients ‘thinking’ on the beach in Nantucket. Yes, all went smoothly because we did some prep before we left. No biggie…
The unspoken angle: The parent doesn't really enjoy hours of watching the children play in the pool and would prefer to futz around with workish things on the computer.
Have you ever had the responsibility to watch children who were playing in water. The last time I did, over a quarter of a century ago, it was the opposite of pleasurable for me. I was watching 3 young boys at a lake and one of them thought it was the funniest thing in the world to swim underwater and then pop up somewhere. All 3 were in the water. I can honestly say I haven't gone to the beach since then.
How about you and your laptop? Do you — after closing the lid — just jump up as if there were no computer on your lap?
Depends on which kid it is. (I'm kidding).
Quick tip: Don’t vacation where someone is going to steal your laptop when you’re saving your drowning child…
I'm picturing a guy, frozen with indecision halfway between the pool and his chair, looking back and forth from his vulnerable laptop to his floundering child to his vulnerable laptop.
A pool boy saves the kid and fucks the guy's wife later that evening while the guy answers a few more emails.
Hire a babysitter. Pay the babysitter well. The primary responsibility of the babysitter is to take the kids from 4:00 to 7:00, bathe and feed them, so the parents can have a pleasant cocktail and dinner. That is a vacation.
Executive Suite (1953) is a really great movie on this topic. It was made long before e-mails and texts but as you watch you see that connection is a perennial problem The company president has to be replaced after his sudden death. The movie shows how various competitors for the newly opened position take advantage of those out of the loop because they are on vacation. That, I think, points to the basic reason why, at a certain level in corporations, then as now, you have to stay in touch 24/7, namely, that you will lose your chance to participate in decisions if you really disconnect.
At the other extreme you get young people who are unable, actually emotionally unable, to disconnect for more than 15 minutes from their group. Yet there isn't much going on - it's just that they must hear about everything right away and comment immediately. In the old days you had to learn what people were actually thinking inside themselves; these days you have to learn what their group is thinking.
And I wonder how those people can read, especially a long book from another era. Oh well - the old curmudgeon is surfacing, I better stop.
"Our economy is broken for all but the uber wealthy and it’s ruining our family lives and health as well. Something has to give."
Meh. Working my ass off before and after vacations was my experience my entire career. I didn't do emails and meetings during the vacation, because I was in the woods and, at least for the first half of my career, email, and especially cell phones, didn't exist! But this idea that your work responsibilities should just magically vaporize because you want to go play, where did it come from?
Simple rules help with this issue. 1. Don't tell anyone where you are going or what you are doing on your time off. 2. Don't respond to anyone from work during your time off. 3. Work your normal pace before and after time off, and if stuff doesn't get done, tell your boss he or she should assign it to someone else because you're not killing yourself with work.
My experience was that the people who talked the most about how hard they worked were not the people who worked the hardest.
Focus! And, action!
“The American pronunciation of "leisure" rhymes with "T-shirt" (without the final T).”
Maybe in Canada. In America the “s” is voiced, and “leisure” rhymes with “seizure”.
And people complaining about work, vacations, etc. should read Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle”. Those were the days….
Quick tip: Don’t vacation where someone is going to steal your laptop when you’re saving your drowning child…
The context was one spouse on a business trip and the other accompanying with the kids. Therefore, in my experience, choosing where is largely a function of the work being done and there ain't a whole lot of flexibility if the employer says "go to Louisville" or "go to Milwaukee."
"Have you ever had the responsibility to watch children who were playing in water. The last time I did, over a quarter of a century ago, it was the opposite of pleasurable for me."
Maybe that's why my parents always seemed to have a drink in their hand.
I was a volunteer at a nursing home. Not one of the residents talked about their jobs. They all talked about their kids and grandkids. In the end, family is what is important. If you dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow, your company would survive, you spouse and kids would be devastated. Priorities.
I can honestly say I haven't gone to the beach since then.
Your definition of a beach is either very very narrow or you just lied. I see daily pictures of you at a lake beach.
There's the cliche "no one lies on their deathbed wishing they spent more time at work." The implied continuation is they're thinking of their families.
Well, where do you do things for your family? Like give them financial stability and generational wealth? Set an example for how they should be productive members of society? Kill their enemies?
At work.
RR
JSM
“Your definition of a beach is either very very narrow or you just lied. I see daily pictures of you at a lake beach.”
As I recall (it’s been a while) there are no beaches on Picnic Point. The shoreline is just rocks and weeds.
I was a lifeguard at a water park in my mid-teens. Never had to save anyone. Always had a private pool. Pulled out or dove in to get one adult and two kids in separate incidents at different homes. I was reminded of this recently when I realized the "water" the Obama chef drowned in was shallower than the water park pool I waded around in.
Bleisure + Bleasure = Bluster + Blather
Prove me wrong.
This goes back to what I was saying a few months ago about people needing to say, "no," more often.
Vacation needs to be a total break from work.
Sorry, but I don't believe the quoted comment!
One of our great robber barons asked his local managers who their irreplaceable employees were. When he had the list he fired them all. He wanted a systemic workflow not a bunch of employees who could hold his business hostage. If you think you can't take a couple of weeks off, you are probably mistaken or are self sabotaging. What does he think is going to happen when he has his stress related stroke or heart attack.
I'm the earner in a single-earner household with young children and we live a well-off lifestyle due to my wife and I's hard work, saving, investing, good fortune, and broader choices. Neither my wife or I came from money, nor inherited money.
Now, in our 40s, we enjoy travel immensely with our kids. And I work in a white collar job with specific, time sensitive responsibilities with a clear expectation that I do not have a replacement for my role sitting around when I take vacation.
I am grateful I have the opportunity to do these trips. I am grateful I have a job that allows me to provide for my family as a sole earner. When I make the choice to travel, I make arrangements with the understanding I do some work on vacation. I plan my vacations during natural lulls in work volume, make the best arrangements I can, and then I deal with what happens - some days zero work, some days a 5-10 minute check-in, and occasionally 1-2 hours.
It's tough, and can be stressful on my family, and I'm grateful for it.
And somehow you seem to not notice what has happened to France as a result.
That’s a hot take from the land of American carnage.
France by a considerable margin leads the world in the most important measure of happiness, time spent eating and drinking with family and friends.
Semantic quibble. "Vacation", in the context of employment, simply means you don't have to go to work on those days. You COULD stay home, rest up, be lazy, refuse to answer phone/emails. What is being discussed here is "travel". Not the same thing. A TRUE vacation is resting. Like others have said, mixing work and travel is a choice. Also - well paid HOURLY people (like paralegals) don't answer the phone while on vacation - if they are smart.
Althouse, both of of my daughters, 14 years apart and both about 4 years old at the time, fell into my parents' pool during family gatherings. Both times I had my eye on them and jumped up and pulled them out. Both girls were underwater and looking up at me as I reached down and grabbed them by the arms. The first time I had been drinking. The second time sober. But each time I was paying attention to their wellbeing.
Maybe this guy should try it.
But then he/she wouldn't be able to write in to the NYT and whine about it.
Humblebragging
“ I billed 32 hours (which means I worked well over 32 hours) on a family vacation 20 years ago. Once you could access your files by email, any concept of "time off" simply died (at least for attorneys).”
When I was working as a patent attorney, I never had a true vacation, at least after email and text messaging became ubiquitous. We had two of us patent attorneys for maybe 300 regular attorneys. And really didn’t cover for each other very much - the ramp up on the cases just took too long (which you couldn’t bill, if you wanted to keep the clients). So, you try to free up your time as much as you can, then take a laptop along anyway. We had statutory deadlines that you can’t buy your way out of. You miss one, by even a minute, and that can result in flushing the patent application down the toilet.
Part of the problem was clientele. My next brother was also a patent attorney, but was very strict about giving clients deadlines and sticking to them. But that limited him to mature businesses. Startups are notorious for waiting util the last minute for everything. That means that you find yourself up against hard deadlines, and, thus, work weekends, vacations, etc to make their filings. The thing is that they tend to have the far more interesting technology. I did rain gutter patents 35 years ago when I was being trained. And my brother is still doing them for the same client today. You used to be able to get steady work with big companies with long lead times, at least in electronics and software. But then the big companies cranked their attorney fees down, and down, and down, to the point you couldn’t make money on it.
In any case, over 20+ years as a full time patent attorney, I very often worked Friday or Saturday nights when I flew into town to see my daughter, every other weekend, and probably never got trough a vacation without at least some work.
Pepe Le Prole.
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