The relationship between work and leisure among employees of a federal government department

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to: (1) explore the type of relationships that exist for work and leisure for workers of a federal government department, and (2) examine the perceptions of workers believed to experience leisure at work. The study employed a phenomenological design in an attempt to understand people's perceptions and perspectives of a particular situation. Access to the population group was provided by a senior sponsor of the department, who had secured five workers to partake in the semi-structured interviews. The key results indicate that: (1) leisure tends to be experienced during work, (2) work offers a "leisure appeal", and (3) leisure appears to be a "state of mind" notion that is distinctly experienced from the obligations of structured work. The study provides insight regarding the work-leisure relationship for some public sectors workers; however, more research is needed in order to make generalizations.