The ugly word “staycation” was coined to describe the trend towards people staying at home during their vacation — going out for day trips， perhaps， but using their home as their base. There is as yet no word to describe the growing trend for people to do pretty much the reverse: going away on holiday but blending in some work — maybe quite a lot of it — into their holiday time. For many， indeed for many away this month， the frontier between work and leisure has become much more blurred. Each blends into the other， and not always to the benefit of either.
It is a trend we all recognise， but why is it happening？ There is one obvious reason and some other rather less-obvious ones. The obvious one is the ubiquitous nature of communications. It is not just that everyone can be in touch with their work just about anywhere; it is also that for many people the tools they need to do their work — broadband for a start — are available too. Finishing a report or polishing a document can be done anywhere. On the internet no one needs to know where you are.
But there is more to this shift in behaviour. Just as important are the changing composition of the workforce and the changing nature of work itself. As far as the workforce is concerned， the biggest change has been the growth of self-employment， which has nearly doubled in the UK over the past 25 years. Management writer Charles Handy identified the growing division between core workers and portfolio workers back in 1990 in his book The Age of Unreason. People would learn their craft and make their contacts working full-time in whatever field they had specialised in as core workers， then later on they would go portfolio， self-employed and working for clients.
The combination of the growth of self-employment and portfolio working change the nature of holidays. Obviously， if you work for yourself you make your own decisions about such things as holidays and retirement. You have the freedom to go off when you want but also the responsibility to keep clients on board. Some clients don't need attention; others might.
There is a further way in which the distinction between work and holiday is blurring， which is that the nature of work is itself changing in a host of different ways. Many jobs， of course， have to be performed at a single location: a factory， a hospital， a supermarket， pub or wherever. The people who make these places function have to “go to work”. But gradually the proportion of tasks that can be done wherever there is a broadband connection is rising relative to those that are location based. Just as most working people in Britain will now become self-employed at some stage of their lives， so too will most people be able to do at least some of their work from home — or， indeed， on holiday. Look at the way in which the recent London tube strike encouraged many people to work from home that day.
If many people can do at least some work at home， there are two groups where the distinction between work and leisure has pretty much disappeared. There is the small minority for whom the hobby has become the job. The evidence is anecdotal but it is clear there are many thousands of people who have managed to turn something they had done for leisure into an income-producing activity. These include artists and writers and craft-skilled workers. Then there is a rather larger group of people for whom work has become the hobby. These are people， often retired， who gift their skills to charities and other voluntary bodies. Is a “holiday” that consists of going on an archeological dig work or leisure？ Of course， it is both. It is an education too.
There are several growth points in the leisure business. These include activity holidays of all sorts， from hang-gliding to walking， and from some form of educational experience to volunteering. And for more and more of us， that activity includes a bit of work.
“宅度假”这个怪异的词被造出用来描述人们假期时在家里待着的潮流——他们兴许会出门一日游，不过总把家作为根据地。但还没有一个词可形容日渐兴起的一股基本相反的潮流：外出度假但带上一些工作——甚至可能是很多工作。对许多人来说，确切说是对本月外出度假的许多人来说，工作与休闲的界限已经大大模糊了。两者交互混杂，但并不总能相辅相成。
人人都觉察到这股趋势，但它为什么会发生呢？有一个明显的原因和几个不那么明显的原因。明显原因是通讯无所不在。不仅仅是人们无论身在何地都能与工作单位保持联系，而且对许多人而言，处理工作所需要的工具——以宽带网络为首——随处可得。写报告或润色文件在哪儿都能完成。在网络上，没人需要知道你在哪里。
但是在这种行为变化的背后有更多原因。同样重要的是，劳动力的构成在变，工作本身的性质在变。就劳动力而言，最大的变化是个体经营者增多，在英国，他们的数量在过去25年中翻了近一倍。管理学作家查尔斯·汉迪早在1990年就在其《非理性时代》一书中指出，核心员工和自由兼职员工的差异在扩大。人们会作为核心员工在自己的专业领域全职工作，学得一技之长，建立人脉，之后兼职工作，自立门户，为客户服务。
个体经营和兼职工作的增长共同改变了假期的性质。显然，如果你为自己工作，那就可以在休假、退休等问题上自己做决定。你有想休就休的自由，但也有维系客户的责任。有些客户不需要特别关注，有些则可能需要。
工作和休假界限模糊更深层的原因是工作性质本身也在各个方面发生了变化。当然许多工作需要在固定地点完成：工厂、医院、超市、酒吧等等。维持这些场所正常运转的人需要“上班”。然而渐渐地，与在固定地点完成的工作相比，只要有宽带在任何地方都能完成的工作所占比例正在提高。正如英国大多数工作者会在人生的某个阶段独立经营事业，大多数人也会在家中——甚至在外出休假时——完成至少部分工作。看看不久前伦敦地铁罢工如何激发了人们那天在家中工作的吧。
如果说很多人可以在家中至少完成部分工作，那么有两类人的工作和休闲之分已经基本消失。有那么一小部分人，其爱好变成了工作。这样的事情大多是道听途说，但无疑有成千上万的人成功地把自己的消遣变成了赚钱的营生。这类人包括艺术家、作家、手工艺人。还有数量更大的一类人把工作变成了爱好。这些人——常常是退休人员——把自己的技能献给了慈善机构和其他志愿组织。还有，参加考古挖掘的“假期”算工作还是休闲呢？当然是两者兼而有之。那也是接受教育。
休闲产业有多个增长点，包括各种各样的假日活动，从滑翔到远足，从教育体验到志愿工作等。对越来越多的人来说，这种活动包括了一些工作。（胡溦译自英国《独立报》网站8月8日文章）
