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”這個怪異的詞被造出用來描述人們假期時在家里待著的潮流——他們興許會出門一日游,，不過總把家作為根據地。但還沒有一個詞可形容日漸興起的一股基本相反的潮流：外出度假但帶上一些工作——甚至可能是很多工作,。對許多人來說,，確切說是對本月外出度假的許多人來說，工作與休閑的界限已經大大模糊了,。兩者交互混雜,，但并不總能相輔相成,。

人人都覺察到這股趨勢，但它為什么會發(fā)生呢,？有一個明顯的原因和幾個不那么明顯的原因,。明顯原因是通訊無所不在。不僅僅是人們無論身在何地都能與工作單位保持聯(lián)系,，而且對許多人而言,，處理工作所需要的工具——以寬帶網絡為首——隨處可得。寫報告或潤色文件在哪兒都能完成,。在網絡上,，沒人需要知道你在哪里。

但是在這種行為變化的背后有更多原因,。同樣重要的是,，勞動力的構成在變，工作本身的性質在變,。就勞動力而言,，最大的變化是個體經營者增多，在英國,，他們的數量在過去25年中翻了近一倍,。管理學作家查爾斯·漢迪早在1990年就在其《非理性時代》一書中指出，核心員工和自由兼職員工的差異在擴大,。人們會作為核心員工在自己的專業(yè)領域全職工作,，學得一技之長，建立人脈,，之后兼職工作,，自立門戶，為客戶服務,。

個體經營和兼職工作的增長共同改變了假期的性質,。顯然，如果你為自己工作,，那就可以在休假,、退休等問題上自己做決定。你有想休就休的自由,，但也有維系客戶的責任,。有些客戶不需要特別關注，有些則可能需要,。

工作和休假界限模糊更深層的原因是工作性質本身也在各個方面發(fā)生了變化,。當然許多工作需要在固定地點完成：工廠、醫(yī)院,、超市,、酒吧等等,。維持這些場所正常運轉的人需要“上班”。然而漸漸地,，與在固定地點完成的工作相比,，只要有寬帶在任何地方都能完成的工作所占比例正在提高。正如英國大多數工作者會在人生的某個階段獨立經營事業(yè),，大多數人也會在家中——甚至在外出休假時——完成至少部分工作,。看看不久前倫敦地鐵罷工如何激發(fā)了人們那天在家中工作的吧,。

如果說很多人可以在家中至少完成部分工作,，那么有兩類人的工作和休閑之分已經基本消失。有那么一小部分人,，其愛好變成了工作,。這樣的事情大多是道聽途說，但無疑有成千上萬的人成功地把自己的消遣變成了賺錢的營生,。這類人包括藝術家,、作家、手工藝人,。還有數量更大的一類人把工作變成了愛好,。這些人——常常是退休人員——把自己的技能獻給了慈善機構和其他志愿組織。還有,，參加考古挖掘的“假期”算工作還是休閑呢,？當然是兩者兼而有之。那也是接受教育,。

休閑產業(yè)有多個增長點,，包括各種各樣的假日活動，從滑翔到遠足,，從教育體驗到志愿工作等,。對越來越多的人來說，這種活動包括了一些工作,。（胡溦譯自英國《獨立報》網站8月8日文章）