Work-life balance better in the 18th century

27 April 2009

It's often reported that the British work-life balance is deteriorating as the increase in working meals, company golf days and evening work events are encroaching on our personal lives.

But back in the 18th century, this was seen as a positive thing as work and pleasure overlapped much more, according to a researcher from Oxford University.

18th century Britons saw work events, such as socialising with merchants, as pleasure. And in today's workplace, researchers say we could benefit from being more flexible about the working day and blurring the boundaries between work and play.

"What I find really interesting about the divergence of work and leisure is that blending work and play, something that was originally considered unremarkable, has come to be regarded as abnormal and dangerous," said Ben Heller, a history researcher at Oxford University.  "There seems to be a lot of anxiety in the present day about people being unable to get away from their work with business dinners and other commitments, but this overlap of work and play has a long history and wasn't always seen as a bad thing. 

"What we might take away from this is not that it's good to be working all the time, but rather that we should have the opportunity to be more playful during working hours.  A long lunch that might involve informal socialising with colleagues or a walk in the park on a sunny afternoon might be positive additions to the working day.  Even though many of the merchants worked long hours (sometimes from 7am until 10pm), they could interrupt their work on pleasant days to go horseback riding or drink coffee with a work colleague, and work later into the evening to compensate.  Modern technology gives us opportunities to recapture this flexibility."

Ben Heller studied a number of 18th century diaries to show how leisure and pleasure fitted into everyday life. One example is drug merchant Thomas Bridge, who did most of his socialising with business partners. He made his fortune by selling a product called "Essence of Spruce" to the navy and merchant ships to make spruce beer on their voyages.  According to his diary, Bridge socialised with many of his business associates, in particular a Mr. Kirkman. 

One Sunday illustrates how much time Bridge might spend with Kirkman and how he could socialise with business associates and their wives.  On 6 December 1760 Bridge rose at 8.30am.  He planned to go with Kirkman to dine at Mr Willis' home - another associate - but the fog was too great.   Instead Kirkman came at 10.30am to accompany Bridge to church, after which they drank mulled wine.  They then took a coach to dine with Willis at the home of Mr and Mrs Mills, another business associate and his wife.  Bridge then went with Kirkman to church a second time before going back to Mrs. Mills' to tea.   Hey stayed there until supper at 10pm before getting a coach home and going to bed at 11pm.

It wasn't always so easy, however.  As future Prime Minister George Canning told his aunt and uncle in a letter, he found it difficult to discipline himself after the relative freedom of life at Christ Church.  On 24 January 1794 he recorded going to a play in the evening and then afterward to a coffee house with Christ Church friends.  In that entry Canning worried that he was too easily seduced into going out with friends and watching plays rather than going to the parties with people who would further his political career.  It took time to become comfortable choosing business and the associated rewards over the pleasures of undergraduate life.

It has been reported recently that people are more interested in volunteer work during the recession to bolster their CVs.  However, in the18th century, Heller found this was a pleasurable activity in itself. Today people are now less likely to describe working for others as pleasurable and some burdens of family activities that may fall on mothers today may seem like pleasure.

According to Heller, one diarist, Anna Larpent, spent several evenings in February 1792, doing needlework for a Mrs Bontein to sell. She describes her as 'an object of charity'. Rather than doing work in her own home or pursuing something pleasurable, Larpent found pleasure in spending her free time creating merchandise for the profit of someone else.

"It is disappointing that we've lost our awareness of the pleasure that can be gained by pleasing others," Heller said. "Though helping others might deprive people in the 18th century of their ability to choose, it did not necessarily hinder their enjoyment.  This provokes thought about how pleasure is or is not derived from obligation today, for instance in family settings or in the context of community service and situations when leisure time is literally spent doing work for others. Perhaps we've become too accustomed to independent choice and lost some of our ability to find pleasure in cooperation and negotiation."