About the leisure of Russian workers

Abstract

The article analyzes the free time and leisure practices of workers, in the face of growing instability of working conditions, non-standard employment, violations of the social and labor rights of workers. Despite the predictions of researchers about a significant increase in free time and conscious leisure of workers in the future, associated with the technological and social changes, at the present time, one can observe an obvious devaluation of the value of free time as a time of the recreation, self-development, rest and idleness. An analysis of the data obtained in the course of the all-Russian research “Precariat-2018” and “Precariat-2022”, conducted by the Sociological Faculty of the Russian State Humanitarian University in 2018 and 2022, showed that a significant part of the working population is experiencing a constant lack of free time, they are constantly overworking, they can afford passive leisure, which does not require significant material and emotional costs, and leisure practices reinforce social differentiation in society, and do not contribute to overcoming it. The blurring of the boundary between free and working time exacerbates the position of workers, and, accordingly, there is virtually no time left for meaningful, active and developing leisure practices.