While many workers would love more time off, job insecurity and technology that keeps them constantly plugged in can often get in the way. Some people manage to make things work. They carve out time for their personal lives, they find ways to work more efficiently, they know when to let go. But for others, it can be a slippery slope from a busy work month to an endlessly busy work life. Psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, who is also professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of the book
says close to a quarter of Americans are workaholics. And while that may be acceptable in certain work cultures, Robinson and other work-addiction experts agree that such a lifestyle can lead to detrimental long-term consequences.
You work longer than your colleagues
Workaholics are typically the first to arrive in the office and the last to leave, or they log in after hours and work into the night. Do extra hours equal productive hours? Not often, studies say. Instead, experts say that breaks, time off and self-care enable more productivity in fewer hours.
You can’t turn off
Workaholism isn’t simply defined by working long hours. True Workaholism, says Robinson, is the inability to turn off thoughts of work. “A workaholic is someone on the ski slopes who is dreaming about being back in the office,” explains Robinson. “A healthy worker is in the office dreaming about being on the ski slopes.” And there are benefits to daydreaming. “If I’m dreaming about being on the ski slopes, I can be doing a bang up job, but I’m more calm and relaxed and excited about that possibility,” says Robinson, adding that pleasant daydreams allow us to trigger our parasympathetic nervous system, or our body’s “rest and digest” response. But work worries – even on the ski slopes – activate the body’s stress response. The more you can turn off outside the office and stay calm during work hours, the more you activate your parasympathetic nervous system and disarm your body’s stress response. “It doesn’t matter where you are, it matters what’s going on inside of you. That’s the key,” says Robinson.
Your body feels unwell
Workaholics have a lot of bad habits that can hamper health. Constrained for time, some turn to junk food, some inhale lunch at their desks and others skip meals altogether. Exercise is often abandoned and sleep habits get thrown off schedule. Mental health experts who specifically treat work addicts consistently see the same ailments among the overworked: gastrointestinal problems, headaches and migraines, weight gain or loss due to poor diets, increased irritability and tiredness, heavier drinking as a form of stress relief.
Barbara Killinger Ph.D. said this about different kinds of Workaholics
The key to understanding Workaholism is to fully appreciate what happens to an individual’s behavior and subsequently character when the Feeling function no longer informs judgment. The emphasis too often is placed on the excessive hours that these people work, yet this is but one of a series of symptoms.
Work is essential for our well-being, and integral to our identity. We suffer profound emotional distress when we lose a job, or cannot do our work for whatever reason. The alarming number of employees on prolonged stress leave is evidence that physical and psychological health do break down, especially during these recessionary times when workaholic bosses or organizations place unreasonable demands on their staff. One does not have to have a paid job. Many perfectionist homemakers and students suffer from this serious affliction.
“What is the difference between a hard worker and a workaholic?” is a frequently asked question. A hard worker who is emotionally present for all family members, co-workers and friends, and who manages to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal responsibility is not a workaholic. Any periodic burst of overworking in order to meet an important deadline or an emergency situation needs to be purposely followed by a reduced schedule or days off to restore depleted resources. Making a resolution to save at least twenty-five percent of your energy to bring home every night, and “putting a fence” around your weekends to protect yourself from temptations are both good ideas!
Workaholics, in contrast, lack this wisdom. They are obsessed with their work performance and hooked on an adrenalin-high. Bent on self-aggrandizement, these ego-driven folks reach one goal, and immediately set another more ambitious one. Staying at the same level of accomplishment is considered a failure.
Workaholics walk fast, talk fast; eat fast, and over schedule. While still relatively healthy, they can multi-task, but their diversionary tactics and eventual lack of focus often signal performance-anxietyas growing internal chaos causes them to try to control every action, and everyone around them. They must do things their short-sighted myopic way, and refuse to delegate because “others will not do as good a job.” As the breakdown progresses, conscious and unconscious stress causes them to suffer panic attacks, claustrophobia, depression, and acute sleep disturbance.
Many workaholics are forced too quickly into adult responsibilities because of situational circumstances such as a parent’s illness, a death in the family, or separation of the parents. Others come from families where there is a doing-performance-oriented value system where conditional love is granted if the child exceeds expectations, and makes the family proud. They are often the “good kid” who does well at school, excels at sports, and doesn’t cause much trouble. Although workaholics rarely acknowledge their own angry outbursts, when deep anger does surface to consciousness, one of its sources is reported to be the fact that these overly- responsible adults never had a carefree childhood.
Some become the Mr. Nice Guy or Gal, the passive-aggressive PLEASER who can’t say No, who desperately wants to be admired and liked, and will do almost anything to gain accolades from the boss and fellow workers. Their persona, how they want to be viewed by others, is carefully crafted. However, ego boundaries are hopelessly blurred because the Self, the “being-feeling” side of their personality, is seriously repressed. Wishing to take ownership of only their positive attributes, Pleasers tend to project unwanted faults and see these same faults in other people.
CONTROLLER workaholics crave the kind of power that allows them to always be in control. These independent and proud individuals are often arrogant and intense, but can be most charming, witty, and appear sociable when it serves their purpose. They can be impatient, impulsive and demanding, and tend to be strong Thinking-type personalities who are usually found in top management positions, or are self-employed. Controllers, comfortable in goal-directed activities but less so in social situations, find personal friendships hard to maintain. Many have business-related acquaintances, but few intimate friends.
Similar yet quite different are the NARCISSISTICCONTROLLERS who absolutely mustbe right, have to do things their way, and can only see their own point of view. They are persuasive in their manipulations, and relentlessly drive through their own agenda, regardless of the consequences. Thus they jeopardize the welfare of others, and can show an alarming disregard for ethics and morality. Rules and regulations are their own, based on their version of reality. Sadly, their narcissistic views provide little or no insight into what their actions do to others because sensitivity is lacking when the Feeling function fails to inform judgment.
These bright, energetic, and competitive people rarely relax, and seemingly need little sleep. They become compulsively caught up in the seductive, persona-enhancing perks that the workaholic lifestyle offers. Unfortunately, when the repressed Feeling function shuts down, these same people lose the insight and wisdom necessary to be aware of their own decreasing capabilities.
Thank you
Steve Ramsey- Calgary – Alberta