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VIDEODon't Fall Into The Workaholic Trap
By
Scott Reeves Jan 23, 2008 12:10 pm
Find out if you're a workaholic and what you can do to overcome it and become a happier, healthier you.
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Typically, workaholics put in crushing hours at the office to escape social relationships or even intimacy with a spouse. In short, workaholics generally lack confidence and use the long hours to hide from other problems.
"Hours spent at work displace hours doing something the workaholic dreads even more," says Dr. John Hoover, a Minyanville professor and author of How to Work for an Idiot: Survive and Thrive Without Killing Your Boss. "Just as shopping, drinking, drug use or excessive sexual acting out are attempts to escape an unpleasant present, workaholism serves a similar escapist fantasy. It doesn't matter what the workaholic is trying to escape – a bad marriage, dining alone, visits from urban missionaries or poverty phobia – working yourself to death seems to be the lesser evil."
But like overeating or excessive drinking, workaholism creates new problems for the individual and the employer.
How To Identify Workaholics
Workaholics are usually crummy bosses, believing everything revolves around them. A workaholic is unwilling to delegate responsibility, likely to micro-manage subordinates, snuffing creativity and destroying initiative. A workaholic is often reluctant to promote a rising star because the up-and-comer might eclipse him at the office.
This poor management style often leads to low morale among the grunts, absenteeism, anxiety, burnout and high turnover. The workaholic doesn't care as long as he can continue to pile tasks higher on his desk.
"Burying employees with back-breaking workloads is commonly the mark of a sadistic boss who delights in seeing his minions hunched over their desks and suffering, or a buddy boss who is so lonely he wants everybody to stay all night at the office to keep him company," Hoover says. "In either case, the boss does very little work. The workaholic works."
But not efficiently. Despite the long hours, workaholics aren't productive and the quality of their work is often low. Fussiness about minute details smothers efficiency and obscures the big picture. Workaholics spend unneeded hours repeatedly going over the basics and needlessly revising before passing a project on to a superior. Putting things in context isn't important.
This means a workaholic's long hours don't benefit employers with greater productivity.
Top-notch employees have a life outside the office and know how to relax and share interests with family and friends. A hard worker turns handstands at the office, handling complicated tasks efficiently and well. These workers generally miss fewer days than workaholics, produce at a higher level and develop stronger working relationships with co-workers.
Warning Signs
Behavioral signs of workaholism may include temper tantrums, insomnia, restlessness, irritability, impatience, forgetfulness, boredom and wild mood swings ranging from euphoria to depression.
Physical signs of workaholism may include fatigue, headaches, indigestion, breathing difficulties, chest pain, dizziness and nervous tics.
Married To The Job
Being married to a zombie would be more fulfilling than talking to a workaholic. Workaholics are incapable of the give-and-take and mutual support that keeps a marriage, or a good working relationship, alive. There is little or no interest in intimacy with a spouse – the workaholic will plead lack of time due to career demands. Typically, workaholics aren't involved in raising the children or other aspects of family life. Everything outside work is of little importance and falls to others so the workaholic can remain chained to the desk.
Who Is Most Likely To Be One?
Workaholics generally have been men in the past but women aren't immune, especially as more women rise to the highest levels in corporations. But workaholics don't have to hold jobs outside the home, and some women develop a strain of workaholism while raising kids. Other women workaholics find their way to caretaking occupations such as the ministry or nursing because there's always another church member or patient to see.
Dealing With The Problem
For non-workaholics, the condition often evokes snickers, smirks and eye-rolling. But workaholism is a serious condition that can destroy marriages, harm children and create unnecessary tension at the office. It shouldn't be tolerated or cited as dedication by a clueless boss.
A workaholic needs to learn how to let go. That's not easy and requires the compulsive worker to understand what he's hiding from and why he's afraid of it. Then the workaholic has a shot at developing interests outside work and restoring balance to his life.
"The road out of workaholism begins with the same 12 steps that have pulled many out of alcoholism," Hoover says.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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