It’s 8pm Friday evening before a long weekend. Everyone else in the office has gone home or is out for a drink to detox from work. Yet, you are still in the office, hammering away on a task that “just cannot wait”. Why is it important? You are not sure.
Why does this need to be done right now? “It just does, okay!”
Can someone else help you with it? “No, I cannot trust anyone else on this job.”
Except it is not just 8pm on Friday night before a long weekend. This happens every day.
Being a workaholic, or addicted to one’s work, is something that affects 30% of the general population. The effects of workaholism are numerous, and often severe. They can range from the physical, such as weight gain or digestive problems (even stomach ulcers from extreme stress). It can be mental, with workaholics often suffering from depression and chronic anxiety. It can be relational, with relationships and families breaking down under the pressure of constant 70+ hour work weeks.
Here are a few of the most common symptoms of workaholics, alongside some things you can do to prevent it happening to you.
You are often guilty of taking any free time you have and dedicating it to work, even if there is nothing urgent that needs to get done.
In this 24-hour world, it can be tempting to try and keep ourselves going at all times in the pursuit of achieving our never ending work goals. Recognising that work is not ever something that can truly be completed, will help you to pull yourself away from working those extra hours. The work will still be there for you tomorrow.
You work in order to distract yourself from painful feelings, such as guilt, depression or anxiety.
Often, workaholics work those long hours because they are using it as a crutch to deal with stresses in other parts of their life. Working long hours will not help you deal with those problems and will probably just make matter worse.
You regularly de-prioritise other things in your life such as hobbies, exercise or eating well.
Our ability to do great things at work often comes from the experiences we have outside of work. If you take yourself away from the desk and allow yourself to experience new things, you may find you come with with a fresh approach when you return to work.
You consistently find yourself working for much longer than you expected.
One more email. One more document. These are the calling cards of someone who doesn’t know when to switch off, or cannot recognise that work is always waiting for them tomorrow. Set yourself time that you are willing to work to, and then switch it off until tomorrow.
You work so much, and so regularly, that it negatively affects your health, whether that be mental, physical or emotional.
By reducing the amount of pressure that work is putting on your physical and mental health, you will have more time to focus on your own well-being. This in turn, will make you a happier and more productive worker in the long run.
You get stressed when you can’t work.
Work related anxiety is extremely common, and people are often filled with anxiety and worry when they are unable to work. Whether it be that your emails are down, or that you are delayed in a traffic jam, there are always going to be times that you would like to work, but simply cannot. Accepting that the reality that you can’t work right now, will ultimately lead to a significant reduction in stress in your life.
The important people in your life are telling you to cut down on work.
It can be so easy to block out the ‘haters’, who don’t understand why you need to take calls at 10pm on Saturday night, or why you work on Sundays. They just ‘don’t get it’ and they don’t have to deal with the ‘consequences’ that come from failing to deliver. They don’t have to deal with those things, but they will have to deal with your deteriorating health that comes from working too much. Recognise that when these important people are telling you that you are “working too much”, it comes from a place of love and care.
The hardest part of overcoming any addiction is recognising that you have a problem in the first place, and building the courage to talk to someone about it. If you do not feel like you can talk to anyone in your life about this, ReachOut Australia runs a hotline that you can call.
It may be a tough journey for you, but the rewards for kicking workaholism are immense and far reaching. Be brave and put yourself first!
