Do you spend most of your time working? Do you usually take work home with you? Do they frequently call you on the phone about work things outside of office hours? Do you continually complain that you lack time? Are your conversations almost always about work?
If you answered yes to these questions, it is quite possible that you have become a “workaholic” or workaholic.
Wayne Oates proposed the term workaholic to refer to the person dependent on work. For Oates, his own relationship with work was like that of alcoholics with drink: a continuous and uncontrollable need to work that ends up affecting health, well-being and relationships with the environment.
Work addiction is defined as the person’s excessive involvement in their work activity, an irresistible impulse to work constantly and the almost complete abandonment of leisure activities.
Common symptoms of work addiction
Workaholics have the overwhelming need to work and when they don’t they experience anxiety, depression or irritability. For a workaholic, work is the center of her life, leaving everything else, including family or friends, in the background.
They usually take pending work home, they don’t disconnect on the weekend and on vacation they take their laptop to continue working.
Workaholic Profile
The most characteristic profile of the workaholic is:
Effects and consequences for physical and mental health
According to studies by the World Health Organization (WHO), work addiction can lead to mental and physical disorder. Although it is observed in both genders, it mostly affects male professionals between 35 and 50 years old, in liberal professions or middle management: executives, doctors, journalists, lawyers, politicians, etc. These people focus their lives on work and are usually not aware of the problem, with their family or social environment suffering the consequences.
The problems experienced by the person addicted to work are similar to those of other addictions, normally affecting their relationships inside and outside the work environment, which translates into family and social conflicts and even poor work performance. In addition, conflicts often arise in the workplace itself, since they tend to be perfectionist people who demand a lot from themselves, and also from others.
The most common consequences are: anxiety, stress, insomnia or sleep disturbances, depression, problems in relationships or family relationships, tendency towards social isolation, inability to relax, fatigue, irritability, and health problems such as muscle tension, cardiovascular disorders. , hypertension, gastric problems, ulcers, etc. In addition, abusive consumption of alcohol, stimulant substances and tobacco is often observed.
The cause is in the culture
The high value placed by our society on success and high professional performance makes socio-work environments conducive to the development of workaholics. Work addiction, like any other addictive behavior, is negative for the subject because it makes them dependent on a situation that harms their psychophysiological health, and alters their socio-family and work environment.
