Is it Bad to be a ‘Workaholic’?

By Brandi Fowler

In Brief: (1) Workaholics have trouble stepping away from work mentally and physically. (2) Workaholism can have negative effects like depression, anxiety, and others. (3) You can curb workaholism by recognizing you are a workaholic and taking steps to work less by setting boundaries.

A workaholic is someone who overworks to an extreme. If you find yourself working around the clock, always thinking about work, and rarely taking a break, this might be you. All signs point to the behavior being unhealthy.?

What are Workaholic Signs??

Psychologist Wayne Oates came up with the term “workaholism” in 1971, and defined it as “a compulsion or an uncontrollable need to work incessantly.”

Being deemed a workaholic is deeper than working long hours, and clear signs indicate you or someone you know might be one.?

“First and foremost [look for] a regression in your mental wellness and health. Another way [to spot workaholism] is irritability, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, or poor sleep. This starts at home. Poor eating habits and a loss of connectivity to your loved ones [can also be results of workaholism].

“One of the other signs is when you start to distance yourself from other people. That can be because you don't have the energy or because those people in your life will actually reflect back to you, ‘Hey, you are working too much or you are working too hard.’”?

— Joshua Miller is a master certified executive and personal coach.

??In real life: It can also affect your mental health if your boss is a workaholic. “Feeling that you need to keep up with your boss can be stressful and can lead to burnout,” LinkedIn News reported . If you find that your boss is a workaholic, set boundaries, and negotiate tight deadlines.

“There is a difference between being a workaholic and just overworking or loving what you do. It is all-consuming. So, if work takes priority over everything else that is important, like your health and your family, your community, then that is typically one distinction that it may be unhealthy or an addiction compared to just a busy time in your life.

“The other one is that it is all consuming in your thoughts. If people step away, they are on vacation and still thinking about work, or they are in the middle of yoga and planning out what the project looks like, and you can't put that down and walk away, that is the second biggest distinction.”

— Kate Turner is a certified career coach who helps workaholics regain control and prevent burnout.?

Health Effects of Workaholism?

While workaholics may think overworking helps them climb the corporate ladder or stand out on a team, overworking can have negative health consequences.?

??In real life: Workaholism is an addiction, and it can cause “higher work-related stress and job burnout rates, anger, depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic symptoms such as stomachaches and headaches,” according to Web MD .

“So often what happens is when we double down in one area of our lives, we neglect the other. One of the impacts of being a workaholic is that by the time we are done with work, whenever that is, we are zapped. We have no more energy. The energy we do have left should be focused on ourselves to take care of ourselves and nourish ourselves. Unfortunately, we don't always do that the right way. That's where eating and poor sleep come in.”

— Joshua Miller ?

Why Being a Workaholic Isn’t a Good Thing?

Curb workaholism as soon as possible if you are exhibiting tendencies of it.?

“Being a workaholic is bad, as is doing anything in a manner in which you are doubling down in one area of your life. And whether you know it or not, it is still not healthy. Because what happens is when you are giving too much to one area of your life, you are neglecting another. And for people who are workaholics, there are typically two things that drive people. There is either fear, for example, a fear of, ‘I'm going to lose my job or I can't afford to lose my job’. That drives people to work hard, not smart.

“The other is people want to get ahead. So they believe that their only way to do that is to be a workaholic. People who are tagged as workaholics are not always working smart. Another thing I've found is oftentimes people who are workaholics are either in partnerships or married to other people who are highly committed to their careers or they are single.”

— Joshua Miller ?

How to Change Workaholic Behaviors?

The first thing you can do to overcome workaholism is to recognize you are a workaholic and take steps to change.?

??In real life: Workaholism is more common than you think. A 2019 New York Post article showed that 48% of Americans considered themselves workaholics.?

“First, understand where [the behavior] comes from. A lot of that is in childhood, whether we had a parent that exhibited that behavior or that is how we got acknowledged. Being able to realize that it is something we were raised to become can help to break that cycle. The second part is actually reprogramming yourself to believe you do have worth, you can step away, and things will not fall apart.?

“Also set boundaries. Really learn what boundaries are, how to place them, and then how to enforce them. Because it is fine to state something, but if you tell people you won't respond to emails over the weekend and then you continue to check your emails, it doesn't matter that you placed the boundary. Most important is setting [boundaries] for yourself. Workaholics work to have a sense of control, but they actually only have control over themselves. So it all starts with you first. Once you've done that internal work, the external results typically start to come.”

— Kate Turner

Explore more

• Digital Nomad Jobs Are Rising In New Era of Work by Brandi Fowler for LinkedIn News
• How Being a Workaholic Differs from Long Work Hours , by Lieke ten Brummelhuis and Nancy P. Rothbard for Harvard Business Review
• Are You a Workaholic? Here’s How to Tell If You Are Addicted to Work by Simone M. Scully for Healthline
• Are You a Workaholic? By Neil Osterweil for WebMD
• Almost Half of Americans Consider Themselves to Be Workaholics by Tyler Schmall for The New York Post

Meet the Experts

Joshua Miller is a master certified executive and personal coach and Amazon best-selling author of “I Call Bullsh*t: Live Your Life, Not Someone Else’s.” He is also a TED Talks speaker, a LinkedIn Top Influencer and contributing writer for major industry-related journals like Thrive Global and Medium.?

Kate Turner is a certified career coach who helps workaholics regain control and prevent burnout. After spending 10 years in tech sales, she pivoted to career coaching. She has worked with professionals in several companies including: Dell, Airbnb, Salesforce, Microsoft, Tableau, Instacart, Netsuite and through Empower Work and Dress for Success.

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