How to Stop Being a ‘Workaholic’

Workaholics have trouble stepping away from work mentally and physically. Working to exhaustion can have negative effects like depression, anxiety, and others. You can turn the tide by recognizing your pattern and taking steps to work less, such as by setting boundaries.

By Brandi Fowler

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

How to Tell If You’re Overworking?

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. There are also clear signs indicate you or someone you know might be one.?

“First and foremost [look for] a regression in your mental wellness and health,” said Joshua Miller , who is a master-certified executive and personal coach. “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.’”?

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,” said Kate Turner , who is a certified career coach who helps workaholics regain control and prevent burnout. “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.”

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.

“So often what happens is when we double down in one area of our lives, we neglect the other,” Miller said. “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.”?

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

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. A 2011 study suggested at least 10% of Americans are workaholics, but the percentage could be much higher depending the definitions that researchers use.?

“First, understand where [the behavior] comes from,” Turner said. “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.”?

(A version of this article first appeared on October 10, 2022, on the Get Ahead by LinkedIn News page . You can read the full article written and reported by Brandi Fowler by clicking here .)

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