Are You a Workaholic?
By Paige Cohen, Senior Editor
For most of my 20s, I was probably a workaholic. One of my first jobs was as an editorial assistant at a “big five” publishing house in NYC. The culture was: Do whatever is asked of you, when it is asked, and do it smiling because you’re replaceable and lucky to be here. It was expected that you would work all day and take a pile of manuscripts home to review at night. My bosses lived the same way. From the top down, the tasks never ended.
At any hour, I was prepared for a text or a call asking me to make a surprise presentation or coordinate a meeting with an important name. I remember sprinting around the city on my lunch break to deliver a manuscript minutes before a deadline or taking the train uptown after hours to hand off notes to another colleague.
Once I started working in tech, there was the same unwritten rule. As an entry-level employee with little power and lots of ambition, I was usually on call. In that job, I started out as a content analyst, a role similar to what social media moderators do now. My teammates and I used to joke about how we’d begun dreaming in three-second intervals—a side of effect of hours spent scrolling through video clips on a screen. (Imagine your dreams being filtered through a TikTok feed—it was a little like that.)
I don’t recall any of this in spite. Sometimes, I really enjoyed it. Being busy made me feel important and it was how most industries seemed to run. It wasn’t until I read an article from our most recent Big Idea series, “Overcoming Overwork,” that I looked back at those years from a different angle.
In the specific article I’m referring to, our social media team asked our readers, “Can you describe the moment you realized you were addicted to work?” They heard back from 1,000 people around the world. Here’s a glimpse of the responses:
“I hadn’t slept all week because we were on a deadline and my boss was pushing me to ensure that we met it.”
“Even during sleep, I dream about work.”
“I skipped my son’s spring concert at school because I had to complete urgent work on deadline.”
“When I was alone over the weekend, and there were no work tasks to do—which is not typical—I realized two things: It made me sad, and I didn’t know what to do instead.”
I saw myself in some of these stories, and it’s been a bit of a reality check. Even though I feel I have a healthier work-life balance today, I know how easy it is to slip back into unhealthy habits—especially ones that provide a false sense of importance or power. And when it comes to overwork, I’ve learned that, for me, the negatives (loss of relationships and poor health) outweigh any grandiose delusions.
That’s why, this week, I wanted to call out this new series. Reading through it has encouraged some valuable reflection and given me tools to check myself and keep my well-being top of mind.
I hope you’ll take a look and find it just as useful.
领英推荐
Recommended Reads
A Workaholic’s Guide to Reclaiming Your Life
Six strategies for finding better balance.
“You’re More Than a Success Machine”
Social scientist Arthur C. Brooks on how work addiction develops—and what can help break the habit.
Confessions from 1,000 Workaholics
…and advice on how to recover.
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1 个月We all got stuck into this circle over and over again. Work life balance is not off shelf like it is seen in work adverts / profiles. There is this parallel line of triggered competition which is benchmarked along the performance appraisal corridor. For work life balance to be in place and effective. It needs both the sides ( employers and employees ) to have a process that drives this. Starting from having the right numbers of manpower resource, package, Job allocation / expectations etc. Sometimes it is what it is. People stick around because they have got bills to pay, Stay busy etc. If it becomes quite toxic. Please take a walk. Keep your sanity before you lose it. It is not the end of the road. It's just another turn.