I was driving from work to home yesterday with the radio on. A couple of hosts were discussing that they had just did in some serious overtime at the station and that led them to think they were becoming “workaholics”, so I wanted to blog a little about this interesting subject.
A workaholic by definition, is someone who is “addicted to work”, in a similar way an alcoholic is addicted to drinking. It is a mental state in which the individual feels he or she must be doing something work related, regardless of the surrounding circumstances or people that are in his or her environment. Now, here I want to state something that is very key, which is: there are people who like their work, but are able to differenciate themselves from workaholics. There is a difference between loving what you do for living, and living your life for what you do. The latter is a typical behavior of a workaholic.
In order to figure out whether if you’re a workaholic or not, you should ask yourself the following questions:
Do you find yourself working over the weekend… every weekend?
It is ok to put in some extra hours every now and then, just to impress your boss and/or colleagues, or just because you may want to have a head start in your upcoming week. However if you are doing this every Saturday and Sunday, then something is definitely wrong. Either you are running short on your week day hours or your workload is not being properly managed, which leads you to become a workaholic.
To solve this you have to do two things: first, ask yourself what does your day work look like. If you are working for 8 hours, then you should be fine with the amount of tasks you have to do. Next, find out what tasks are you doing on the weekend. Checking email? Reviewing briefs? Preparing budgets? Is it something that is absolutely necessary, or is it something that can perfectly be done on Monday?
Do you pass on family and/or social invitations because you have to work?
Life has to have a certain balance and ventilating through other activities helps you clean your mind from the day to day work responsibilities. What good is it to live in an luxury apartment with swimming pool if you use it twice a year -on Christmas and on Independence Day, and only because everything else in town is closed.
The more you begin to get involved in non-work related activities, such as interacting with your social circle, the more you will appreciate the value of your spare time and the value of doing something different other than work.
Do you find yourself finishing your work and immediately going to bed and waking up and going straight to work?
Sleeping is one of the greatest pleasures in life, so why deprive yourself from it? Research has determined that over a third of the Earth’s population does not have a healthy sleep routine, for a variety of reasons -one of them being stress from work-. The human brain works exactly like any engine: after running at cruise control for most part of the day, you should cool it down before switching it off, just like in the mornings you should to warm it up before going at full speed.
The healthier your sleep is, the more efficient you will become in your work, which will likely lead to better management of hours and increased productivity during those hours. Also, make a note of how many times have you fallen asleep with nothing in your mind, and compare those times to the occasions you fell into bed thinking about tomorrow’s meeting.
Do you keep in touch with your co-workers after work hours?
It’s ok to have co-workers friends, but chances are that if you hang out too much with your co-workers, you will inevitably find yourself talking about work. You must be able to draw the line and separate your spaces. If you like your coworkers and want to become friends with them, then do something where there is little to zero chance of you having any work related interaction. This will develop a friendship between you and them, and you will be able to add them to your social circle without affecting your work relationship.
Another option you may have is to hang out with your friends or family. Having a nice night out with someone who you like to be with only to enjoy the pleasure of their company is a wonderful feeling. Next time someone from work calls or emails you after work hours or the weekend, just be polite and say “I’m currently with my family (or friends), I’ll talk to you on Monday at the office.”
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This is of course a very brief discussion about an interesting topic. In the end, some people just like to work and do nothing else. If you are one of those, then simply enjoy what you are doing, but keep in mind there is a universe of fun things available to do out there. If you are one of those who feel they are putting too many hours in to the job, try to follow a few of my ideas, give them a try and hopefully you will feel a lot better in no time.
HR