What Is A Workaholic?
Certain working conditions can increase anxiety and stress levels. The curious thing is that the workaholic feel this discomfort and irritability that when not working.
Workaholic is an Anglicism which translates to workaholic, ergomaniac or ergomaniac. Various ways of referring to the same type of person: the one that those around them define as a workaholic.
The center of a workaholic’s life is his job. He downplays everything else, be it family, social or personal matters. His inability to disconnect ends up gradually putting his health at risk. According to Marisa Bosqued, a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in the workplace, this situation causes the person to gradually lose their emotional stability, to even become addicted to control and power in order to be successful.
Are you a workaholic ?
The most common symptoms exhibited by a workaholic can be grouped into three types, depending on the dimension they affect. It should be noted, however, that there is currently no medical definition of a condition.
- Cognitive : anxiety, irritability, depression, discomfort, constant preoccupation …
- Physiological : insomnia, stress, arterial hypertension …
- Behavioral : strong need for control, extreme planning, distance from the social environment …
Behavioral characteristics, however, can be very diverse. For example, their quota of free days is generally full and intact. In other words, they are as numerous as at the beginning of the year. In extreme cases, they even end up giving up their leave to stay active. They are also the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave.
They do not appreciate their free time, if they allow themselves to have it… Either they devote their moments of relaxation to thinking about work, or they even decide to go to work in the company, even if they are finished. their day. Their conversations also revolve around a single theme: work. It is therefore very common for them to bring work home or to finish it in the evening or during the weekend.
The center of their life
Work has gradually become the center around which all of these people’s lives revolve. Everything else has been moved. These people tend to have few supportive social relationships around them. They therefore resort more and more often to work in order to escape their personal problems.
According to Wayne Oates, psychologist, doctor and educator, their relationship with work is comparable to that of alcoholics with drink. A wo rkaholic resse nt a constant and continuing need to work. So much so that he ends up damaging his health, his well-being and destroying most of his social relationships.
According to Bosqued, this addiction results from excessive professional ambition. The e workaholic works as much because it considers that this is the only way to self-realize. He seeks to excel at all costs because he has learned that the harder the effort, the more power.
Appreciable share or positive reinforcement?
The positive side of this exclusive dedication to the job are the professional consequences. The boss and the rest of the colleagues see the workaholic as a kind of professional benchmark. Indeed, he is the one who devotes the most hours to projects, who is the most involved in the company’s results, who gives the feeling of being the most motivated … All this ultimately pays off in the form of promotions, power or remuneration.
But this recognition also reinforces the addictive behavior. So it is very difficult for the workahlic to stop being so because he sees no reason to change his behavior as it allows him to gain more power and ambition.
Not so negative connotation
The difficulty in considering this type of behavior as a disorder is that those around them do not generally consider the excess as “bad”. When a person takes drugs or takes refuge in alcohol to escape his problems, the social circle of the addict strongly condemns his behavior. T orking excessively does not seem so frowned upon.
However, this is very disruptive behavior. D ‘ u n dysfunctional behavior. It therefore does not allow the subject to develop the rest of the fundamental pillars of his life. Family, leisure and social relationships are put aside. This limitation and the inability to live a “normal” day is what makes this condition problematic.
Imagine that our best friend begins to dedicate himself relentlessly to his family because one of the members is dependent. He therefore always devotes more time to this parent. So he puts aside his work, his studies and his friends. It is very likely that he will eventually develop caregiver syndrome. The workaholic is an analogous case, masked by responsibility and extreme professional commitment.
We can see that devoting oneself exclusively to work is not opportune. This can indeed generate serious emotional imbalances. The best is to try to find the balance so that our happiness does not depend on something in particular, that it corresponds to a lasting mood.
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