There is a difference between working and over-working. To maintain a healthy work-life balance, you must know the difference. We can not compromise or stop working as we all have bills to pay. To live, we must earn and without working, earning is impossible. However, that does not mean you will overwork and burn yourself out.
Often, most individuals who have become workaholics do not get to understand or identify that they have become addicted to their work. The reasons can be a lot behind this. From intimacy concerns to avoiding the feeling of anxiety and guilt from avoiding mental health issues or other personal issues, you might end up being a workaholic.
The main concern is that you need proper medical attention and treatment to establish a healthy balance between work and life. Yes, just the way you opt for outpatient rehab in New York City in order to combat drug or alcohol addiction, you are also required to opt for work addiction treatment. For that, you need to understand the signs of a workaholic.
Who Is A Workaholic?
Before we start with the main topic, here are the basics of a workaholic. A workaholic is an individual who works compulsively. The workaholic person works at the cost of their social functions, like meeting family or friends and sleeping. The term workaholic does not imply a person who enjoys their work but feels compelled to do it.
Signs That You May Be A Workaholic
Signs That You May Be A WorkaholicSo, now you know who a workaholic is. Now, it is time to know the signs that will help you understand whether you have become a workaholic. So, let’s have a look at them.
Sign 1: Your Weekends Are Also About Work
TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday)! For you, the excitement of a Friday will not be the same as others. When others enjoy their weekend from Friday evening, you might work even on weekends. Your weekends should always be your weekends. You should spend your weekends doing all those things you love; it is like your recess time.
Sign 2: Not Working Makes You Feel Anxious And Uneasy
When you have an endless list of to-dos, it is usual that you will start to feel anxious. Creating productivity and organizational tactics that work best for you is crucial to get the most out of your day. As the act of working offers the workaholics comfort, stability and structure, thus not working makes them feel uneasy and anxious.
Sign 3: You Can Not Even Think About Vacation
If you think it is tough to leave the office at the end of the day, we would like to tell you to imagine leaving work for a few days or weeks. Workaholics will find it extremely difficult to swallow, but it is important to plan something to disconnect you from work. When it comes to recharging and resetting, vacations are the best way, especially when you are almost burnout.
Sign 4: You Are Avoiding The Real issues
Workaholics typically will not own up to their problems. Instead, they use work to divert their attention from all the other issues of their lives. Working for long hours is one of the socially approved ways of suppressing other acute problems of life. This is why the most challenging step of all is admitting that work is your distraction from leaving to yourself.
Sign 5: Your Lunch Time Is Also For Working
Working on the weekends is pathetic! Now, what’s worse than that? Working through your lunchtime. Workaholics work continuously throughout the day without taking breaks or little breaks. This hampers productivity and takes serious tolls on one’s mental health and physical health.
Sign 6: You Are First To Arrive, And Last To Leave
Arriving early in the office helps you stay ahead of the work for the day. There is no harm or bad in that. However, it becomes a matter of concern when you arrive early and leave late. Are you the first to reach the office and the last one to leave the office? That too, on a regular basis, you need to think about establishing a balance.
Sign 7: You Do Not Have Any Interest Or Hobbies
Always remember that work is just a part of the equation. It is extremely crucial to take up some hobbies or passion projects for disconnecting and doing something for yourself. They should be completely unrelated to work. When the only motivating thing that makes you get up in the morning is your work, you need to take some steps back and reassess. For starters, you can start reading books.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Although work addiction is real, most of us do not properly understand and know about it. Thus we end up having a lot of questions and doubts. That is why we have curated the most common questions people ask a lot of time.
What Causes Someone To Become A Workaholic?
Studies have shown that the following are the most common reasons for developing work addiction or becoming workaholics.
- Low self-esteem.
- Intimacy problems.
- Anxiety
Apart from that, in most cases, workaholics are unable to delegate work tasks to other people.
What Are Workaholics Avoiding?
To reduce the feeling of anxiety, guilt, depression, or helplessness, workaholics work too much. For workaholic individuals, work provides a means of escape. They can avoid uncomfortable emotions as long as they are doing their job.
Are Workaholics Happy?
Along with themselves, workaholic individuals also make the people surrounding them less happy just because they are harder to work with. They often also have weaker relationships with colleagues.
Conclusion
In case you are experiencing all these or at least 4 of the signs, you might be a workaholic. Now, you need to opt for treatment and start working on developing a proper work-life balance.
