Workplace Wellbeing: When drive for success drives us down
Pic: iStock
SOCIETY has a complex attitude towards workaholics. We sympathise with novelist Cecelia Ahern when she shares her experience of burning out due to overwork, but we champion people like Elon Musk for working 100-hour weeks.
Dr Damien Lowry, a chartered member of the Psychological Society of Ireland, believes it’s because pushing ourselves to our limits at work is socially acceptable.
“We laud the idea of working hard and the benefits there are to gain from doing so,” he says. “We cheer for Musk when he says he doesn’t sleep because he knows others are working. We think that outlook is what has allowed him to stay ahead. There are potentially significant advantages that come from working hard like Musk, but we have to acknowledge that there are also potentially significant problems associated with it.”
Even though workaholism hasn’t yet been officially recognised as a form of addiction, the term has been around since the 1970s when it was coined by an American psychologist Wayne Oates. His book outlined how some people experienced an uncontrollable need to work incessantly in much the same way as alcoholics felt a constant desire to drink.
Dr Victoria Fallon-Hogan, a lecturer in occupational health and wellbeing at NUI Galway, led a study into workaholism in Irish academics in 2016.
“Workaholics tend to spend a large proportion of their time at work when given the discretion to do so, often to the detriment of non-work activities,” she says. “They think about work persistently during their free time. And they work beyond reasonable expectations.”
Psychotherapist Keith Cassidy is the clinic manager of Smarmore Castle Rehab Clinic in Co Louth, where he has seen the effects of workaholism at close quarters.
“Workaholics spend an excessive amount of time working despite the effect it can have on their family life, their connection with others, their hobbies, and all of their other interests,” he says.
“Such overwork can affect people in a range of different ways. High stress levels, for one.
“If people continue working without allowing adequate time for rest, the resulting persistent stress can have a detrimental effect on physical health.”
A 2010 Harvard Business Review study of 3,500 workers found that people with workaholic tendencies reported more health complaints, more sleep problems, more emotional exhaustion and more depression than their peers.
Fallon-Hogan says: “Workaholism has also been linked to negative outcomes such as burnout, job dissatisfaction, and poor performance. There are also studies indicating that workaholics experience greater levels of marital estrangement and strained relationships with their children.”
Statistics vary regarding the prevalence of workaholism. Data from American Addiction Centres, a provider of mental health treatment in the US, reports that it affects 10% of employees. In Fallon-Hogan’s study of 410 Irish academics, 27% showed workaholic tendencies. A 2014 study of French doctors found that 13% were highly work addicted, and another 35% were mildly so.
Lowry says different psychological factors can drive addiction to work: “Some people need to prove themselves in order to overcome a perceived deficit in self-worth, self-esteem or ability. Others engage in overwork as a form of avoidance. There may be a situation they don’t want to deal with or past pain they don’t want to confront and work functions as a form of distraction.”
Other issues can also be at play. A 2021 review of all existing research suggested that being a perfectionist predisposed people to workaholism.
“Your family of origin and childhood influences are factors too,” says Lowry. “If you’ve been brought up to place huge value on career progression, status, and work ethic, it can be elevated to the top of your list of priorities, regardless of the consequences.”
The workplace can also encourage workaholism, Lowry says: “If you’re in an environment where there’s a significant degree of real or perceived pressure, working hard can become a pattern of behaviour that is reinforced over time. The fact that you will be given praise, promotions, and pay raises, for doing so reinforces that pattern even more.”
So, how can we tell if we are crossing the line that divides diligent employees from those who struggle to stop working? Cassidy’s advice is to pay attention to how it feels when we manage to stop.
“If you want to discover if something is a problem, stop doing it,” he says. “That’s when withdrawal kicks in and issues come to the surface.”
He sometimes asks clients to mark how they spend their time in a weekly diary, using red for work, green for family and friends, and blue for hobbies and other activities.
“Be honest when doing this,” he says. “Don’t tell yourself you’re not working on Saturday if you spend all day reading work emails.”
When you’re finished, you’ll have a visual representation of how you spend your days.
“That’s when you might realise that you need to rein in the red work zone,” says Cassidy.
The rise of technology and the move to remote work can make this problematic. These changes in work practices have enabled us to work at all hours and from all locations.
Fallon-Hogan says: “They have contributed to increasingly blurred boundaries between home and work and can exacerbate the difficulties of detaching and recovering from work.”
Cassidy recommends identifying underlying causes of the behaviour to break the pattern of overwork.
“What question is workaholism providing the answer for,” he says. “Therapy can help with this. So can the support of family and friends.”
Next, to develop a balanced approach to work, you need to find other sources of enjoyment, says Cassidy: “Recovery from any addiction is about learning to find joy in other areas of life. And one of the best places to find joy is connecting with others. Workaholism is an effective way of disconnecting from those around you. Reconnecting is the antidote to that, so reach out and build relationships with family, friends, and colleagues in the workplace.”
Lowry recommends developing a wellbeing practice, comparing it to gardening: “If you allow gardens to overgrow, you’ll have a big job dealing with the resulting disarray. But if you weed them regularly, everything stays in balance. Apply the same approach to looking after yourself. Exercise, talk to others, and check in with yourself regularly to identify and address any issues before they reach crisis point.”
Redefining success is another helpful approach, Lowry says: “We can all be guilty of associating success with finances and professional status. But while money is a necessity that affords us stability and choices in life, people on their deathbed don’t say they wish they had worked more. They are more likely to say they wish they had spent time with people they loved and doing what gave them joy. Ask yourself what you will go to the grave valuing and stay attentive to that.”
Elon Musk may still be a proud workaholic, but many others have learned to curb their tendency to overwork. Cassidy reassures us that we are all capable of doing this: “People who are in the grips of an addiction, no matter what it is, often feel a sense of despair and hopelessness. They don’t think that it’s possible to recover. But it is possible. People might require a little bit of help, but they can learn to balance a life of family, friends and hobbies with work.”
