Workaholism: causes and treatment. Workaholic - who is it and how can a woman get rid of workaholism? When no one is waiting for you...

Character How to recognize true workaholism?

Workaholism refers to a person’s excessive passion for work, even when there is no great need for it. Workaholism implies that a person lives only by work, abandoning other areas of life, even neglecting communication with loved ones. A workaholic works beyond the allotted time, and the level of earnings does not always correspond to the efforts made.

Experts argue whether workaholism can be considered a deviation from the norm. After all, it would seem that a person is doing something useful: he works, makes significant efforts for professional advancement. But unlike a careerist, a workaholic does not always strive for personal growth and development. He simply fills all his time with specific activities. Work for him is a source of inspiration, necessity, encouragement and reward. Looking at him, one gets the impression that he doesn’t need anything else in life. Such a person often refuses basic rest, entertainment and travel, neglects sleep and communication with others. Work for him becomes the center of life. Moreover, the individual himself, for a number of reasons, does not notice that he has a problem for a long time.

How to recognize true workaholism? Are there certain signs that help us understand that there is such a problem?

Pleasure at work

Most people go to work every day because they need to earn a living. Many would gladly not do this, but without the availability of funds today it is impossible to provide oneself with the necessary minimum. Wealth often determines the level of satisfaction with oneself and one’s inner world. However, people usually try to find a balance between work and rest. The need to devote time to family and communicate with interesting people certainly distracts from activities, even favorite ones. For someone suffering from workaholism, things are exactly the opposite. A workaholic not only strives to fill all his free time with work, but is filled with energy only this way. Time spent with family or friends is subconsciously perceived as wasted, so he strives with all his might to fill the gap.

Suffering from workaholism, a person cannot fully develop; he is fixated on one type of activity.

State of dependency

A person who is overly immersed in work eventually gets used to focusing only on work matters. He stops being bothered by everything around him. The individual actually ceases to live fully, since other basic needs are not satisfied and go unnoticed. Lack of personal demand makes a person fixated on workaholism withdrawn and often leads to loneliness. One of the most striking signs that something is going wrong is precisely the state of strong dependence on work.

Another characteristic sign of developing workaholism is a symptom of limited consciousness. It is expressed in the fact that a person cannot think about anything else except work. If so-called distracting thoughts begin to visit his head, then immediate distraction and switching of attention follows. A person simply cannot afford to rest properly. He feels sorry for spending an extra hour on sleep, although what he needs most is recuperation. Person suffering workaholic, often works seven days a week, limiting himself in literally everything, mercilessly exploiting his own strength. Such a limited approach to life often does not allow one to fully rejoice and enjoy its most ordinary manifestations.

For an ordinary person, vacation is a long-awaited event and joy. For those who are burdened with their work, the need to sometimes spend time on breaks becomes a heavy burden. Workaholism really makes you suffer from a lack of workload; a person is burdened by the realization that he needs to be distracted by trivial matters that mean nothing in his mind.

A manic desire to work does not just appear. This requires the presence of a number of specific reasons. The more a person drives himself into a framework he has invented, the more difficult it becomes for him to overcome his own problem. The causes of workaholism are quite common. This is why a large number of people suffer from this form of addiction.

Avoiding family problems

Complete immersion in activities really helps to escape family problems. The person thereby justifies himself by saying that he is too busy to resolve some important issues. Some people are absent from home for whole days, disappearing in the office almost for days on end. Sometimes they develop a feeling of isolation from the world, which in itself is a characteristic sign of poor time management.

Filling the void

Why do people strive to fill all their time with work? What makes them live, subject to a work schedule beyond the established norm? In fact, they are afraid to admit to themselves that there has long been an emptiness in their souls that needs to be filled with something for a comfortable existence. The need for mental fulfillment is also the reason for the development of workaholism. However, instead of visiting the theater, cafe or cinema, such people immerse themselves in work. Office workers stay late in their offices and often take projects home. Freelancers often mess up their schedule so much that they subsequently cannot distinguish day from night. Of course, being overly involved in work cannot solve this problem. In fact, it only gets worse, causing a person a great emotional wound. Running away from yourself and your needs cannot but have a negative impact on the character and health of the individual.

Fear of change

People become workaholics not because they love to work. They just don’t know how to properly manage their own time. The fear of change forces them to convince themselves again and again that their work requires enormous daily dedication from them. The need to fill yourself with work is due to the fear of being alone with your own essence.

And then the existing problems will certainly fall with their heavy burden. The inability to solve them frightens the workaholic and forces him to constantly avoid such situations. The more a person fears change, the more he will cling to the need to spend all his free time in the office. Sometimes for this reason a person is left without a family. Finding himself alone, he becomes even more immersed in what he needs to do.

In some cases, the inability to be distracted leads to fixation on work issues. This is a pretty good reason why a person begins to slowly feel dissatisfied with himself. A person focuses on completing certain tasks, but does not notice that he is spending too much time on it. Sometimes it is simply impossible to notice that work has become a burden and brings more suffering than true satisfaction. The inability to switch attention is extremely harmful and prevents you from truly enjoying life. In this case, the person will very soon begin to experience symptoms of emotional overload, such as detachment, nervousness, irritability.

How to treat workaholism

Workaholism definitely needs correction. If the problem is not solved in a timely manner, it will accumulate to such an extent that it will interfere with life. Workaholism interferes with a happy worldview and creates additional problems associated with socialization and communication. How to treat this problem? Let's take a closer look.

Having a hobby

Any hobby significantly fills life with new colors. Only when we enjoy the activity do we begin to transform from the inside. Activities you enjoy fill a person with sparkling energy from within, help you feel a surge of inner strength, and feel truly happy.

To break out of the vicious circle of workaholism and excessive absorption in work, you need to learn to notice other things. You need to pay attention to what is happening around you. Perhaps there are people nearby who can be of significant interest and be useful. Those who are immersed in work usually do not notice what is happening around them. And this is a big problem. Finding a new hobby for yourself means not just being distracted, but also filling your existence with new meaning.

As a rule, people use workaholism and fixation on the activity being performed to escape from unresolved problems. These individual difficulties pose a great “danger” for them and cause a strong fear of life. That’s why you want to isolate yourself from all difficulties with such an impenetrable wall, to go deeper into your inner world. If you observe a person who has developed the habit of staying late in the office, you will notice that he is afraid not only to voice out loud what really bothers him, but also to be left alone with his thoughts. Constant fear forces him to close all doors in the face of possible doubts.

Solving personal problems helps remove this kind of psychological defense. We must not run away from difficulties, but try to solve them in a timely manner. Even if at first it turns out poorly, there is no reason to despair. Over time, experience will come, the skill will appear to devote time to yourself, and also not to ignore loved ones.

Overcoming Fear of Change

This step is essential to comprehend the disappointing reality. In order for a problem to stop causing grief, it is necessary to work with it. How to treat this condition? You need to give up the idea of ​​controlling everything. By letting go of the fear of change, we allow our reality to change for the better. This approach will allow the individual to become truly strong and self-sufficient.

Thus, the problem of workaholism is not far-fetched. It really interferes greatly with life and limits a person’s ability to gain new, necessary experiences. To overcome it, you need to remain honest with yourself.

Workaholism is a type of psychological addiction when work becomes the center of a person’s entire life.

Another term immediately comes to mind, associated with increased attention to work - careerism. True, there is a significant difference between careerism and workaholism.

With careerism, a person’s main goal is to achieve certain heights at work in order to realize his dreams and plans (earn more, climb the social ladder). Work is just a way to achieve a goal, an intermediate stage.

With workaholism, work is the basis of everything. A person is practically not interested in the final result. He is completely concentrated on performing specific tasks, pays excessive attention to details, tries to “polish” everything and make it perfect. At the heart of workaholism there is no goal to achieve the final result; the most important thing is the process of doing the work itself.

With workaholism, an addicted person is not interested in family, recreation, everyday life, or friends. Even if such a person has some kind of hobby, it is directly related to work.

If we talk about who is more likely to become a workaholic, then the number of men with such an addiction is many times greater than the number of women. True, this disease is gradually affecting the female half of the population, because recently many women, along with men, are immersed in work.

Causes of workaholism

We all come from childhood. And most of our problems and complexes come from there.

If a child has been instilled in childhood with the idea that work is the most important thing in life, and that one should try to fulfill one’s duties as best as possible, then over time he risks growing up to be a workaholic.

Another option for the development of a workaholic is a child with an alcoholic father. Seeing constant conflicts in the family, problems with the father at work, his son may try with all his might to become completely different from his father. This is where a predisposition to workaholism arises.

When a person has practically no bright moments in his life, his personal life is not going well, but he has some successes at work, he tries to direct all his energy to what he does best - work. Well, why waste time building some kind of relationship if it’s unlikely to work out? It’s better to feel successful at work by devoting all of yourself to some activity. Thus, workaholism develops as a way of escaping from solving life’s problems.

Signs of workaholism

• systematic thinking;
• stubbornness;
• fear of failure;
• excessive attention to detail;
• lack of interest in anything other than work;
• constant thoughts about work;
• difficulties in making a specific decision, careful and lengthy weighing of all the pros and cons;
• the appearance of irritation, anxiety, if such a person is not at work, or when the completion of a certain task comes to an end;
• upon completion of a certain task, thoughts immediately arise about the next task;
• there is no feeling of joy or satisfaction after some task is completed;
• increased demands on oneself and the work performed;
• rest is perceived by such a person only as a sign of laziness.

Classification of workaholics

Workaholic for yourself– such a person does not look for excuses for his excessive love for work.
Workaholic for others– a person explains his constant employment at work by the fact that he is trying to improve the financial situation in the family, help the company, etc.
Successful workaholic– a person who, despite being a workaholic, achieves certain career heights.
Workaholic Loser– a person who performs absolutely unnecessary, unclaimed work; Some workaholics try to do all the little things as accurately as possible, and because of this they fail to cope with the task as a whole.
Hidden workaholic– such a person realizes that his workaholism is too pronounced, that work is the meaning of his life, so in front of others he demonstrates a lack of interest in work, says that he hates his job.

Consequences of workaholism

1. Workaholism, like any addiction, has a negative impact on a person’s life, because a workaholic perceives only a small “piece” of the world associated with work. The joys of family or personal life, recreation, travel, human communication are incomprehensible to him.
2. Workaholism affects health: constant overwork and anxiety associated with work can lead to the development of chronic fatigue and diseases of the cardiovascular and digestive systems.
3. When problems arise at work, mental disorders such as depression and insomnia may develop.
4. Workaholism can lead to serious conflicts in the family (even divorce), because living with a person who absolutely does not fulfill his role as a husband and father is very difficult.

Treatment of workaholism

Many people try to justify workaholism and call it a disease. The search begins for “magic pills” that can overcome this disease. And this option is initially a dead end. It is impossible to get rid of workaholism in one day.

In fact, workaholism is an addiction, an escape from life. To eliminate this dependence or at least reduce its severity, it is necessary to understand the reasons that led to its occurrence. The best option for help is working with a psychologist. However, until a person admits that he is a workaholic, it is unlikely that the situation will change.

In addition, it is necessary to “retrain” the workaholic, to show him that there is an interesting life outside of work - family joys, travel, recreation.

You can change a workaholic only with the help of love and understanding. Ultimatums and scandals will not help in this matter.

It is necessary to remember that workaholism is a unique way of life, so it will not be possible to change everything at once. You need to be patient and have faith that after some time the situation will improve and your loved one will change.

Almost every person is familiar with the state of being so passionate about their work that all thoughts are only about it, and in general there is a desire to bring a cot to the workplace and live there. But for the majority, this state quickly passes - when they succeed in realizing their plans or, conversely, the enthusiasm fades. But there are people who live in this state all the time and consider work their life - workaholics.

What a word, huh? Almost like alcoholics. Although it would seem that it’s bad, well, the person likes his work, and it’s good for his health...

But sad statistics show that those who are “burning out” at work are much more at risk of cardiovascular diseases, and all due to body overload and constant stress. Well, how can there be no stress, if you are worried about work, but then the brick was not delivered, then your partners let you down.

About workaholism scientifically

The term “workaholism” was first introduced by the American psychologist W. Oatson back in 1971. He gave this concept the following definition: “passionate craving for work; a strong, uncontrollable need to continuously work.”

Modern psychologists add that in order to be called workaholism, our love for our work must be chronic and interfere with a person’s fulfillment in other areas of life.

Well, many of us have a favorite way of escaping from reality, and for workaholics, it is an excessive fixation on work, which becomes not a means of self-realization and not an economic necessity, but “the only outlet.”

The manifestation and development of workaholism is influenced by both internal and external factors. Which?

Causes of workaholism:

1. Personal qualities. Workaholics have certain common character traits that allow us to talk about a certain pattern. These are perfectionism, compulsiveness (attraction to certain actions), organization, hard work, perseverance, orientation towards achievements and success, as well as over-responsibility, because of which a person will never dare to delegate his responsibilities and will do everything he can on his own.
2. National characteristics, culture, social attitudes. Everyone knows that in Japan, as well as in many Asian countries, workaholism has become an integral feature of every resident: such a national tradition is to “suck up” at work. In our culture, frankly speaking, this is not accepted, but in certain sectors of society it is also considered a prerequisite for professional and social success.
3. Corporate culture. Honestly, I don’t know where this cult of workaholism came from in large Western corporations. There is a suspicion that this is the work of cunning top managers who came up with this method of non-financial motivation of employees: simply convince everyone that constant work pressure and deadlines are a normal working regime, and if you want to achieve something, you will have to almost live in the office. This is what the top officials of companies do, and then their subordinates begin to follow the same role models. Another incentive for workaholism is fierce internal competition.
4. General tendency to addiction. Dependence on work is also an addiction, and a socially approved one. If a person is prone to addictive behavior (that is, using habitual stimuli to obtain positive emotions), then he will find a source of pleasure - if not work, then games, sex or something else. What is the thrill of intense work? Many hours of intense work in the presence of stimulation (expectation of financial reward or praise from management, high interest in the task being performed, etc.) contributes to the release of adrenaline, and then to a state of euphoria.

So it turns out that workaholism, despite the obvious adverse consequences (fatigue, stress, family troubles), from a psychological point of view also has its own benefits: a sense of self-worth, career success, financial independence. Well, among other things, throwing yourself into work is a great way to take your mind off some unpleasant moments in your own life.

How does it develop?

Stages of development of workaholism:

1. Mobilization stage (heroic). An increase in strength, a surge of energy: a person is faced with new tasks, for which some kind of reward is promised: encouragement or, conversely, a negative incentive - the possibility of dismissal, for example. (By the way, money at this stage does not play a decisive role). The body in such a situation is so mobilized that it ceases to be susceptible to negative factors: in this state, a person can easily not succumb to diseases and sleep 5 hours a day. Subjectively, such a moment is perceived by the employee as a period of the highest realization of his own potential. Of course, this is nice: who doesn’t want to feel like a hero? A positive attitude during this period concerns not only one’s own person, but also those around him: colleagues seem competent, clients seem pleasant, bosses seem fair. However, the higher the euphoria, the more depressing the state of decline after it will be - and this state will certainly occur when stress hormones begin to be removed from the blood to lower tone. Recommendations: At the mobilization stage, it is extremely important not to forget about rest - no matter how much you want to forget about sleep and rush with full sail to achieve your goal. And one more thing: get ready for the fact that this fantastic ability to work will soon leave you, and you will not be able to not only turn the world upside down, but also finish the report. This is not a reason to consider yourself a worthless loser; all these are the results of psychophysiological processes.
2. Maturation stage (sthenic). If at the previous stage a person did not find time to rest and recuperate, the stage of endurance begins: it becomes difficult to complete the assigned tasks, fatigue and disappointment accumulate. Now the employee begins to wait for the end of the working day, weekends, vacations, which simply did not happen at the heroic stage. There is less enthusiasm: the attitude of employees and clients becomes indifferent. Diseases and colds return, tone drops. This fatigue is still reversible: after sleep and days off, strength is still restored. The sthenic stage can drag on for a very long time, and there are two ways out of it: success or illness. Upon achieving success, the person, having perked up, returns to the first, heroic stage, but if everything ends in illness or some kind of breakdown, the employee moves to the third stage.
3. Asthenic stage. At this stage, strength runs out, weakness, irritability, despair, apathy, and emptiness arise. The rest regime is completely disrupted: in the morning a person feels the worst, during the day there is an interest in work, in the evening - excitement and insomnia. Now we have to resort to active stimulation: in the morning - coffee, in the evenings - sleeping pills or alcohol. This stage corresponds to a state of chronic distress (chronic tension resulting from prolonged stress). This condition is impossible not to notice: work efficiency is greatly reduced, memory and attention deteriorate, and serious “punches” appear in work. The attitude towards others becomes sharply negative: the person cannot even see clients, communication with colleagues deteriorates greatly. The bad thing is that a lot of problems arise with self-attitude at this stage: the employee feels like a worthless nonentity. There are two ways out: rest or prolonged illness - if you don’t listen to your body, it will force you to pay attention to itself. Experienced HR specialists know: after a change in the company’s corporate policy and stricter requirements for employees, the number of sick days increases sharply during the year. It is undesirable to remain at this stage for a long time, and external support and good rest are especially important for a workaholic.
4. Stage of professional deformation. Are you ignoring stage 3? Get a kind of “working mechanism”, a person who has displaced all feelings and left only working options. He will look at colleagues and clients as an object, a unit: he performs his functions, but does not enter into personal relationships. You've probably seen these: a tired doctor at a district clinic or a cashier who looks at customers as part of the interior. It is interesting that physically a person may feel normal, but interest in work and life in general at this stage has already been lost. It is very difficult to get out of the deformation stage - a workaholic believes that he is “just doing his job” and there is no problem. Recommendations: as we have already said, it is very difficult to get out of this stage, so the issue of prevention is relevant. Well, to prevent burnout, aspects such as awareness and motivation are very important. Periodically ask yourself 2 questions: “Does what I am doing make sense?” and “Does my work bring me joy?” We all look at the world soberly and are aware that even the work we love sometimes gets boring, but still a feeling of satisfaction should prevail. If “everything is wrong and everything is wrong” - perhaps you are busy with something wrong?

1. Listen to yourself. It is very important to independently regulate your own physical and emotional state - pay attention to your well-being, balance between good work and good rest, and also objectively assess your own capabilities and limits.
2. Don't forget about vacation. It is not for nothing that compulsory vacation is stipulated by the Labor Code: you should not neglect it, and remember - 2 weeks of continuous vacation are provided to everyone, even extremely important, irreplaceable employees.
3. Look for ways to recuperate. Communicate with loved ones, don’t give up your hobbies, find time for leisure: your whole life cannot be reduced to just work, no matter how wonderful, beloved and prestigious it may be.
4. Sometimes it can be useful to change jobs. Perhaps in another company in a similar position you will feel much more comfortable simply because the company’s management adheres to a more lenient policy towards its employees. Again, it’s better to learn about such things “from the inside,” from the employees themselves.

Needless to say, any enterprise and any field of activity rests on a bunch of enthusiastic workaholics. The only question is: how does this very “bunch” feel? A dilemma arises: aren’t great achievements and discoveries worth devoting all of yourself to them? From the point of view of psychology, they are not worth it: psychologists are always most concerned about the safety of the psychological health and well-being of each individual, and not about the good of all humanity.

Workaholism is a person’s pathological dependence on his work activity, when he can only get true joy and pleasure by completing assignments and assignments. A person only sees this as his calling, an opportunity to self-realize and gain approval from others. Over time, the workaholic becomes not satisfied with his work and he takes on any opportunity just to stay in the office or takes work home.

Such psychological dependence is extremely dangerous, since a person loses interest in everything that does not relate to professional activities. First of all, family, children and communication with others suffer. A person is not interested in anything that does not relate to work; all conversations come down only to this topic. Addiction causes a person’s physical health and psycho-emotional state to deteriorate. Workaholism often leads to...

There can be many reasons for workaholism; let’s look at the main and most popular ones:

Forms and signs of workaholism

It is quite simple to distinguish a workaholic from a person devoted to his work. The main signs of pathological dependence on work activity:

There are several forms of workaholism:

How to deal with workaholism

It is important to understand that workaholism is a serious addiction that requires the help of specialists. It is extremely rare that people realize there is a problem and try to fix it themselves. In most cases, wanting to get rid of pathology, workaholics replace work with another addiction - alcohol, gambling or drugs, so it is extremely important to help the person cope with the problem and prevent the condition from worsening.
You can help a workaholic, but to do this he must take two main steps:

• Recognizing that there is a problem is an important step on the path to recovery. It is necessary for a person to understand the negative consequences of such dependence.
• Learn to say “no” to offers of additional work, to helping colleagues when there is no urgent need for it, to delays after the end of the working day.

In order to get rid of work addiction, you must follow the following recommendations:

If you can’t cope with your addiction on your own (or even with the help of friends and family), be sure to contact. There is nothing scary or shameful about this. A specialist will help you cope with the problem and show you the world from the other side, where there are many interesting things besides work.

Workaholism is a pathological addiction that requires professional help and awareness of the problem. The only chance to get rid of the disease is to find other ways in life to gain joy, pleasure and self-realization. It is impossible to cope with the problem on your own, so a workaholic definitely needs the support of family, friends or a psychologist.

You used to love going fishing regularly, but now you wonder what you could like about this meaningless vigil with a fishing rod on the shore? When asked by friends when you can find time to sit with them at a bar over a glass of beer, you answer, puzzled, “I don’t know,” and, having studied your work calendar in your communicator, you doubtfully set a date in two months? Have you completely forgotten what the word “vacation” means, and all you want to talk about is your job? If the answer to all questions is yes, please accept my sincere condolences: you have definitely been sucked into the swamp of workaholism.

The term itself was coined by American psychologist Wayne Watts in 1968, composing it from two words - “work” and “alcoholism.” The neologism very soon came into widespread use and was included in the Oxford English Dictionary. Watts revealed the essence of this phenomenon in his book “Confessions of a Workaholic,” which became especially popular in the 90s of the 20th century thanks to the “Help Yourself” movement widespread at that time, dedicated to liberation from addictions, which, along with drug addiction and drunkenness, was equated with workaholism.

Idle pastime is not the lot of workaholics. Only work makes them happier and occupies all their thoughts. Well, dad couldn’t come to his daughter’s school play! Staying in the office and finishing the report was much more important. Workaholics get terribly annoyed when others have priorities that are one step higher than work. Holidays? Weekend? Vacation with family? "Nonsense! Nonsense!" - would exclaim the inveterate workaholic Ebenezer Scrooge, a character in Charles Dickens' immortal work A Christmas Carol. Workaholics heroically fight weekends as something harmful, not understanding why they are needed at all when it is necessary to work, and they despise sleep, finding it a useless waste of time.

Thanks to modern technology, workaholics can handle business matters even outside the office through mobile phones, tablets or laptops. However, blaming technological progress for the development of workaholism is the same as blaming a supermarket for developing food addiction, and calling the liquor department a breeding ground for drunkenness. Easy access to work and long hours of work do not turn a person into a workaholic. It would be a mistake to apply this term to people working overtime and working hard to get a raise to send their kids to college. Such workers dream of a vacation on the seaside or at a ski resort and value leisure time spent with family and friends. But if a true workaholic has the misfortune of being on vacation, he feels like a fish out of water. Unable to relax, he languishes with melancholy and longs to return to the office and his duties as soon as possible. Obsessed with a thirst for activity, just like an alcoholic, unnoticed by those around him, sipping from bottles hidden in hiding places throughout the house, he secretly tries to immerse himself through the Internet in his familiar world of permanent employment.

It would seem that workaholics are the dream of any boss! A staff consisting of employees who come to work at the crack of dawn and sit until late, shouldering mountains of work. And you can only push them out on vacation or sick leave. But it is precisely these qualities that turn out to be harmful. Workaholics are always looking for ways to stand out from the crowd by taking full responsibility for their work results. However, work obsession and perfectionism prevent workaholics from being good team players. As a rule, they are not able to entrust one of their colleagues with a certain piece of work, being in the belief that no one can do it better than them. Like gluttons who try to bite off more than they can chew, workaholics overload themselves with too many tasks that they simply cannot complete on time. Workaholics are terrified that if they don’t work hard, they will get laid off, and they are constantly nervous in the process of completing a particular project, even when everything is going like clockwork. They ignore weekends and postpone vacations endlessly, neglecting sleep and sometimes personal hygiene.

Workaholics manage to not stop working even while eating, and their food consists mainly of coffee with a cigarette in between. And the consequence of long hours of work without proper rest is nervous exhaustion, characterized by symptoms such as chronic fatigue, forgetfulness, insomnia, irritability, depression, headaches and sudden mood swings, which together means a decrease or complete loss of performance. Therefore, there is nothing to be surprised that from the point of view of doctors workaholism is a disease, a mental disorder that is a serious illness that is dangerous to the human body.

Causes of workaholism

According to psychological research, the seeds of workaholism are often sown in childhood, taking root and flourishing in adulthood. For people from dysfunctional families, obsession with work is an attempt to control an uncontrollable situation. And children of perfectionist parents grow up in constant stress, being sure that they are not doing everything well enough, because brilliant achievements are expected of them without any reservations. The essence of the problem is that any person striving for unattainable perfection is prone to workaholism, since he finds himself in a situation in which he is unable to reach the finish line, painfully reminiscent of the squirrel in the wheel from Krylov’s fable.

But what about the predictions about an idle society and escape from long hours of work? At the end of the 18th century, one of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait appears on the hundred dollar bill, predicted that in the 21st century people would work four hours a week. In 1965, a United States Senate subcommittee predicted a 22-hour workweek by the mid-1980s and a 14-hour week by the start of the third millennium. However, none of these predictions came true. On the contrary, the number of working hours has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years.

In the US and UK, for example, every sixth person works more than 60 hours a week, and according to Canadian statistics, about a third of the country's residents are workaholics. In the Netherlands, obsession with work has given rise to a new illness called “leisure sickness,” which experts estimate affects 3% of the population. On weekends and vacations, workers, deprived of the need to work, lose peace of mind and become physically ill.

In Japan, presenteeism has become a social scourge. In many companies, a 12-hour workday is considered commonplace, and employees often sleep in the office because there is no point in wasting time traveling home. Large firms demand absolute flexibility from their workers, and although most Japanese employees are entitled to 30 days of vacation, many take no more than six days off for fear of being fired. The terminal stage of workaholism in the Land of the Rising Sun is called “karoshi”, which means death from overwork. Stressful work without rest causes thousands of deaths a year, including suicide, and provokes about 5% of strokes and heart attacks among Japanese employees under the age of 60. This is exactly what happened to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who was literally knocked off his feet by intense work. In April 2000, while coordinating the volcanic eruption on Hokkaido, the Prime Minister was hospitalized with a severe stroke after several days of nerve-wracking nerves. On the same day, he lost consciousness and fell into a coma, and a month later, without regaining consciousness, he died.

Social conditions often create a favorable breeding ground for the development of workaholism. Work-obsessed people tend to be smart, ambitious, and entrepreneurial. Their brilliant career and financial well-being evoke envy and admiration. But from the outside it is not visible that the lifestyle of these “darlings of fate”, who are captive of addiction, is like a noose around the neck, which sooner or later will begin to tighten.

An effective fertilizer for workaholism is the widespread misconception that hard work is the path to wealth and prosperity, and the only way to achieve what you want is to work much harder than others. However, living examples easily refute this imaginary formula for success. One of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett, has a small office with only a few people on staff. He himself devotes only about three hours a day to work, not neglecting weekends.

And Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who were elected president of the United States twice, were never fans of hard work. Although, if we remember the late head of Apple, Steve Jobs, who achieved sky-high success in life, he was a famous workaholic. As, by the way, is his successor Tim Cook, who starts sending emails to colleagues at half past four in the morning, and on Sundays torments managers with conference calls.

How to treat workaholism?

The reality is that workaholism is just the tip of the iceberg, an outward manifestation of a deep internal emotional disorder. Despite obvious symptoms, work-obsessed people categorically deny their addiction. Like patients suffering from anorexia, who, looking at the reflection of their skinny body in the mirror, contrary to common sense, see themselves as fat. Therefore, treatment of workaholism should begin with awareness of the problem and the desire to break out of the shackles of addiction. For a workaholic, using weekends and vacations as intended is like learning to walk again. The help of family and friends with the assistance of professionals such as psychologists plays a significant role in successful healing.

Happiness is when work brings pleasure, but it is just part of your existence, and after a hard day it is better to stay in the office and not interfere with communication with your family at home. You work to live, not live to work. It should not be the only source of positive emotions, as happens with workaholics. Maintain a work-life balance. If your job is all you have, then an impressive resume and colossal work achievements will be little consolation in your illness and loneliness. Is it so important to have a manic desire to get a promotion and an increase in salary in order to buy a big house and a luxury car if there are no more friends, family relationships are in ruins, and one day you will have a stroke from overexertion? Learn to enjoy life, because it's not just sitting at your desk. The ability to work hard is much more valuable if it is harmoniously combined with the art of competently organizing your leisure time.

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