Are you a Workaholic?
According to Workaholics Anonymous if you answer “Yes” to three or more of the following questions you may be a workaholic:
- Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
- Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can’t?
- Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
- Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
- Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
- Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
- Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
- Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
- Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won’t otherwise get done?
- Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
- Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
- Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
- Are you afraid that if you don’t work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
- Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
- Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?
- Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
- Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
- Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?
- Do you work or read during meals?
- Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?
If you trend toward being a workaholic, how has it impacted you?
For more information and additional questions check out my latest blog post titled "http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/workaholism-a-true-story"
Tags: just for fun, new hire handbook, stress, workaholic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Suzette Kettenhofen on -
Yes to all the above but am seriously working on changing! Really I am! Ooops there's the phone and email got to run..... LOL
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Permalink Reply by Heather S. Marsh on -
Yes!
Strong work ethic + the inability to sit and do "nothing" + mobile technology = Heather's a workaholic
I really don't want to be...I really would like to be one of those people who go home and "flip the switch"! I charge through my day at top speed, eat my lunch at my desk, develop ridiculous to-do lists, and crash when I get home. Yes...I know I need balance. But I honestly have no clue how to achieve it!!!
Sorry for the rant...
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Permalink Reply by Salina Washington on -
Heather, your formula says it all! Strong work ethic + the inability to sit and do "nothing" + mobile technology = Salina's a workaholic! I think you should form a group for us in your spare time...LOL!
I will say that I think workaholics are often times misunderstood. We really just are people with a strong passion for learning and being the very best we can in everything we do.
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Permalink Reply by Heather S. Marsh on
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Thanks Salina!
Maybe I'll add "Form Support Group for Government Workaholics" to my unrealistic to-do list! ;)
Think we'll get many members?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Putegnat on -
WorkaHolism may not be the best term for the condition. After all, work, from the physics definition, requires some amount of accomplishment to qualify. Spending time doing things that don't is called "effort". If you decant out of the day what effort actually contributed to work, I think most of us would agree that getting forty hours of work out of 40+ hours of effort is the weekly challenge. In fact, as the meter runs past the 40, effectiveness begins to drop dramatically. That is, if this is a consistent schedule. As managers, the most valuable work we can do is thinking. Notice that the highest rate of compensation we pay out is to people who are in the thinking business and the lowest rate is paid to those who do tasks. Managers who spend hours doing tasks are actually not present as managers at all. My sense is that often times we use jobs, and particularly tasks, as a retreat from something else less pleasant: a sort of therapy. The best managers I have ever seen shared in common that trait that they let others do tasks while they spent as much time as possible thinking about how to improve the product of other peoples' work. Imagine what 10 hours of thinking a week, every week, would do for the progress of our assigned department, division, company, etc.
So what's the best thing we can do for our entities as regards to "work"? Think more; task less. You'll be home by 5 most days and your entity will outshine all those around it. Time, afterall, is an INPUT measure. We need to be in the OUTPUT business.
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Permalink Reply by Margaret Dixon Harrell on
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I love your logic and completely agree. We often measure ourselves on what we have "done". Unfortunately, we have to "do" so much because we do not think first. We spend time undoing what others have done without thinking and then others must undo what we have done. Consequently a lot of "doing" is occurring without moving the pendulum one way or the other.
However, when I suggest we spend "more time thinking" I am not referring to the atypical self serving process. Instead I am suggesting we step outside of our immediate needs or wants and try to understand what effects our actions will have on all parties involved. Ten hours a week of that type of thinking would increase our output by magnitudes. Right now I am working on accomplishing ten minutes a day of this type of thinking. It takes me about 40 minutes to unwind first.
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Permalink Reply by Meredith Mengel on -
Excellent advice for avoiding the "putting out fires" syndrome! I find that focusing on the "why" as well as the how of a given task helps ensure that I'm doing the right work. It's no good to find yourself at the end of a task well done only to learn that it isn't serving stakeholders' needs.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa K McAvoy on -
I guess half of these are true, but I really try to have a balanced life. I am busy a lot, but that's the way I thrive. I work sometimes on Sunday and late on the weekdays, but I have no children and have the time to do that. I guess I feel like it's important to work hard when you are young and have fewer responsibilities so that you can save for when you are older and have a family. I think it's also important to show your boss that you are dedicated so when you really want or need time off or to leave early, they are more than happy to let you go.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Bell on -
Interesting read. Thanks.
I think the answer relies on whether the "work" needs to be done at others times besides when you are on the clock.
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Permalink Reply by E. Steven Emanuel on -
Absolutely. In an IT leadership role, if you don't have this trait, either you have lots of superior workaholics working for you or your not committed to that "next strategy"
The only way I've "turned work off" is to travel where I can NOT be in contact with work. A cruise or travel to some remote islands or parts of Mexico is planned at least every 18-24 months. I may still take a small project, but usually I can complete it with the silence and lack of email so I feel accomplishment but have time to relax.
Family vacations are set with early morning work (usually before anyone is up) and the Blackberry is not carried during the day. So far, the two vacation combinations have worked and I still find doing what we all find a challenge to be day to day rewarding.
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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Huddleston on
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I think all conscientious people would answer yes to some or all of these questions. No hard-working professional can turn off their mind when they go home. But those people who are on their Blackberrys and I-phones constantly have an inflated sense of their importance. Very few things, unless their is some true crisis situtation - and those will be few and far between - cannot wait until the next day. And I have found that those people who "Blackberry & I-phone" constantly are no more efficient and get no more work done than their counterparts who, for the most part, leave work at work. In fact, I think many of them get less work done, because, let's face it - much of what they are doing has nothing to do with their job; or, they are disorganized and inefficient. Seems like a few years ago people were more focused during the workday and got more done in less time without all the electronic interruptions (excepting email & Internet).
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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Hill on -
I've been accused of being a 'workaholic' ...
I like things to be done well and to be on time, so it is hard to turn that off the minute I walk out of the office. Then, as a reward for doing a good job, more assignments get sent my way. Hence, the plate that often seems too full. There are too many disruptions in a typical day at the office to get everything done. I also try to keep a balanced life, in that I do not allow work to detract from my family responsibilities. Something has to give though - for me, the sacrifices are sleep and 'me' time. That's not a complaint - I like what I do - it's just reality. Blackberry's are definitely addictive. However, I find that it's an expectation, even when I am on vacation, that if anything important comes from management, I will see it and respond in a timely manner.
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