The Canadian National Newspaper: Are You - or Someone You Know

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You love your work and are responsible for multiple projects and tasks that continue to be assigned to you or your group. You actually thrive on the multiple deadline pressures. Or perhaps you hold multiple jobs or own your own business. Your work hours are long, your at-home hours short, and your sleep hours few. Vacations and social visits with friends are a distant memory. Your only hobby is your job.

It's pretty likely that you -- or someone you know -- is a workaholic. Workaholics live for their work, often spending many extra hours at work, and often taking work home to complete. Americans -- when compared to many other countries -- are typically a work-hard culture, but when work becomes the sole reason for a person's existence above more important things (such as family and friends), the issue becomes critical.

Part of the matter is societal. Canadians are working more hours per week than in years past, and with all the downsizings and consolidations and lack of replacement hirings, more and more workers are putting in extra hours to complete the work previously completed by others. Some studies show that as much as many as 40 percent of workers don't even bother to take vacations, partly because of fears they may not have a job to come back to if they do.

Part of the matter is technological. We live and work in a connected environment -- e-mails, instant messaging, fax machines, cell phones, and digital assistants -- making it hard for workers to truly get time away from their work.

Part of the matter is financial. Whether it is how more and more of us mistakenly define success in terms of financial and materialistic measures or the fact that many Canadians simply must work multiple jobs simply to earn a living wage and keep their families out of poverty, we are working more and more for the financial outcomes. These problems have been hastened by economic austerity pressures associated with 'Corporate Globalization'.

Regardless of the reasons, workaholism can be a serious condition that can lead to the decline and destruction of families, as well as to serious stress-related health problems. When work becomes the sole reason for being -- when it becomes the only thing we think about, the only thing that truly makes us happy -- then it is time for some sort of intervention. And do not confuse hard work for workaholism. Hard workers know the boundaries between work and personal times and can function normally when not at work, while workaholics have no personal times and cannot function well outside of work.

About the writer:

Dr. Randall Hansen is currently a webmaster for Quintessential Careers, as well as publisher of its electronic newsletter, QuintZine. He writes a biweekly career advice column under the name, The Career Doctor. He is also a tenured, associate professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He is a published career expert -- and has been for the last ten years. He is co-author, with Katharine Hansen, of Dynamic Cover Letters. And he has been an employer and consultant dealing with hiring and firing decisions for the past fifteen years.