Workaholism and Personal Wellness

Written by Max | Edited by Rory Hart

Last updated on Sep 24, 2023

Sections of this topic

Woman Sitting in Front of a Desk Reading Documents

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting,
LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

Workaholism is an addiction. It’s the illusion and associated
destructive behaviors caused by the illusion, that a person
can effectively address challenges in life and work exclusively
by working harder at work.

The addiction seems to follow this cycle. Discomforts in life
and work cause the person to seek relief from those discomforts.
The primary form of relief that the person (the “workaholic”)
has access to, and believes in the most, is to feel good by accomplishing
something as part of their job at work. So the workaholic attends
to getting something done at work. However, as the workaholic
attends increasingly to getting things done at work, their personal
life begins to suffer from a lack of attention. As their personal
life suffers, it causes more discomfort for the workaholic, so
the workaholic works even harder at getting more things done at
work, causing their personal lives to suffer even more — and
the vicious cycle, or compulsive work syndrome, goes on and on.

One of the most difficult problems in recovering from workaholism
is that the workaholic’s hard work is often viewed by the person’s
superiors (supervisors and upper management) as superior performance,
so they are rewarded for their hard work. Fortunately, many people
in organizations are learning to recognize the signs of workaholism
and to realize that, ultimately, the addiction hurts the person’s
performance.

Various Perspectives on Workaholism

Workaholism and Marriage
In
Defense of Workaholism
Are You a Workaholic?

Also, consider
Assertiveness
Attitude
Authenticity
Awareness
Bullying
(Addressing)
Burnout
Cynicism
Emotional
Intelligence
Financial
Fitness
Job
Satisfaction
Motivating
and Inspiring Yourself
Personal
Development
Personal
Productivity
Physical
Fitness
Self-Confidence
Stress
Management
Work-Life
Balance

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Workaholism

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs
that have posts related to this Workaholism. Scan down the blog’s page to see
various posts. Also, see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar
of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Coaching Blog
Library’s
Human Resources Blog
Library’s
Spirituality Blog

For the Category of Personal Wellness:

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Max

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Workaholism and Personal Wellness

Various Perspectives on Workaholism

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Workaholism

For the Category of Personal Wellness: