Signs you might be a workaholic
The United Kingdom is a nation of workaholics with four in 10 admitting they cannot leave their phone unattended. It is a good thing to see someone who is working very hard to earn money. However, there is a clear distinction between having a strong work ethic and being a workaholic. Being passionate about your job is good but overworking is not something to be proud of as the latter is a serious condition that needs to be regulated.
In a study mentioned in The Sun, from a study including 2,000 office workers it was found that one in six frequently spends more than 11 hours a week working when they are away from the office. Work could include checking emails, social media, completing reports, researching projects or making calls.
When work is on your mobile phone, is it harder to put it down or to turn off the work mode? Mobile phones are always on hand. From a very young age, people are used to carrying a mobile phone, using it, playing with it and speaking to people through it. Everyone has a phone. Everyone needs the internet. Combine the 2 and work can be done 24hrs a day. Still, there is a negative consequence correlated to excessive use of technology and spending too many hours focused on work.
Are you a Workaholic? Here are the signs you could watch out for:
- You find ways to free up more time, so you can do more work – you like to do things fast paced because you want to finish a lot of tasks to a point where you even worry or stress out over a job that is due a month from now.
- You spend much more time working than you initially planned – you feel guilty when your body and mind is not focused on work. Thus, working helps you feel less guilty, anxious, helpless and/or depressed so you begin to stress on projects or deadlines. Usually, even in a day that is meant for resting (i.e.Christmas Day) you still feel like you’re wasting precious time. Do you opt to exhaust yourself at work?
- You are told by others to relax – be gentle with yourself, another sign of being a workaholic can be figured out by the people around you. If you encounter someone saying you should relax, then there is a big chance that they are seeing you overworking yourself.
- There is always more that you can do – you find excuses to work, you think of projects that you can do. You talk to other people about what work they have on, and you plan how you would do it. Maybe you give them some “Support” with their tasks and projects. This is probably unwanted, and not asked for, but you feel the need to do it anyway.
- You spend more that time on work – an addiction is spending more than money on something, or more than just time on something. If you spend money on your job, that your boss should be spending, you justify it by saying that it is needed to do the job. Do you claim it back? No – because your job needs it. You might reward your job, more than you reward yourself. You might decorate your desk, more than you decorate your house.
