Workaholic (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what a workaholic is and its characteristics. In addition, we tell you what causes work addiction.

Workaholic workaholic — A *workaholic* He engages with his work in a compulsive, incessant and unhealthy way.

What is a workaholic or workaholic?

A workaholic, also called workaholic (from English work“job”) is a person who has a workaholic relationship that is, it is linked to its work world in a compulsive, incessant and unhealthy way. This term has become popular since the end of the 20th century, especially in its Anglo-Saxon form, although it has valid equivalents in Spanish, such as laboraholic either ergomaniac.

Although this condition is not described psychologically or medically, nor does it constitute a formally recognized addiction problem like alcoholism or drug addiction, work addiction emerged as a term in English speech in the mid-20th century. Although it has clear negative connotations, it is often used in everyday speech to indicate that someone is very committed to their work or that they prioritize their professional career over other aspects of life.

The first formal recorded use of the term workaholic It dates back to 1968, but its popularization is due to the book Confessions of a Workaholic (“Confessions of a Workaholic”) by American Wayne Oates. Later, in 1990, it was a term widely used in the jargon of self-help and New Agewas used to describe the increasing fixation on work and office life that the Western world has since experienced.

Typical characteristics of workaholic

Broadly speaking, some characteristics of a workaholic are:

Conceives work as the central, fundamental and vital aspect of its existence above other traditionally important topics such as love, family, entertainment, etc., for which he shows disinterest.
Dedicate time and effort to work even on holidays, vacation periods or being sick.
Work tremendously long hours both alone and teleworking from home. This is due to the difficulty in setting limits on work.
Demonstrates anxious or depressive behaviors when it is impossible to work or in case of work absences, even if they are justified.
Is unable to refuse new job responsibilities regardless of the toll these new responsibilities have on your personal life.
Demonstrate eagerness for recognition in the professional field and difficulty receiving them in other areas.
Demonstrate feelings of superiority over others including co-workers, and often also arrogant or authoritarian attitudes towards them.

How do you know if someone is workaholic?

a person workaholic It is different from a hardworking and committed person, and this is a difference that everyone can notice except, precisely, a workaholic. There are degrees of work addiction, and this is generally reflected in fundamental aspects: personal life, pleasures and hobbies, and the emotional way of living and understanding the successes and failures of work.

A workaholic makes work his entire life, just as an addict does with the substance he consumes. Therefore, as a self-assessment in this regard, we can ask ourselves the following questions:

Do we invest the time it deserves in work or do we let it invade all the spaces of our existence?
How often do we sacrifice central and vital issues in our lives for work? What do we feel when we do it? Do we recognize it as a sacrifice?
How many meaningful social relationships do we have outside of work? How much of our lives do we find interesting, exciting or relevant outside of work?
What would the loss of our job mean for us, beyond the socioeconomic aspect?

Causes of work addiction

A workaholic is a person who works even when outside of work, that is, who has problems setting limits on his or her work life. This may be due to different factors.

Many workaholic people have learned to value their work above everything else in their lives. This It can happen due to personal situations of lack of financial resources in the past For example. In that sense, overwork is due to an anxiety strongly installed in the individual.

This anguish can also reveal other underlying factors, which are not necessarily related to intense or traumatic experiences linked to work. For example, many workaholics suffer from low self-esteem and a feeling of worthlessness that convinces them to have to dedicate 100% of their lives to work, otherwise they run the constant risk of being fired.

Other possibilities have to do with the extra-work world of the person with work addiction: It is common for a workaholic to take refuge in the office so as not to have to face personal issues or daily events that are heartbreaking for him, and that constitute for him great life failures: the inability to find love or friendship, the absence of a family, among others.

These people, therefore, take refuge in work and end up fulfilling their own prophecy, since by dedicating everything to work it is difficult to meet new people, visit family, and even address emotional aspects in psychotherapy.

Forms of treatment

To combat work addiction, it is best to go to a specialist: a psychotherapist or psychologist who can unravel the causes of addiction and treat it. The patient's effort is necessary, as with other types of addictions, and the process can often be facilitated with the use of medical or alternative therapies, at the discretion of the specialist.