WORK ADDICTION: SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT - JOB - 2024

The addiction to work is characteristic of people that give excessive importance to their professional life and can get a lot worse quality of life. If you feel like you spend 24 hours a day thinking about work, dedicate your weekends and free time to completing pending tasks and do not disconnect or dedicate time to yourself, you may be addicted to work.

Most things tend to work or provide better results if they are carried out in the right measure: sports, sleeping hours, leisure time… are activities that, whether you fall short or if they are done in excess, They can bring you less benefit than if you dedicate the right time to them, no more, no less.

Work, like the previous examples, is one of those activities in which you must take care of the time it is taking you. If you do not work as much as your position requires, it is possible that you will not obtain the results that you propose or the objectives set by your company.

In the same way, overworking can cause your performance to be less than optimal and that, therefore, during all the additional time that you are working more, your results are not being of the expected quality. To perform at your best as a worker, it is essential to know how to manage your dedication in its proper measure.

For this reason, people addicted to work can obtain worse results in their day to day work, despite spending much more time on this activity than other workers.

Below you can see how to detect a possible work addiction through 5 behaviors of the same, and you will be proposed 5 tips to reduce it.

4 signs of work addiction

You arrive first at your workplace

The first in this series of signs that you might be a workaholic begins to be reflected in your behavior from the first hour of each day.

You wake up before the alarm goes off. You even voluntarily make the alarm sound exaggeratedly earlier than necessary, to review the organization of your workday and arrive before work time. You like to be in your position and with everything ready to start before the right time for it.

This attitude may be typical of a person who is very foresighted and punctual, or who simply wants to avoid rush hour traffic caravans. However, the abusive repetition of this behavior, together with a combination of those that we will see below, can be an indicator of a work addiction.

Most days you stay ahead of work a little longer after your workday

Your set departure time is 7pm, but rarely do you leave before 8.30am… if this situation sounds familiar you may be a workaholic.

It is normal that specific days you stay to review a particular question or to advance a job that you estimate will cost you to deliver on time. However, if you have made it a habit to leave work more than an hour late, perhaps you should reflect on it and assess whether you are a workaholic.

As mentioned above, the work, like almost everything, has to be carried out in its proper measure. Working excessively, and more if it is after hours, can influence the final quality of the work done.

Before you stay working after the end of your workday, assess whether the results that you are going to obtain at that time could be increased if you left the task for the next day, after having slept and rested.

On weekends you usually work from home

This excessive behavior can have a negative impact on the quality of the results you obtain. This is because the extra time you spend working is time you are subtracting from disconnecting, resting and, ultimately, taking care of yourself to maintain the best conditions to perform well.

The weekend and the other moments outside of your working day are organized in this way so that you can regain enough energy to carry out your work, obtaining the best possible results and so that you feel in the best conditions, both physically and mentally..

In your free time you always carry your work smartphone with you

Today there are many technological means that help us and that make us carry out many of our day-to-day tasks in a more comfortable, more agile way and with less effort.

These technologies have reached the workplace in the form of smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc., which in many aspects facilitate the development of work and, in many other cases, keep you chained to it.

It can be very positive to be available at certain crucial moments or during a specific project. Sometimes work is greatly expedited, being able to access a specific email at any time and from anywhere in the world where you are.

However, whether these means help you or chain you to your work depends on how you use them yourself, and what limits you take in this regard.

Your colleagues, family or friends warn you

On many occasions, you yourself are not aware of the image you are projecting abroad. As with all addictions, it is possible that you, being completely dedicated to the cause of your addictive behavior, do not have enough attention to realize what is really happening to you.

If you are a workaholic, it is very likely that you spend hours and hours working , and during these periods of time you are so involved with the task that you do not notice important things.

For example, that you are tired and you are not able to work anymore, you have forgotten an important appointment or family or friend gathering, you are hungry or sleepy, or that you are even overlooking fundamental aspects of your task or making important mistakes! !

In short, when work involves an addictive behavior for you, you are not aware of the circumstances around you, or of what happens to yourself, and all this is influencing your results and your well-being, both work and personal.

For this reason, it is important to pay attention to your surroundings and listen to the people around you. On many occasions, it is your co-workers or loved ones who realize your situation beforehand and try to alert you to it.

How to overcome work addiction?

If you have felt identified with the 5 previous data or have identified some signs, not necessarily all, that indicate that you may be addicted to work, and you want to keep this behavior under control, here are 5 ways to achieve it:

Make a schedule for work

Remember the aforementioned: more work time does not mean better results.

After certain hours of constant work, which tend to depend on each person, a professional is no longer able to perform optimally. You will be getting worse quality in the work done during that extra time invested and, probably, making mistakes that you would not make at another time.

It is normal that on a specific day, or in a certain project, you need to invest more time than usual. The important thing is that you don't make it a habit. Set a time for the start and end of your working day, with the corresponding breaks whenever you consider it necessary. In this way, your conditions will be optimal to take advantage of your work day.

Take up your free time with other activities

You will probably resort to working on your break time if during your free time you have not organized any activities to dedicate time to, simply to avoid being with nothing to do. As has already been explained in previous sections, this behavior can lead to worse quality work results.

In order not to resort to work in your free time, occupy it with other activities that are of interest to you and that you cannot afford to do during work days. For example, go to the mountains or the beach, join a team of a sport that you like, learn to play an instrument whose sound you like…

In addition, physical activity or sport will encourage your body and mind to be prepared to perform at their best in the moments that you do dedicate to work.

Turn off your work tools outside of your working hours

The purpose of these types of tools is to help you and speed up your work, not to chain yourself to it. Unless you are waiting, or for some reason you are likely to receive an urgent call or email, get in the habit of keeping these tools off or at least out of your reach (pockets, bedside table…), during your time free.

Reserve time for yourself and to rest

If you value your work, you want to be in the best conditions to carry it out. For this, both your body and your mind have to be fit and rested.

Don't let your work make you forget about yourself, who, after all, is the one doing it. Activities such as going for a run, meditating or spending time with your thoughts, listening to music, drawing or painting, enjoying a nap or going to the gym, will help your body and mind to be in shape in order to perform in the work of the best possible way.

Enjoy your family and close people

If you have lived through a stage of work addiction, you will have realized that there are people around you who demand you, need your company and miss you.

It is precisely these that you should enjoy the most in your free time. They could be your friends, who have organized several plans lately that you have not attended; family, who despite being close , have not enjoyed your company for a long time; your children, who miss playing with you; or even your own co-workers with whom you are friends, who want you to have a coffee together that you don't usually attend.

Spend time with them and enjoy their company and being with them, since the job is somewhat out of date and may be temporary, but they will remain by your side for life.