The Workers
The term was coined by a professor of religion in the United States. He called “workaholism” that condition in which a person spends more time than is due to work, to the point that it can be considered a hobby. Twelve or more hours a day depending on work and restlessness or despair at moments of rest.
Work addiction is a growing phenomenon in modern societies. For many, free time has become a real threat. What is behind this compulsive need that leads us to dedicate most of our lives to work, neglecting other personal dimensions?
Traits of the Worker
The workaholic is usually a rigid person, who experiences strong inner tension. He always has the feeling that there is something more to do and he hates to put off what is pending. That is why he prefers to spend a couple of hours more to finish a task, than to let it soak for the next day.
The worker also thinks that if work is not hard, it is not work. He enjoys feeling that he leaves the sweat in each activity and although he may feel gratified with his work, he does not understand that it can also be relaxed and fun.
Be suspicious of others. You are terrified of having to delegate some task to others. He thinks that nobody will be able to do it as well as him. If you are forced to entrust others with a task, you will constantly watch how they do it and will not bear feeling that you lose some control.
Workaholics are also people with a poor level of communication with others. In general, they don’t have much of a social life. They see the presence of others as a certain intrusion. Do not interrupt them: they may stop treating you. Talking to others is a waste of the valuable time they have to dedicate to their work.
Not that they are very fond of money. They would be able to work for free, as long as they were busy. His is not a matter of greed, or even ambition. Rather, it is a feeling of responsibility that defies common sense.
What the Worker Avoids
Deep down, workaholics, like so many other addicts, primarily seek to avoid unresolved issues in their lives. It is the manifestation of an obsessive character, which finds an escape object in work.
Nor does the worker admit that his is a problem. He excuses himself by saying that he is simply a very responsible person. He praises his dedication and thinks that those who do not act like him do it out of laziness, peel and lironda. He defends his way of behaving as if it were a virtue and believes that if he is criticized, it is because others are lazy.
This type of behavior is very common in people who have an unrewarding personal life. Either because they fail to build solid bonds of affection, or because they do not have tools to sort out and resolve interpersonal conflicts. That is why they make work their trench, their glass bubble.
The approach to treating this problem is the same as that used to solve any addiction. The limits of reasonableness have been broken, due to an uncontrollable internal impulse that leads over and over to the same behavior. So a professional and even pharmacological intervention will be necessary in the most serious cases.
Image courtesy of Andrés Nieto Porras.
