What is it to be a Workaholic? The 11 Signs of Work Addiction

We consider a person to be a Workaholic when he has a workaholic. His life revolves around the workplace and any other area is neglected, downplaying them. Currently, great relevance is given to work or job success, thus favoring that subjects who show addiction to work develop this characteristic and it is more difficult to assess this behavior as harmful to the individual, especially at the beginning.

But it has been observed that, as with any addiction, it ends up producing a lack of functionality and having a negative impact on the subject's life. Thus, they will be people who dedicate a large part of their time to work, never have enough, refuse to delegate tasks and believe that their work performance is much better than that of their colleagues.

We also observe difficulty in maintaining social relationships since they do not devote enough attention to them. In this article we will talk about workaholism, how this alteration is defined and what signs indicate the possible presence of this pathology.

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What do we understand by Workaholic?

Workaholic is the English term used to refer to people who show addiction to work. We see how the lives of these individuals revolve around work, leaving aside and downplaying other areas of their lives. such as social, family or even personal, since their own health can be affected. The dedication to work is such that they are unconcerned about everything not related to this area, including their own well-being.

Workaholism does not appear as a specific disorder in the Diagnostic Manuals, but it has been observed relationship with other psychological affectations such as stress, anxiety or symptomatology obsessive. In this way, this behavior goes beyond a dedication to work, but we perceive a dysfunction in other areas and an impact on both the physical and psychological health of the subject.

How to detect workaholism?

Now that we know the definition of the Workaholic concept, it will be easier to understand what symptoms or signs are indicators of the possible presence of workaholic. Although the impact on the life of the individual, as we have said, ends up being intense, the subject himself may not be aware of it, since the increase in addiction is usually progressive. Likewise, their environment may value their dedication to work as positive, since excellence and full dedication to work are currently sought.

The traits that can mark us as suspicious of workaholism can be divided into three areas: cognitive, characterized by showing symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, they think and present a continuous concern for the worked; physiological, we observe activation of the nervous system, symptoms of stress such as acceleration of the pulsations, increased rate of breathing, increased blood pressure, which carry an increased risk of developing a pathology vascular; and behavioral, constant need to work, to have everything under control, full dedication to work that affects the maintenance of social relationships.

Below we will mention some indicators that can be useful to detect the presence of work addiction and thus be able to act as soon as possible.

1. is always connected

It is always available or connected when it comes to work, his full dedication to work contrasts with his lack of dedication to other areas. He makes sure to always have connection or coverage so that at any time they want to get in touch or he wants to do so, they can do so, as long as it is for work issues. They are people who respond quickly to emails and who always take calls, at any time of the day, without schedules.

2. They do not follow a work schedule

We could consider that they do not follow a work schedule or that their work schedule is 24 hours a day, since their dedication is complete and continuous. This lack of schedules is increased if you telecommute, work from home, since it is more difficult to follow a specific work schedule. Also, even if your job has a set schedule, you will find a way to stay busy, either by sending emails or planning and getting work done.

3. never rest

People with workaholism are unhappy with vacations or weekends, since they refer that they do not need to rest. They will look for any task to be entertained and busy with work, they will never have enough. They negatively value vacations and if it were up to them they would not do them.

4. They don't like to delegate their work

Another characteristic behavior is the non-delegation of work to other employees. Despite being overwhelmed with work and not having time, they will prefer and choose to do all the tasks themselves, since they will not trust others to do it well or at least the same as them. They will do everything even if they don't have time left, we see how this behavior is linked to the complete dedication to work, lack of schedules and no rest, since when wanting to get to everything it is usual for them to work more hours than they established.

5. exhibit self-centered behavior

We observe an egocentric behavior linked to the greater importance given to their work than to any other field. Thus we understand that your well-being is related to full dedication to work for this reason we will refer that he shows a selfish behavior, since nothing will be more relevant than his work and dedicate time to him. As we have already pointed out, they will neglect other areas of their lives and they will undervalue the work of others, giving them less relevance.

6. He is the first to arrive at work and the last to leave.

Linked to complete dedication to work, it is common for subjects with workaholism to be the first to arrive at the job site, even having to wait for them to open or entering the case they have keys. Similarly, they will be the last to leave, they will leave their work site when there is no one else left and they have no choice but to leave because it is closing time. They have the feeling that working hours are short, that time at work passes very quickly.

7. They are perfectionist with work

Other behavior that we can also observe is a high perfectionism linked to work. They will do whatever it takes to make everything go well, always looking for perfection, behavior that can harm them, since their high level of demand and the difficulty for everything goes well, they can generate frustration and discomfort in the subject when they see that reaching perfection is not possible.

8. They are valued as a fundamental piece in their work

They value themselves as essential at work, they believe that their dedication is adequate and that all employees should show. In this way, since their level is difficult to match, they often conceive their peers as inferior, linking any failure in the task or in the work project to the lack of dedication or capacity of the the rest.

In this way, we observe an internal arrangement of successes and an external arrangement of failures. They interpret that work achievements are possible thanks to them, instead any failure is due to the bad or insufficient performance of others.

9. They don't know how to say no

Workaholic individuals don't know or don't want to say no on work-related issues. They consider it unthinkable to say no to their boss, showing the same opinion in case they are the bosses, they value negatively that an employee of theirs tells them no. Nor will they ever report not knowing how to do something, they will do everything possible to find out and do it, even if this takes them much more work.

We see how the expression of not being able, not having time, not knowing how to do it, is not in his vocabulary. When it comes to work, they are always willing and will always express and expect a yes.

10. They do not have a good relationship with their peers

The relationship with their peers is non-existent or can even become bad or tense, since, as we have been saying, the low consideration they have of their colleagues' work, valuing that this is insufficient or not as good as theirs, is linked to a lack of interest in relating to they.

In addition, may lead them to express their negative opinion to their superiors, that is, telling their bosses that the problems or failures are caused by their colleagues, thus having repercussions on the relationship. The attitude of the subjects with workaholism will also not help their colleagues to like them, who were also distant, even avoiding talking or sharing tasks with them.

11. careless social relationships

As expected, any area other than work will be neglected, since nothing will be as important to them as work. It is common for them to lose friendships, since they are never available, they never have time for their friends and they will not join any plan, distancing themselves and breaking up the relationship.

Similar will happen with relatives, they will not attend celebrations or important meetings, always maintaining a distant relationship. For this reason, they will also show difficulties in maintaining relationships, since the work will always go ahead of any person or relationship.