Workaholic: valuable personnel or danger to the firm?

First, let's look at the terms. Not every zealous employee will be a workaholic. If a person fulfills the duties assigned to him "from and to" qualitatively, but does not have to work overtime without extreme need, does not replace other spheres of life with work - he is simply a responsible officer.

Workaholics are psychologically dependent on work. Their diligence usually takeshypertrophied forms. For them, work is not a means of earning a living, not a favorite occupation, but the only available means of self-realization that replaces personal life, social activity, entertainment. They feel joy from life only by working.

Where do workaholics come from?

Workaholism is a dependence. Like any addiction, workaholism has its own reasons. Who usually becomes a workaholic?

More often workaholics are people who have problems in other spheres of life: problems in the family, there are no love relations, no friends. Man tries to make up for failures in one sphere of life by successes in another. This mechanism is called hypercompensation; along with displacement and sublimation, it is one of the mechanisms of psychological defense.

Another common type of workaholics is perfectionists. They want everything to be perfect, and follow the principle "If you want something to be done well, do it yourself". They are afraid to shift part of their dutieson the shoulders of subordinates and colleagues, because they will surely do something wrong! Such workaholics are demanding not only for others, but first of all for themselves.

The third type, very rare, is creating workaholics. Writers, artists, scientists, artists, doctors ... a list of such professions can be continued for a long time. These people give themselves to the cause of their lives 100%, and create really great things. Working with such people can be complicated and exhausting, but it is always unusually interesting: they have something to learn.

Also, workaholics often include people whodo not know how to plan their activities, and stay up late at work because of their own disorganization; people who are detained at work through the fault of their superiors or who work on a flexible schedule. True workaholics they call difficult: work for them is not the main thing, they would be glad to leave early and do more interesting things, but circumstances do not allow.

There are also imaginary workaholicswho want to curry favor with their superiors andcreate the appearance of a stormy activity. Often such people are not really able to perform their job qualitatively, but the lack of the need to accurately account for the results of work in combination with excessive zeal helps to create an image of workaholics.

What are the danger of workaholics?

First of all, workaholics are dangerous for themselves. Excessive enthusiasm for work leads to serious health problems. First of all, the work "non-stop" leads tochronic fatigue and stress, which in turn can cause mental and physical diseases. Abuse of fast food and other "snacks" (rarely who of the workaholics normally feeds) leads to problems with the stomach, and excessive use of stimulants (coffee, energy, nicotine) - to problems with the heart and blood vessels.

In work with a workaholic (if it's just not creating a workaholic) a pleasant little. Often the bosses put a workaholic as an example for the rest of the employee, and the bar he took becomes the norm for all. But it is very difficult to fulfill this norm - not everyone is so fixated at work and ready to work even in free time and weekends. And for 8 working hours this bar is not taken.

Much worse, if a workaholic - your boss. Prepare for overtime work, sitting inoffice until late and other "delights" of work under the command of a fanatical workaholic. It's good, if processing is compensated by compensatory holidays, bonuses and corporate permits to the south during the holiday. But often the chiefs of workaholics simply do not think about the fact that their subordinates need to rest - they do not rest themselves!

Workaholism is not an advantage. It is addiction. You can not compensate one sphere of life for another, yeseven at the expense of their own health, you can not take on all the possible work. Lift your head from the papers, tear yourself away from the monitor - there is so much more beautiful in life!