7 Signs you’re a Workaholic…
Thursday, January 25, 2024.
Workaholism is an enduring trope in American culture. It’s very much a living, breathing issue in modern organizations. The problem with workaholism is found in it’s well-established implications for individual, as well as family health and well-being.
Here’s what’s odd. The emotional, lived experience of Workaholics in their work environments, as well as their emotional reactivity to job stressors have been poorly investigated by social science researchers.
There have only been a handful of studies based on retrospective reports obtained outside the working time.
These researchers conducted a sampling study of lived experience in order to better understand and describe a Workaholics’ emotional experience during their work day, as well as their emotional reactivity to workday stress spillover, and situational overwhelm.
Contrary to popular belief, Workaholics aren't really happier at work…
Breaking research from last year reveals that self-identified Workaholics are in a worse mood than other humans, even when they are working, a study finds.
While Workaholics often declare that they are happiest while working -- and that is what drives them toward being a Workaholic, but the research evidence contradicts this.
In fact, as well as being in a worse mood, on average, Workaholics also tend to experience more emotional flatness than those with a healthier work-life balance. I feel this is a vital clue to what researchers might be missing.
Are you, or your partner, addicted to work?
It well established in social science research that Workaholics have previously been found to have low overall mental well-being as well as experiencing anxiety, hostility and guilt when they cannot work as much as they want.
However, working excessively and obsessively damages couple and family relationships, and physical as well as mental health.
It did not surprize me that Workaholism is particularly damaging to women. I’ve written about Supermoms in an earlier post.
It made sense to me that the researchers reported that when Women become addicted to work, they were more likely to be in a worse mood than Workaholic men.
This may be because of the extra pressures placed on women by society: in other words, it is easier to be a Workaholic man than a Workaholic woman. During COVID we discovered that most American women had a breaking point at work.
Dr. Cristian Balducci, study co-author, said:
"The negative mood observed in Workaholics may indicate elevated daily stress levels and that could be the cause of the higher risk for these individuals to develop burnout and cardiovascular problems.
Furthermore, considering that Workaholics often hold positions of responsibility, their negative mood could readily influence that of colleagues and co-workers.
This poses a risk that organizations should seriously consider, intervening to discourage behaviors that contribute to Workaholism."
How the study was conducted
The study asked 139 full-time workers how they were feeling throughout the working day.
A total of 139 full-time back-office workers participated in a 3-day protocol by reporting on their hedonic tone ( Hedonic tone is the trait underlying a human’s capacity to feel pleasure.) and their situational workload stress up to as much as 6X per workday.
Multilevel modeling was used to uncover the relationship between Workaholism and job-related hedonic tone, as well as the cross-level interactions between Workaholism and both workday accumulation, and situational momentary workload.
Dr. Balducci discussed the findings:
"The collected data show that most Workaholic workers have, on average, a worse mood than the others.
So, it does not appear to be true that people who are addicted to work derive more pleasure from their work activity; quite the opposite, the results seem to confirm that, as in other forms of behavioral and substance addiction, the initial euphoria gives way to a negative emotional state that pervades the person even while at work."
The results also revealed that Workaholics experience emotional flatness…
This is well-known in other types of addiction. People who are addicted to drugs, for example, sometimes use them to block out painful emotions.
But even when not using drugs, suppressing emotions can seem like a good way to endure difficult emotions.
But wait a minute. Workaholism is a common behavior among the neurodivergent. Some workers might not be suppressing emotions at all. They may become Workaholics in order to sustain an elongated flow state.
Similarly, for the Workaholic, the researchers conclude that work is used to block out painful thoughts and feelings.
Or is this a plausible, but otherwise bullsh*t story to explain their findings?
Dr. Luca Menghini, the study's first author, explained:
"This element could stem from the Workaholic's inability to moderate work investment, resulting in a significant decrease in disconnection and recovery experiences, and the parallel consolidation of a negative affective tone."
Organizations should find ways to fight Workaholism in their staff, Dr. Balducci said:
"Organizations must send clear signals to workers on this issue and avoid encouraging a climate where working outside working hours and at weekends is considered the norm.
On the contrary, it is necessary to foster an environment that discourages excessive and dysfunctional investment in work, promoting disconnection policies, specific training activities and counseling interventions."
A different take on the Emotional Flatness…
Like most studies nowadays, the researchers did not proceed from a curiosity for potentially different neurotypes.
I’m confident that for at least some of the study subjects, their flatness is not suppressed emotions, but rather a presentation of Alexithymia within a monotropic flow state.
What are the 7 signs of Workaholism?
You give first dibs on your free time for more work.
You spend much more time working than initially intended.
While working, you hope to reduce your feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness, sadness, or depression.
You have been told by others to curb your time at work, but you’re not listening.
You’re visibly stressed when a circumstance prevents you from working.
You avoid leisure activities, and/or your self care because of your work.
You work so damn much, that it has negatively influenced your health.
What did they find?
As expected, the findings showed lower job-related hedonic tone for Workaholics, with Workaholism interacting with the two researched job stressors. In other words, perhaps some of us are working more, but enjoying it less?
However, contrary to their expectations, they found that Workaholism weakened, rather than strengthening, the negative trend of hedonic tone, a result possibly explained by a blunted reactivity condition due to chronic job strain.
Or you have neurodivergent study subjects, perhaps?
Moreover, they corroborated earlier studies which suggested worse outcomes in Workaholic women compared to workaholic men.
The researchers suggested that HR departments should lean in more in order to better monitor and manage the Workaholism levels in their workforce, and intentionally foster a workplace culture that discourages Workaholic traits.
But they’ll best do so this by being curious about variations within their identified Workaholic cohort
My suspicion is that while ostensible Workaholism is an issue, it might serve different purposes for different neurotypes. It’s likely that this distinction is subsumed into the neurotypical assumptions of what the researchers expected to find.
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Menghini, L., Spagnoli, P., & Balducci, C. (2023). Uncovering the main and interacting impact of workaholism on momentary hedonic tone at work: An experience sampling approach. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 28(6), 380–394. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000365
