Are You A Workaholic?

Take care.

- Santosh Pattanaik

It was more than a century back that William Henry Davis (1871-1940) aptly wrote : “What is this life so full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?” For thousands of years, the distinction between time dedicated to labour and the one spent in pursuit of one’s interests was so clear, that its gradual decadence has become one of the most important and profound social changes in human history. The pace of life today has quickened. There is tremendous pressure to work longer hours, to produce more, to make more money, to become a dazzling success. More and more of us are spending our time at work, and are becoming more obsessed by meeting targets and pressures in meeting deadlines. Most of us seem to be chained to our computers, typing frantically and often complaining that our keyboards don’t keep pace with our thoughts. We skip our lunch, rush through dinner, and cheat ourselves of hours of sleep.

Our vocational achievements are so strongly tied up with our self-image that we strive to enhance our self-worth by working longer hours and completing more projects. We firmly believe that it has to taste bad to be effective, and we feel that work has to feel like work or it really is not work. If it feels good it must be play, or something worse. Many managers, particularly overstressed managers, believe that the present world of business is no place for play, fun, happiness, creativity, or laughter. As a result, we seldom find time to reflect, to involve ourselves in honest self-exploration, to search our souls, to face our shortcomings, and to correct our errors. The phenomenon is so widespread and its social consequences so devastating that it has acquired the licentious nickname “workaholism” - a combination of the words “work” and “alcoholism”.