Workaholics United: Are You One Of Us?
I have recently read an article from Forbes.com that talked about signs that one may be a workaholic and I would like to share the points I've found according to the research of Psychologists. These may seem to be a short list to accurately estimate one's passion for work, but I figured it won't hurt to find out.
The Work Addiction Scale
It is called Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS)
Norwegian researchers from the Department of Psychosocial Science at the University of Bergen, began studying the behaviors of the modern working people and they have eventually set out a scale (or more like a checklist) on which one may be able to assess how workaholic an individual is. The work addiction scale depicts the following seven criteria that are actually essential in considering a person to be workaholic and may be in possession of what they call work addiction. I tried to assess myself and my responses to the following points are italicized.
1. You think of how you can free up more time to work.
- I don't just think. I put it into writing. I end up doing an Excel of it even. I have timetables depicting what should be done at 30-minute intervals. No I am not mental, and no, I clearly do not have an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I just needed a concrete assurance that what I'm attempting to do is realistic. Nothing wrong with that right?
2. You spend much more time working than initially intended.
- May it be related to the current job I am in, or just plain sidelines - I think about how to maximize free time and incredibly turn it into working time. Who works during lunchbreaks anyway instead of basically eating lunch? Well, for the record, I do.
3. You work in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness and/or depression.
- To reduce the feeling of guilt: Guilty of not working as hard as I should have. You know it when you think you could have done a lot better than the outcome. No one wants something substandard, so it feels really depressing to know that you have somehow let your boss down.
- To reduce the feeling of anxiety: I get anxiety attacks every time I have to miss a day at work when I know I have tons of work to finish. These may be due to my poor health condition, or emergencies that would make me miss work. I will then be fussing too much about the things that will be carried on the next day which will then make me end up working double time to make up for the loss. My thinking would be this:
- There will be twice as much emails to receive and read.
- There will be twice as much orders to attend to.
- There will be twice as everything else in between.
4. You have been told by others to cut down on work without listening to them.
- Yes. I have been told - once, twice, a lot actually. I can't be blamed though. If I don't finish the job now, then when? I hate cramming. Whoever says they love cramming is just out of their heads. Besides, there is this feeling you get when you are already so engrossed with what you are doing that you can't just be bothered as you may lose that momentum. A single distraction may result to a new World War. Anyone responsible for such disruption of work will be slain. And do not ever tell me that you have not been warned.
5. You become stressed if you are prohibited from working.
- Thank goodness! Finally a point where I could easily say I do not do. Nope, being prohibited from working does not stress me at all. Except for the fact that I get anxiety attacks when I feel ill and seems like I won't be able to go to work. Now that's when I get stressed out - but that does not give this point, a point. This is all that I have ever wanted to be asked to do. Freedom!
6. You deprioritize hobbies, leisure activities, and/or exercise because of your work.
- Every once in a while, yes I do. Or else, there must be some adjustments just to compromise the deal. There has got to be some other way that I may still be able to do enjoyable things that will not come in the way of my working schedule. Let me see. Aha! Deduct hours from sleeping time! Perfect!
7. You work so much that it has negatively influenced your health.
- Yes and no. What happens to me is basically the other way around. I have always been very sickly since I was a child, but never has it been a hindrance to my being a workaholic. So it is not because of overworking that makes me ill, hence the negative health status. But regardless of my poor well-being, I still work a lot. Having said such, I feel like a little rebel now actually. Bring on the workload!
Am I or Am I Not?
To summarize my assessment, 6 points affirmed out of the 7 makes me exactly 85.71428% workaholic based on the BWAS checklist. Sure there will always be pros and cons in regards to this matter and I could easily say one major setback of being too involved with work makes one person distant from the world surrounding him. I personally do not want to be like that so I believe proper time management will just have to do the trick. Find out how I try to standardize my 24 hours in this article.
- Impatience Is My Virtue - I Can't Just Be The Only One, Right?
My personal struggle of being intolerant to time wasting and procrastination. Because there's just no time to slack when there's so much to do with so little time.
Go on, assess yourself, too. Answer the poll and let's see how you fare with this checklist.
What is your score based on the 7 points of being a workaholic?
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© 2015 Glensie J D
