Do we live to work or work to live?
M.S.RAO
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“Workaholism is a soul destroying addiction that changes people’s personalities and the values they live by”
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With the snowballing global recession, employees across organisations the world over are under pressure to work hard and are forced to become workaholics. There is already work pressure at the corporate world due to fierce competition.
With the American economy showing signs of recession, employees are made to work long hours. It is reported that the average work hours per person in America shows an increase of 36 hours a week of work. Due to the apprehension of loss of jobs, they are under pressure to work extra hours.
Workaholism can be defined as excessive obsession to work at the cost of personal and social life. In the words of Spence and Robbins: “Workaholic is a person who exhibits three properties: high work involvement, feeling driven to work because of inner pressures, low in enjoyment of work.” It is the habit of employees to work more than the prescribed hours as they derive joy out of it. It is a type of psychological state where the end result is either positive or negative, and predominantly negative.
Competitive challenge
For instance, it could be beneficial to the organisations and problematic to the employees. If workaholism is thrust upon employees it has adverse effects on them and the employers in the long run. It looks that the employee puts in extra efforts by working long hours but when we look at effectiveness, it has no qualitative results. It is more prevalent in the private sector than in the public sector. There are six types of workaholics: work enthusiasts, work addicts, enthusiastic addicts, unengaged workers, relaxed workers and disenchanted workers.
The rapid growth of technology has thrown up many challenges. It has given rise to the opening up of the information mine, thereby minimising the secrecy as it used to prevail much before the internet technology. Everything is made public. And there is constant innovation to stay competitive at the corporate world. Failure to do so results in companies getting obsolete over a period of time. And the impact is felt on the employees who ultimately have to perform or perish. Employees begin putting in extra hours of work. The companies too treat workaholics as their assets. At times, the employees like to set an example for others and boost their personal superego as well.
Adverse effects
The positive side of workaholism helps in quick career growth as it offers recognition, apart from providing better pay and perks. Usually, the goals drive the employees towards becoming work addicts. It leads to professional success but adversely affects their personal and social life. Task-oriented leaders fall in this category.
When viewed from the other perspective, workaholism leads to psychological problems and insomnia. Employees keep continuously thinking in terms of their work and finally end up losing sleep. It also gives rise to cardiac arrest, stress, depression, fatigue, etc., and adversely affects the immune system.
The employees must be able to strike the right balance among their personal, professional and social life. There is a strong need to take time off their routine work. They should plan for vacations or tours to relieve stress. At the workplace too, the employees should take regular breaks after lunch, do light physical exercises and talk to their colleagues. At home, it is necessary to do yoga or meditation or physical exercises to ease their stress levels so that they can go for work with energy and enthusiasm. Being assertive at the workplace and taking feedback helps in solving problems.
It is important to note that we should strive for excellence, not perfection. Besides setting priorities properly and managing time effectively, the work load should be so planned that there is time for personal, creative or social activities as well.
Globally, workaholism has become a challenging issue. It is high time organisations woke up to take serious note of this issue.
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