Key Points

• Workaholism is an addiction, with significant health consequences.
• There are questionnaires a person can complete to know if they are a workaholic.
• There are multiple options for preventing and treating workaholism, including using mindful awareness, planning discrete times for recreation, learning about others’ work patterns, asking loved ones for opinions, joining a 12-step program, learning to trust others and delegate at work, and/or entering a treatment program.
• With the advent of technology that allows work to follow us everywhere, the focus has moved from trying to balance work and the rest of the life to recognition that work actually might be better thought of as ‘blended’ or ‘integrated’ with all the other aspects of our lives.

Work is one aspect of health, often classed as part of our Surroundings on the Circle of Health. In addition to asking about the safety of the work environment, it is also worth asking, “How much work is too much?”

Being a hard worker is highly valued in modern society. “Work engagement” is considered by many to be a positive behavior. It is defined as extensive involvement in work, and this is usually equated with a work week that is 50 hours or longer.¹ Work engagement is related not only to excellent job performance but also to positive emotional states and a sense of empowerment. It has also been linked to better health.² Finding a balance when it comes to work-life blend is essential.

What is Workaholism?

There is a fine line between work engagement and its dark side, workaholism, which is associated with harm to oneself or others that arises through work behaviors.³ Oates first coined the term “workaholism” in 1971, defining it as “the compulsion or the uncontrollable need to work incessantly.”⁴ This captures two elements that are used in most definitions: 1) work is excessive, and 2) work is compulsive. Workaholics have a strong—even irresistible—inner drive and tend to “devote an exceptional amount of time to work and… work beyond what is reasonably expected to meet organizational or economic requirements.”⁵ They frequently think about work even when they are not working, and they often find it impossible to delegate work to others, usually because they do not trust others to work at the same “level” as they do. In short, workaholics behave as other people with addictions behave, and they often need help addressing their addictive behaviors.

In some North American studies, as high as one-third of the adult working population has self-identified as being workaholics, and most estimates place the prevalence of workaholism somewhere between 8-17.5%.¹ For attorneys, physicians and psychologists/therapists, studies reveal that the prevalence is as high as 23-25%.¹ Workaholism is more likely for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety