Workaholism At Work: Consequences And Prevention

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:05

Who among us, having worked in the company for more than one year, felt a different attitude to work - from the desire to bring a clamshell to the office to complete disgust for work? Or, for example, for a long time he worked with enthusiasm, doing more than he expected of himself, on the brink of the possible, and then suddenly everything fell off his hands, as if decimated by some disease? If these feelings are close to you, then such a concept as "workaholism" is familiar in practice.

For the first time the term workaholism appeared in 1971 thanks to the American psychologist W. Oatson, who defined this term as a passionate craving for work, a strong, uncontrollable need to work continuously. But it should be noted that the concept itself does not have an unambiguously negative or positive connotation. It all depends on a person's ability to manage his condition and on the company's attitude to such a phenomenon.

The causes of workaholism:

• Corporate culture. If an employee sees that colleagues and, especially, top officials of the company are working hard, he begins to follow the same role models. Workaholism is also promoted by internal competition, which is often present in business structures - performance assessment systems linked to significant bonuses, higher wages, recognition and approval of management for work above the norm and results above expected.
• Personal characteristics of a person. Workaholism is characterized by such character traits as compulsiveness (irresistible attraction to certain actions), perfectionism, organization, perseverance, the need for achievement, success, as well as hyperresponsibility, which entails the inability to delegate.
• Social expectations, culture, national characteristics. For example, in Japan and the Pacific and Asian countries, workaholism is part of a centuries-old history and is not only a common way of life, but even a must. In the culture of these countries, such traits as perseverance, perseverance, and hard work are cultivated.
• Addiction. Addiction Propensity - An insistent need to use habitual stimuli. Working for many hours in an intensive mode in the presence of some incentives for its implementation (deadline, expectation of punishment or encouragement from the leadership, an interesting task and a desire to see the result sooner, the possibility of receiving a bonus, etc.) contributes to the excessive release of adrenaline in the human body, which in turn contributes to the creation of such an emotional state as euphoria. Over time, a person develops a desire to constantly receive such an adrenaline charge.

From a psychological point of view, this model of behavior, despite the possible adverse consequences (fatigue, illness, family problems), has its benefits. For example, career advancement and a sense of self-fulfillment, importance, or the ability to avoid family problems and conflicts. In addition, workaholism gives you a chance not to notice or forget about some unpleasant moments in your personal life.

How it works? From heroism to burnout

Mobilization Stage (Heroic)

A person develops a state of rising vital energy and strength. He faces new interesting or not very interesting tasks, for the completion of which they promise good rewards. In addition, it can be the encouragement of colleagues, management, or vice versa - punishment up to and including dismissal. That is, a person has important stimuli, and hormones are released in his body. The body is so mobilized that it does not get sick and does not give in to other negative factors. An employee can perform many tasks without noticing fatigue. One is experiencing such a state as a period of the highest realization of one's potential.

At this stage, there can often be newcomers to the organization who have been promoted or promised a promotion for achieving results. It is also possible that the employee received an interesting task, but with a tough deadline.

For the sake of accomplishing this task, a person agrees to many obligations that exceed his physical and / or intellectual capabilities. And then he is ready to do everything possible and impossible - to save, if not the world and the company as a whole, then at least his division from violating the deadlines for filing management reports and fines.

This stage is pleasant. Agree, it is always nice to feel like a hero, especially if it is positively supported by the praise of significant people in the organization or money. By the way, it is money at this stage that does not always occupy the first place in the list of motives.

During this period, a particularly positive attitude towards people appears - clients for the employee are the best and most important, colleagues are competent and pleasant, and in general the people around are good.

But the human psyche and nervous system has a limited ultimate strength. In a stressful situation, the stage of mobilization of the body first occurs, then gradually demobilization - stress hormones are removed from the blood, lowering the tone. In the body, actions and thinking slow down, a feeling of fatigue appears.

During this period, the process of rest and rest is very important for a person. It is important to remember that the body needs much more time to demobilize. And everything would be fine if the employee had time to rest. Indeed, at the stage of mobilization, he showed himself from the best side, a superhuman, a top performer, and at the same time took on a large number of tasks and moral obligations. At the stage of mobilization, he has a distorted idea of himself and his capabilities, and the same distorted idea of him is formed in other people - management, colleagues, partners.

Then, when resources are exhausted, a person can no longer save not only the world, but even his own unit. Therefore, it seems to him that he is not only an antihero, but a loser, or an incompetent, lazy and worthless employee.

In a situation where a person takes on new obligations and tasks, he needs to clearly understand the boundaries of his capabilities. There must be the ability to humble ourselves, to be disappointed, to adequately assess and accept one's abilities and strengths.

If an employee does not feel his boundaries and does not adequately assess his capabilities, then every time after the stage of mobilization he will feel like an incapable loser.

Aging stage (sthenic)

A person enters this stage if (as described above) he does not adequately assess his boundaries and is not able to find enough time for demobilization. It is difficult for him to fulfill the assigned tasks, but he still copes, although disappointment, fatigue are already accumulating in the body, and a lack of strength is felt. The employee begins to wait for the end of the working day, the weekend, in working order he is supported only by the thought that soon the weekend and it will be possible, if not quite rest, then at least work from home without getting out of bed. Thus, there is a desire not to make unnecessary gestures. But the body starts to make mistakes on the little things. During this period, illnesses or colds return.

But at the same time, fatigue is still reversible: after the weekend and sleep, the body recovers. But there is no previous enthusiasm: the attitude towards customers and employees changes from interested to indifferent.

You can stay at this stage for a very long time. Disease or success, great gratitude, can "knock out" of her. If the reason was success, then the body is restored and returns to the first stage, if not, then it goes to the third stage.

Asthenic stage

At this stage, the employee has no strength at all, there is apathy for work, despair, emotional emptiness and irritable weakness. In the body, the rest regime is disturbed: in the morning you feel as bad as possible, in the daytime you may have a mood and a desire to work, and in the evening there is excitement and insomnia. Numbers, graphs, tables are spinning in a person's head … He remembers what he has to do and what he has forgotten, in his mind he tries to finish some business. At this stage, stimulation is actively used - in the morning there is a lot of coffee, and in the evening - alcohol or sleeping pills.

During this period, a situation of chronic distress occurs - excessive stress due to prolonged stress, which reduces the body's ability to adequately respond to the demands of the external environment. Efficiency is greatly reduced, attention and memory deteriorate, and serious errors appear in work. The employee no longer just does not like clients, colleagues and other people, but cannot see them, which affects relations with colleagues. Over time, complaints from customers and partners may appear.

At this stage, the employee feels like a nonentity: "I am not good for anything", "I will not succeed and it makes no sense to even try." Naturally, such thinking cannot but affect its effectiveness.

In this case, there are only two ways - rest or serious and long-term illness. Indeed, in the case of ignoring poor health during the third stage, a person's psychosomatic diseases become aggravated - sometimes the body makes a decision for the owner and “breaks its own leg”. All diseases return.

If the company actively encourages workaholism, then you need to be prepared for an increase in the number of sick leaves.

I think many HR-s are aware of examples of companies where, after a change in leadership and a change in corporate culture to especially encouraging workaholism, or simply after a long work in an intensive mode, the number of sick leave during the period grows significantly.

It is better not to stay at this stage for a long time. Since a person does not have the strength to change something, although he understands that something needs to be changed. Therefore, outside support is especially important. It can be a good psychotherapist, quality and long rest, support of loved ones - important ways to recover at this stage.

Deformation stage

“If you go to the bottom and stick to the bottom, lie down for a year, lie down for two, and then you will get used to it,” - this is how a person's condition will be characterized, if we ignore the previous third stage. In the body, the emotional part is archived, and the controlling subpersonality remains. This is a kind of human robot, a working mechanism without feelings. An employee looks at clients and colleagues as a unit, as an object, without seeing a person: he performs functions, but there is no personal interaction.

Everyone has met such people, especially in the service sector: a cashier or a salesman who looks at a person as part of the interior. It can also be a doctor who mechanically writes out a list of standard procedures and medications, without thinking about whether a particular person really needs such treatment.

It is worth noting that with complete indifference to work and life, a person can physically feel normal. After all, he no longer takes the initiative, because he is finally convinced that all clients, colleagues are stupid and ungrateful, they themselves do not know what they want.

There is almost no exit from this stage, since the employee does not believe that he has problems.

What to do to avoid getting into this stage?

An important aspect of burnout prevention is motivation and awareness.

Ask yourself two questions periodically:

1. Where do I give myself? Why am I doing this? What's the point of this? Is it a value to me?

2. Do I love doing this? Does what I do bring me joy?

It is clear that not always and everything brings us joy in work, but the feeling of joy and satisfaction should prevail.

An adult understands that there are both victories and disappointments, there are those tasks with which he can cope and those with which he cannot. But it is important that a person raises his level of heroism to a reasonable degree and is able to manage his emotional and physical state - he listens to his well-being in time and balances between good work and good rest, work that brings joy and satisfaction and work that is less enjoyable. but it needs to be done.

Vacation can be a preventive measure. It is not in vain that in due time its number was calculated for 24 days and an integral part of at least 14 days. This is necessary for recovery.

In addition, it helps to restore communication with loved ones, provided that they also do not expect much from you, but can, on the contrary, provide carefree for some period. Understanding and support from colleagues, coaching, a psychotherapist, a good massage therapist - to be able to be in a client's role, to receive quality support from others is important for the psychological state. You need to be able to take care of yourself.

Companies can also help manage stress or, conversely, be a source of it. If an organization makes too great demands on its employees, if it has an unhealthy atmosphere - too high a level of internal competition, constantly irregular working hours, then the level of employee stress, feelings of fear, guilt and burnout increase.

In companies where leaders treat employees environmentally, they perceive people not just as a resource, but really as a value, consciously approach the adequacy of workloads and corporate culture, forming trust, mutual respect in the team - efficiency is often not less, and even higher in the long term. …

In fairness, it is worth noting the positive aspects of such a phenomenon as workaholism - if it were not for people and companies that are very committed to work, ready to work in excess of the norm, show perseverance, perseverance, hard work, it is unlikely that society now had so many discoveries in science, technology, would have so many masterpieces of art and it was so progressive. But it would also hardly have had so many inventions in the field of medicine and pharmacology, including antidepressants.