For the life of me I cannot recall
the last time I had caught a glimpse of the sunset, sat down for a proper
dinner, watched a full-length movie, or had a real conversation.
Mondays to Fridays have always been like a long-distance cross-country road trip, when the mind is focused only on one thing – the destination. Stopovers would only be for absolutely necessary reasons limited to sleeping, using the bathroom and getting a quick bite.
Throughout the journey, I would pay attention to nothing else except for the milestones. All I want is to cross the finish line as quickly as possible and grab yet another trophy.
The only motivation that has been keeping me going is, nothing is more important than making a better living for tomorrow. The lifespan of the average Joe would usually show an equal distribution of time for work, sleep and pleasure/leisure i.e. 8 hours per day for each of the three main “activities”.
In the case of a workaholic, work-life balance does not exist in his/her vocabulary at the “pre-better living” stage.
Hard work does pay off, as it demonstrates one’s commitment to the job. It is one of the key elements that would set one apart, as a high performing employee, from the average group considered as those merely meeting the minimum job expectations.
Additional income is expected, either from working overtime, salary increments and performance bonuses. But how and when can one really enjoy the hard-earned money, when all the waking hours are spent in the office, and the weekends are dedicated for “energy-recharging”? Workaholism may be good towards the corporate world, but is it good for us?
For some reason that we may not know, people tend to praise the idea of the workaholic. Some people share their stories about weekends spent in the office, or pulling all-nighters, as if all these were an achievement. Some organizations; whether big conglomerates or small companies, reward this kind of behavior.
Our culture also promotes hard work as a competency that would get us ahead. Statements and comments such as “You should work like Ben. He works 24/7, and he will one day get promoted as he is really dedicated to the job”.
In my personal opinion, working hard does not necessarily mean long hours. Spending more time at work may not mean getting more work done.
If we put in more effort and focus into something, chances are we are going to accomplish more than if we work at it in a half-hearted way. Knowingly that spending 2 hours on a report with effort and focus and spending 5 hours on the same report half-heartedly makes a big difference.
The outside world is a rat race and to be on top, we must always outshine the others. Workaholics may create a hype that leads to peer-to-peer competition. It sounds good as competition are good in terms of getting the best of the best outcome. However, working long hours brings workaholic into conflict with others like peers, family, partners and friends.
All these heated up competition that breed more and more workaholics; slowly turn workaholism into a “trend”. Now that it became a trend, is it a healthy or unhealthy trend? Could it also possibly be a death-threatening trend?
This desire for hero recognition is so strong that they may not even look for more efficient ways of solving problem, but rather, run around the office saving the day in an attempt to seem important. Employees like these are just adapting to the culture and trend, but also damaging the organization in the long run.
The workaholism trend is highly seen in Japanese organizations. A study showed that in Japan, over 1,000 deaths per year occur due to overwork. (Sreekant. S., 2010)
Truth is, they are not heroes. Yes, Superman may be faster than a bullet train, but a workaholic could be just another ordinary Jane. In fact they tend to have lower levels of job performance than non-workaholic employees. Instead of just working hard – putting lots of hours in our job – look for ways to work smart because smart work means we are more likely to reach our goals. Being up to date with all the emails does not mean bringing us closer to winning a promotion.
Mondays to Fridays have always been like a long-distance cross-country road trip, when the mind is focused only on one thing – the destination. Stopovers would only be for absolutely necessary reasons limited to sleeping, using the bathroom and getting a quick bite.
Throughout the journey, I would pay attention to nothing else except for the milestones. All I want is to cross the finish line as quickly as possible and grab yet another trophy.
The only motivation that has been keeping me going is, nothing is more important than making a better living for tomorrow. The lifespan of the average Joe would usually show an equal distribution of time for work, sleep and pleasure/leisure i.e. 8 hours per day for each of the three main “activities”.
In the case of a workaholic, work-life balance does not exist in his/her vocabulary at the “pre-better living” stage.
Hard work does pay off, as it demonstrates one’s commitment to the job. It is one of the key elements that would set one apart, as a high performing employee, from the average group considered as those merely meeting the minimum job expectations.
Additional income is expected, either from working overtime, salary increments and performance bonuses. But how and when can one really enjoy the hard-earned money, when all the waking hours are spent in the office, and the weekends are dedicated for “energy-recharging”? Workaholism may be good towards the corporate world, but is it good for us?
For some reason that we may not know, people tend to praise the idea of the workaholic. Some people share their stories about weekends spent in the office, or pulling all-nighters, as if all these were an achievement. Some organizations; whether big conglomerates or small companies, reward this kind of behavior.
Our culture also promotes hard work as a competency that would get us ahead. Statements and comments such as “You should work like Ben. He works 24/7, and he will one day get promoted as he is really dedicated to the job”.
In my personal opinion, working hard does not necessarily mean long hours. Spending more time at work may not mean getting more work done.
If we put in more effort and focus into something, chances are we are going to accomplish more than if we work at it in a half-hearted way. Knowingly that spending 2 hours on a report with effort and focus and spending 5 hours on the same report half-heartedly makes a big difference.
The outside world is a rat race and to be on top, we must always outshine the others. Workaholics may create a hype that leads to peer-to-peer competition. It sounds good as competition are good in terms of getting the best of the best outcome. However, working long hours brings workaholic into conflict with others like peers, family, partners and friends.
All these heated up competition that breed more and more workaholics; slowly turn workaholism into a “trend”. Now that it became a trend, is it a healthy or unhealthy trend? Could it also possibly be a death-threatening trend?
This desire for hero recognition is so strong that they may not even look for more efficient ways of solving problem, but rather, run around the office saving the day in an attempt to seem important. Employees like these are just adapting to the culture and trend, but also damaging the organization in the long run.
The workaholism trend is highly seen in Japanese organizations. A study showed that in Japan, over 1,000 deaths per year occur due to overwork. (Sreekant. S., 2010)
Truth is, they are not heroes. Yes, Superman may be faster than a bullet train, but a workaholic could be just another ordinary Jane. In fact they tend to have lower levels of job performance than non-workaholic employees. Instead of just working hard – putting lots of hours in our job – look for ways to work smart because smart work means we are more likely to reach our goals. Being up to date with all the emails does not mean bringing us closer to winning a promotion.
Plus, when we
are working hard, other areas of our life get neglected. Working long hours may
contribute to eating disorder and the chances of us exercising are very low. It
might not seem to be a problem now but when we run into health problems a few
years from now, we would probably wished we had a better balance back then. One
always say, never gets so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
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