Your parents, not the corporation, made you a workaholic

Proven content

A woman on vacation buys a wood-scented perfume because she wants to feel like she is sitting at her desk. This is an American joke, not a Polish joke. Our desks are chaff, not wood. And we consider the term “workaholic” as a compliment. 40 percent of us think about working on vacation and lying in bed with a 40-degree fever. In terms of the number of hours spent at work, we rank second in Europe – with almost 2000 a year. However, we cannot blame the corporate bosses, but the parents. In an interview with Medonet, Dr. Agnieszka Czerw, a psychologist from SWPS in Poznań.

1. A Pole spends almost 200 hours a year at work *. This breeds overwork, stress, frustration, and fatigue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean being a workaholic. Dr. Agnieszka Czerw, a psychologist who studies workaholics, says that he doesn’t work that much. Typical of dysfunctional performance of professional duties is that it interferes with normal functioning outside of work.
2. Until now, we believed that workaholism was to be blamed by capitalism and the sick ambitions of corporate bosses. It seems it is the family where the child grows up to be at fault. Dr. Agnieszka Czerw says that the competitive atmosphere at work is only a catalyst for our addiction to work.
3. The side effect of addiction is deterioration of relations with employees, faster fatigue with work, deterioration in focusing attention on anything, more frequent mistakes. In addition, there are the already mentioned health effects with the famous karoshi, i.e. death from overwork. Fortunately, just like mobbing and professional burnout, there is more and more talk about workaholism, and more and more companies organize workshops on dealing with emotions and managing their energy resources in the workplace.

Dorota Ziemkowska, Medonet: Have you ever wished someone a birthday or a better job for Christmas?

Dr Agnieszka Czerw, psychologist from SWPS University in Poznań: Yes it has.

I am never in the minority. CBOS research shows that wishes for a better job and higher earnings are in second place among the most popular.

It does not surprise me. Today it is such an important area of ​​life for us that we think about it even on holidays.

Work defines us? If I asked you who you are, what would you say?

Of course I’m a psychologist, scientist, university employee. I wouldn’t talk about being a daughter or a mother.

Exactly. I remember that when I didn’t have a job for a while, I was terrified that when I met new people and introduced myself, I wouldn’t know what to answer.

I totally get it.

Is this workaholism already?

No, absolutely! The fact that work is becoming an increasingly important part of our identity does not immediately mean that we are workaholics.

So maybe this is reflected in the number of hours worked? In this respect, Poles are already in second place in the European Union. We work for over 1900 hours a year. We are threatened by workaholism?

We may be at risk of overwork, stress, frustration or fatigue, but not necessarily workaholism. We must not confuse work with workaholism. Especially since it turns out that workaholics do not work that much, taking into account the number of hours. Much more characteristic of such a dysfunctional fulfillment of professional duties is the fact that it interferes with normal functioning in other areas of our lives.

Such as, for example, vacationing or holidays?

For example.

Already more than 40 percent of Poles think about work or take up work during such holidays. You mean almost half of us are workaholics?

Neither is it. Because the most important thing is why we behave this way. If we work three jobs, because without it we cannot provide for the family, we are not workaholics. Also not when we work during the holidays, because the employer requires it, and we are afraid of losing our job. As long as we do not like this situation, we have a grudge against the boss, there is no workaholism.

And if we have no regrets, we only enjoy it?

It is still not a foregone conclusion. If we feel satisfaction, pride, pleasure, we are simply passionate about our profession.

We still define workaholism by negation by saying what it surely isn’t. And what is it actually?

It’s an addiction, just like alcoholism. The difference is that it is not an addiction to chemicals, but to certain behaviors. Suffering from it, we are unable to break away from work. We strive for it at all costs, even when it is holidays, holidays with the family, when we are sick … When we do not take care of our duties, we feel bad, we are irritated, irritated, anxious, we feel bad, we feel bad. We feel an internal compulsion to work, we cannot imagine acting otherwise, because only then we feel relieved and our body calms down.

Clinical psychologist Barbara Killinger once said that this inner compulsion occurs in people from dysfunctional families where parents passed on inappropriate behavior patterns to their children. First of all, it was supposed to be related to the lack of warmth and willingness to show feelings. What do you think about such a translation?

I believe that workaholism may to a large extent be related to perfectionism, which in turn is indeed often shaped already in childhood by the way parents react to their offspring’s successes and failures. And it doesn’t have to be about dysfunctional families! If parents teach their child that they must always do their best, that no rating below the highest on the scale is good enough, set too high demands that are sometimes difficult to cope with, then in adulthood they will also feel that they must always be the best.

And work is very often the best measure of success. In relation to her, it is easiest to see and measure them, because she has clear attributes, such as position, prestige or the amount of earnings. It is for this reason that people often measure their success in life on a professional basis, forgetting that there are others, such as being the best daughter for example.

Raising a perfectionist is the only explanation?

Not. Our temperament is also very important. Very often, the pursuit of success in professional life is dictated by various fears. Some people are genetically more conditioned to react with fear to difficult situations, and they protect themselves against possible failure by focusing heavily on their work and putting a lot of effort into it.

So workaholism is a question of character?

To some extent, yes. This does not mean, however, that if someone has the personality trait I have described, and was additionally brought up to be a perfectionist, he is doomed to it. Certain situational conditions are also important, for example working conditions, which may favor the emergence of the tendency inherent in us. However, I emphasize favor, not cause it. If my supervisor expects me to work overtime, extraordinary effort in these duties, and I do not have the predispositions described, I will not become a workaholic. Maybe I will work a lot, but I will not become addicted.

What exactly are the working conditions conducive to these internal predispositions?

Certainly, very strong competition in the company, which leads to the fact that employees almost fight with each other just to achieve success. Certainly also the presence of the boss, who requires increased readiness to work and looks unfavorably at those who take time off, for example for health reasons, because he considers it a sign of lack of professionalism and disloyalty towards the entire organization.

Professionalism and perfectionism are the ideals that workaholics strive for, and meanwhile they achieve opposite effects, they suffer from pessimism, low self-esteem, they are antisocial, their relationships break up …

Yes, there are many negative consequences! Starting from health issues, i.e. falling into various diseases, when the immune system stops working and it is easy to catch any ailment, to mental, such as exhaustion, also emotional, enormous stress, frustration, sometimes aggression.

There are also social consequences. The family begins to suffer, because even if a workaholic is at home, his thoughts wander at the company. And that’s not all! The addicted person ceases to function well in an organized group because he only fulfills his need to work. Therefore, it will not work for the organization as such, it will be difficult for it to enter into social relations, because anyone who does not put professional duties in the foreground will be considered inferior by it.

If society suddenly started to grow workaholics, it wouldn’t do it any good. Built solely on such people, it would surely be neither efficient nor functional.

Dlaczego?

Because a workaholic is an egoist, and in addition he quickly becomes ineffective. He has side effects of addiction, such as deteriorating relations with employees, getting tired with work faster, worsening attention to anything, and therefore also – making mistakes more and more often. In addition, there are the already mentioned health effects, sometimes ending tragically. After all, there is such a concept as karoshi, i.e. death from overwork, which also applies to workaholics.

You mean you can’t be a happy, healthy workaholic?

In my opinion no.

Strangely, then, in most countries in the West, calling someone a workaholic is considered a compliment, possibly a harmless joke. After all, there is a joke in the States about a woman who was looking for a perfume with a wood scent in a drugstore, because she wanted to still feel as if she was sitting at her desk.

I think it is quite similar with us. Workaholism is one of those addictions to which there is social consent.

Any chance for this to change?

I think we are on the right track to take this problem seriously. Just as about mobbing, professional burnout or other pathological phenomena occurring in the workplace, more and more often it is talked about and explaining what they are, the same will be with workaholism.

After all, many companies already know that it is necessary to take care of the well-being of employees so that they can experience good emotions in the workplace, not fears, coercion and stress. With the big foreign corporations that we like to think about badly, there will be standards to follow. I am thinking, for example, about creating places for employees where they can rest. Yes, in some industries it is a bit caricatured, for example in IT, where such places look more like for fun, not momentary relaxation, but it cannot be denied that it generally works for the benefit of employees.

I have a doubt. Some criticize that such places are created in companies not to let the employee rest, but to keep him at work as long as possible.

This is quite a complex problem. Indeed, in some industries, for example in the aforementioned IT, where young, often single men work, it happens that such places keep them working all day long. Because they can play, talk and rest there. On the other hand, I don’t think that people with families prefer sitting in a chill room to picking up a child from school or going out for ice cream with him.

However, the most important thing to me is the intention with which the employee will be presented with such a solution. If a room where you can relax and, for example, listen to music, is considered by the organization as a solution to all problems, even the deepest ones, then no one will fall for it. People will only laugh at him. However, if it is part of a comprehensive change of the entire organizational culture, aimed at excluding workaholism, it is very good.

What other changes could be proposed?

I think that there are no solutions that are absolutely universal and that would fit different types of institutions – municipal office, hospital, production company. The most important thing is to involve employees in making decisions about them when introducing any changes. If they come up with, say that they want to work remotely once a month, they will approach this solution completely differently than if it was imposed by their bosses. Otherwise, everyone will think it’s a façade solution, a marketing gimmick. And no one can be saved from workaholism in this way.

Doctor Agnieszka Czerw, work and organizational psychologist, has been conducting research on the issues of human functioning at work in the context of positive psychology for several years. She is particularly interested in the employee’s well-being. She is the author of many psychological questionnaires, e.g. for measuring optimism, attitudes towards work or well-being in a work situation. She is a co-author of the Professional Interests Questionnaire (KZZ) created for the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and used in Polish career counseling.

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