You worked all day and in several hours your project will be complete. Do you take a break for dinner or do you keep working and eat at your desk? Though it’s tempting to keep working, you’re not only hurting yourself but you have a higher chance of making errors on what you are working on.
When you don’t take the time to allow your brain to recharge, you lose your mental sharpness, your effectiveness as well as experience a decline in your judgment.
You cannot be productive if you’re burned out.
As you begin to log over 40 hours a week, you also begin to experience a higher chance of errors such as the missing information in the report you gave your boss or the miscalculations on the proposal that someone pointed out during the team meeting. Most errors such as these cost a company money as the work needs to be redone and depending on the severity of the error, others may need to be paid to correct them.
Though our productivity decreases the more hours we work, many men and woman in today’s work place believe the only way to get ahead in their field is by working more days and longer hours. Others work 12 hour days in fear if they don’t, they will be laid off if the company downsizes or be overlooked for the next promotion.
So what do we do? We work, work and work some more.
The problem is what may have started as a couple of late nights a week to finish a project has stretched into a habit of working late every night. Then those late nights began to creep into weekends at the office, “just to wrap up a couple of things.”
Before you know what’s happened, those couple extra hours have morphed into an extra 20 to 30 hours a week. Congratulations, you have now joined the group of workaholics trying to be more productive by working 10 – 12 hour days.
A workaholic is more than a person who works a few extra hours a week though. A workaholic is someone who has taken work to the point of believing work comes before family, friends, hobbies, and their health.
You may think that you are not a workaholic, but step back and take a hard look at your work life in comparison to your personal life. There is a reason the work week is 40 hours and not 50 or 60 hours.
Though Henry Ford in the 1920s determined the work week should consist of 8 hour days and 5 day work weeks, there have also been recent studies confirming Ford’s findings that a work week more than 40 hours lowers output, increases work-related costs and raises the chances of severe health problems.
Henry Ford found when his employees worked 10 to 16 hours a day in the factory, he did not have increased output or reduction in his costs. In fact, he found the opposite!
Ford also realized by giving his employees $5.00 per day, establishing a minimum wage, he raised productivity in his factory, lowered his training costs due to a reduced turnover rate, and attracted the best workers in the area. As a bonus, his workers were happier, more satisfied and now had time to take their hard-earned money and spend it on purchasing his vehicles.
Almost 100 years ago, this pioneer in the workplace knew workers need time to relax and enjoy time off with their family and friends.
To determine if you’re a workaholic, take a look at the questions below. Do any of them ring true?
Do you feel at a loss if you’re not working?
Are you always looking for more work to do?
Do you find you make work for yourself so you can keep working?
Do you subconsciously, or consciously, create crises so you can continue to keep working?
Do you feel the need to be at work to have value in your life?
Do you believe you are better than your co-workers because you work longer hours?
Do you believe the company will not run efficiently without you being there?
Do you use work to escape family obligations?
Have you lost touch with family and friends?
Do your friends no longer contact you because they know you will have a work related excuse?
Do you lack hobbies or interests other than work related things?
Do you have trouble sleeping?
Have you gained weight, feel depressed, or have experienced anxiety problems?
Have you forgotten how it feels to relax?
Working long hours is an addiction and is just as serious to your health as drug abuse.
The most frequently experienced problem by men and women who work consistently over 40 hours a week is directly due to chronic stress.
Listed below are significant health problems experienced by workaholics.
Sleep deprivation / insomnia
Not eating right / weight gain
Substance abuse
Sicknesses and illnesses
Heart-related problems
Ulcers
Depression
Stomach problems
Anxiety
Irritability
Cancers
You may be experiencing health problems by working long hours, but you are not the only person suffering. When you put your work above your personal life, you miss family events, avoid family vacations, and do not spend quality time with your partner and children.The time you miss cannot be replaced, even if you think it can be once your work is done. Believe me, the work is never done, ever!
Being a workaholic is unhealthy, lowers your quality of life and causes problems for your company. Let us know, do you recognize any of these issues? Are you a workaholic?
Next post in the Productivity Series: 10 Steps of a Recovering Workaholic
Hi, I’m Karen. Welcome to my website! I will show you how to establish the framework for an organized and successful leadership and office management system.
