How Being a Workaholic Can Negatively Impact Your Life

People like us who work in the serene world of plants, aren’t supposed to suffer from severe hospitalizing ailments that can be triggered by stress.

Yet, I’m writing this stretched out in a pea green, vinyl recliner, gazing out my hospital room window.  What I’m going to share with you is something I’ve personally experienced.  Perhaps it may save someone else from toting a suction pump on wheels and triple IV pole across a linoleum floor every time they needed to use the bathroom.

I was going to work day after day with fevers of 103 and above and I didn’t stop until my doctor’s office called my cell phone and ordered me to admit myself to the nearest ER.  Even then, I contemplated finishing at least that account.  By the time I arrived, most of my veins had collapsed from dehydration and my temperature of 105 wouldn’t come down until they put me in a tub of ice. Needless to say, I never took time for myself and felt compelled to be perfect in every aspect at business as well as at home.  During the start of my first company my life was much different.  Unfortunately, not in a good way.

Workaholics are usually the last ones to know that they are headed in the same direction as me.  Especially workaholics that are surrounded by nature.  After all, how could it be bad for anyone to stay long hours tending to accounts considering all the health benefits plants provide?  All the time, I would get approached by strangers wanting a job because our business looked so peaceful and easy.  Outside appearances can be deceiving and many of us are in denial that our own work habits can and may already be negatively affecting us.

So how do you know if you should consider a change of work habits? Answering the questions below may give you some insight.

1. Do you work more than 40 hours per week regularly? A Harvard study on professionals showed 94% work more than 50 hours week with 50% of professionals working 65 plus hours per week.
2. Do you have a habit of working or reading emails during meals? Workaholics tend to consistently eat on the run or skip meals entirely.  When your body is in constant stress mode, it secretes cortisone, adrenaline and other bad hormones which can hold on and even increase fat tissue.  So if you’re wondering why your diet isn’t working, your work habits could be sabotaging it.
3. Do you take work with you on weekends and/or vacations? In other words, are you pulling out your phone or laptop when you should be “in the moment” enjoying what is going on around you? Do you look down at co-workers who enjoy getting away from work and would never imagine taking their laptop or answer emails when they finally do? According to psychotherapist, professor and author of “Chained to Our Desk,” Bryan Robinson says never or rarely disassociating from the job can be extremely detrimental and unproductive while someone who tends to daydream can activate the parasympathetic system which allows the body to keep calm and work peacefully.
4. Do you have any hobbies outside of work? When you attend social situations, is work the only subject you talk about?  Has anyone ever told you that you should leave work at work? There is a proverb stating “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
5. Do your work hours negatively affect those close to you? For instance, has your spouse given up hope that you will make it home in time for dinner?  Do your children automatically expect your absenteeism from their activities? The divorce rate for workaholics is 40% higher than the national average.  Just in case you don’t know what the national average is — it’s between 40-50% thus making divorce for a workaholic pretty close to inevitable. Children of workaholics tend to have more anxiety and depression than the average. I don’t have to tell you how devastating it is on children when their parents split.

Did you answer yes to half or more of those questions?  I personally never missed any of my daughter’s school activities, but because of the excessive work, precious time for myself didn’t exist.  Point is, if your life primarily revolves around your job or your company, it doesn’t matter how far you succeed or how much money you make. You can end up destroying other things that are so much more valuable such as relationships and your health.  I always love when people ask, “when you’re on your death bed, are you going to say…I wish I worked more?”  And if that answer is yes, you might just be seeing that bed very soon.

So how do you find that balance between career and personal life?  Here are a few ideas to start:

1. Let go of perfectionism. Workaholics connect their identity with their career. If they make a mistake at work, it’s a blow to their self-esteem.  Learn to separate the two.
2. Create healthy boundaries between you and the usage of your electronic devices during family time, social invitations, vacations, and the hours leading up to bedtime.  Being in the room and being connected to those around you is what’s important.  If you find yourself anxious or even irritable during this time, that can be a big red flag of a withdrawal symptom according to Dr. Bryan Robinson. Furthermore, looking at screens before bed has recently been found to be much more worse for our bodies than previously thought. For some compelling reasons to stop this habit, watch this video by a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine to see the scary effects this can have on your brain and body.
3. Exercise and Meditate. Just like you schedule client meetings, it’s just as important to fit in one of the essential elements our body needs to stay healthy.  What exercise does is counter act the bad cortisol and other stress chemicals by pumping out endorphins.  That’s why it’s much harder to lose weight when dieting alone.  Meditation works in the same way as it activates the parasympathetic system telling your body to be calm and help digest food properly.  Make sure these times are included during an unplugged time, otherwise you could counteract the positive benefits.

As a former workaholic, I understand how difficult it is to make time to brush your teeth at least twice a day, let alone plot out thirty minutes every few days to workout.  You can always start off small. Take the stairs to the vending machine three floors down instead of the one closest to you.  Park your vehicle at the far end of the company lot. While walking in, take deep breaths and try to spot something new about the landscape.  Allow yourself a few moments to dream at work.  It’s ok and even healthy.  You might be surprised, brilliant men like Einstein were big daydreamers.  Lastly, take small periods of your day to do nothing more than stop, smell a flower and appreciate all that surrounds you.

Featued image “Apu, the Workaholic” by herval