My Name is Bobby, I’m a Workaholic…
It’s a sunny Thursday morning at the office. As everyone settles in they go to each others cubicle and converse with jokes, gossip, and personal matters. With all of us in close proximity it’s easy to overhear nearby conversations.
Usually I pay little attention to the conversations, becoming inattentive to them as they fall into the backdrop of office chatter. But when something interesting is said my attention is immediately drawn in. That’s precisely what happened this morning when I overheard Bobby’s voice from the cubicle nearby. As he stood in the entrance way to Sophia’s desk he began talking about the time his mother passed away and how his priorities shifted afterward. Recalling the impact her passing had on his life, he said:
“After that, things changed. I used to be a workaholic but after she passed away my priorities changed. My family became my main priority and [work] moved to the sidelines.”
Bobby started giving his personal health and family relations top priority after his mother’s passing. Before that, he gave top priority to his job.
Thinking about the implications of his statement, I imagined Bobby before his mother passed away. I envisioned the times that he may have chosen to work more hours or forgo needed personal time to finish up a project or tackle another challenge at the office. I thought of the opportunities to invest time in his self and family that he may have neglected in pursuit of his professional goals. After all, Bobby was a self-proclaimed workaholic. So it makes sense that Bobby didn’t turn down the extra hours to finish a project and forwent needed personal time; it makes sense that he chose to tackle another challenge at the office; and it makes sense that he may have neglected to invest time family in pursuit of his professional goals. It’s as if he could have stood up in an addict’s anonymous meeting and said, “My name is Bobby, I’m a workaholic” to undergo some sort of counseling and treatment.
And the same goes for me and you. We are Bobby.
It’s amazing how much emphasis we place on our jobs and professional lives. In pursuit of income, status, or simply paying the bills we give our jobs top priority. We do everything for it and everything else falls to the sidelines. For example, we:
- Rush hour, commuting through any weather condition
- Go to work sick, more concerned for absenteeism
And they all can adversely affect us. It’s safe to say that many of us do more for our jobs than we do for our families. Face it, we’re addicted to work. Our priorities look something like:
- Job
- Family
- Etcetera
I’ve experienced it and I bet you have too. We’ve seen others prioritizing work above their own families or even sacrificing their own health. In fact, we may be one of them. I’ve seen people cancelling medical visits or not setting doctor’s appointments because they’ve got to go to work. The most bizarre is I’ve seen is a person still semi-conscious and anesthetized leave the medical facility and stumble into work just to “finish something up.” To hell with that! The truth is that we only get one body and one family. Jobs come and go and there a ton to choose from.
Hold your thoughts, read this.
I understand that our jobs are important and that it serves a valuable purpose to our families, our sense of accomplishment, and even the global economy. But we can get caught up in the humdrum of our professions and lose focus of what’s really important in our lives. Just think: have you ever relaxed for a moment to put your job and your life in perspective? I have.
This is what I’ve found.
When we give our jobs top priority in our lives and become workaholics, we are making an error. Let’s be real: if a workaholic were to drop dead on their office floor, the human resources department will recruit someone else to fill their job position before the janitor finishes sweeping them up!
One result of giving our jobs top priority is longer hours. That means we spend more time away from our families and less personal time. Researchers have found this to adversely impact our health, increasing stress related ailments and fatigue. In 2003, USAToday published an article highlighting how workers are affected by longer hours and the resulting work/life imbalance. The article notes a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute that found mandatory overtime costs industry as much as $300 billion a year in stress and fatigue-related problems! And those are simply the financial impacts to industry. We also need to ask how much does personal satisfaction, happiness, and life fulfillment costs us?
Our priorities need to be reevaluated. Workaholism is like alcoholism. Many of us are intoxicated by our jobs, the pursuit of income and professional status ahead of our family relationships and personal well-being. It’s as if we could stand up in an addict’s anonymous meeting and say, “My name is… I’m a workaholic” to undergo some sort of counseling and treatment.
