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Section 19
The Consequences and Costs of Workaholism

Question 19 | Test | Table of Contents

Though the concept of workaholism was first introduced in the beginning of the 1970s, there is little information available concerning helping techniques and methods that counselors can use to work with workaholic clients. Such information is in great need for helping professionals and help-seekers alike given that workaholism has become one of the main health threats to people's work life and personal life (Burke, 2001; Struhl, 1998). The negative impact of workaholism on people's lives is alarming as research evidence shows that up to 25% of the working population are enduring symptoms of workaholism (Robinson, 1998). This calls for the utilization of pertinent helping approaches in dealing with workaholism. The core for professional helping aims to achieve a balanced relationship between work life and other aspects of one's life. That is, career and mental health practitioners need to help workaholics to achieve a balance between meaningful productive work and healthy leisure activities for life satisfaction, and for maintaining well being (Caproni, 1997; Naughton, 1987; Seybold and Salomone, 1994).

The workaholic problem
Characteristics of the workaholic.  Workaholics can be defined by their excessive involvement with work and neglect of other areas of their lives (Porter, 1996). Most workaholics work consistently long hours, including evenings and weekends (Tyler, 1999) and when a workaholic can be convinced to take a holiday, he or she will usually bring work along (Porter, 1996). As well, workaholics like to have control, and as a result, will rarely delegate work to others (Spence and Robbins, 1992), causing them to work even more hours. Despite the many hours they work, workaholics are not necessarily highly productive employees. In fact, many could be quite inefficient due to the fact that they exhibit higher levels of perfectionism on the job than others (Spence and Robbins, 1992).

A workaholic's behavior tends to be very one-sided due to the time and thought put into their work. In fact, for the workaholic, satisfaction derived from work is more important than the satisfaction derived from family life (Seybold and Salomone, 1994). Not surprisingly, a study conducted by Bonebright et al. (2000) showed that the workaholic has more work-life conflict than a non-workaholic. It is not uncommon for the workaholic to suffer from health problems such as stress-induced illnesses (Boneb-right et al., 2000), chronic fatigue (Tyler, 1999), increased levels of anxiety (Burke, 1999) and substance abuse (Killinger, 1991).

Definition and causes of workaholism
The term workaholic was originated in 1971 by Oates to correspond to the term alcoholic. Indeed, when work takes over much of one's time and thought, workaholism, like alcoholism, can be seen as an addiction (Killinger, 1991). The first academic definition of the term workaholic came from Spence and Robbins in 1992, who defined the workaholic as a person who ‘is highly work involved, feels compelled or driven to work because of inner pressures, and is low in enjoyment of work’ (p. 162). Spence and Robbins differentiate a workaholic from a work enthusiast, which is a person who is also highly involved in his or her work, but does not experience the same internal drive to work or the same dissatisfaction from work. This paper focuses only on the workaholic.

The purported causes of workaholism are many and varied. Seybold and Salamone (1994) conclude that workaholism can be associated with one or more of the following:
a. an uncontrollable addiction;
b. an individual's desire to escape from personal issues faced outside of work;
c. extreme need to control one's life;
d. a highly competitive nature;
e. parents that modeled workaholic behavior; and
f. an impaired self-image and limited self-esteem.

Bonebright et al. (2000) suggest that counseling strategies to be used with the workaholic be based upon the type of workaholism.

Because it is beyond the scope of this discussion to outline counseling strategies for each of the workaholic types, this article will focus only on workaholism as characterized by an impaired self-image and self-esteem, as in (f) above. The idea that lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem is at the heart of workaholism is well supported by academic literature (e.g., Seybold and Salomone, 1994; Porter, 1996). In fact, research conducted by Burke (1999) clearly indicates that workaholics have a higher need to prove self than work enthusiasts, and ‘workaholism thus emerges as work behaviors in response to feelings of low self-worth and insecurity’ (p. 527).

Complicating factors of workaholism
Societal acceptance
Perhaps the real problem with addressing workaholism is that it is not typically seen as a problem. Unlike alcoholism, workaholism is quite an acceptable practice in our society. A workaholic's devotion to his or her work often leads to promotions and higher levels of salary—rewards that simply serve to perpetuate the problem. To complicate matters further, in an unstable economy, employers may actually seek out the workaholic in order to get more hours for the same wage. This attitude would only serve to spark the workaholic's feelings of insecurity and reconfirm to him or her that working long hours is the only way to ensure job marketability, reinforcing the workaholic-conditioned cycle of thinking, feeling, and behavior (Robinson, 2000).

Workaholism: An overview and current status of the research

Andreassen, C. S. (2014). Workaholism: An overview and current status of the research. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(1), 1–11.

Personal Reflection Exercise #5
The preceding section contained information about the characteristics, definition, and complicating factors of workaholism.  Write three case study examples regarding how you might use the content of this section in your practice.

Update
Burnout and Poor Perceived Health
in Flexible Working Time in Japanese Employees:
The Role of Self-Endangering Behavior
in Relation to Workaholism,
Work Engagement, and Job Stressors

- Yokoyama, K., Nakata, A., Kannari, Y., Nickel, F., Deci, N., Krause, A., & Dettmers, J. (2022). Burnout and poor perceived health in flexible working time in Japanese employees: the role of self-endangering behavior in relation to workaholism, work engagement, and job stressors. Industrial health, 60(4), 295–306. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2022-0063

Peer-Reviewed Journal Article References:
Alessandri, G., De Longis, E., Perinelli, E., Balducci, C., & Borgogni, L. (2020). The costs of working too hard: Relationships between workaholism, job demands, and prosocial organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 19(1), 24–32.

Firoozabadi, A., Uitdewilligen, S., & Zijlstra, F. R. H. (2018). Should you switch off or stay engaged? The consequences of thinking about work on the trajectory of psychological well-being over time. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23(2), 278–288.

Houlfort, N., Philippe, F. L., Bourdeau, S., & Leduc, C. (2018). A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between passion for work and work–family conflict and the consequences for psychological distress. International Journal of Stress Management, 25(4), 313–329.

QUESTION 19
According  to Burwell, why is denial of the problem another issue that counselors must contend with in counseling workaholics? To select and enter your answer go to Test.