Traits of Workaholism

Malissa Clark, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Georgia, describes the 4 leading causes of overwork in their 2018 article, "These Are The Four Drivers Of Workaholism," published by Fast Company:

Motivational

Workaholics are different from people who are simply highly engaged in their jobs. They don’t enjoy their work; they feel compelled to work because of internal pressures. In other words, they work because they feel like they should or ought to be working.

Cognitive

Workaholics have persistent thoughts about work when they’re not working, and they find it difficult to mentally disengage from work.

Emotional

Workaholics experience negative emotions like anxiety and guilt when they aren’t working.

Behavioral

Workaholics tend to work beyond what is reasonably expected of them by their organization.

In terms of identifying factors that would classify an individual as a workaholic, there are numerous motivations behind these behavioral patterns of working obsessively.

addiction to work

As the concept of workaholism relates addiction to work as a means of attaining personal satisfaction, this has prompted various perceptions of why an individual develops an incessant work ethic. By determining prominent characteristics amongst those who qualify as workaholics, Melissa A Clark’s article titled “Workaholism: It’s Not Just Long Hours on the Job”, states that these prevalent commonalities are described as “feeling compelled to work because of internal pressures, having persistent thoughts about work when not working, and working beyond what is reasonably expected of the worker”.

In this sense, although workaholics are consistently overwhelmed by a compulsion to work, Clark also notes that the practice of centering one’s life around working is perceived as “high involvement and little enjoyment”.

Type A personality

A significant correlation between individuals who exhibited this excessive achievement-oriented and perfectionistic mentality are those that have Type A personality, a personality type characterized by experiencing higher stress levels and a difficulty to stop working.

STUDENTS

Another group of individuals who are more likely to experience the rigorous impacts of workaholism is described in Raymond Shoup and Diana Lea Baranovich’s article titled, “Workaholism in Students: When Overachieving Becomes a Clinical Concern”, as they assert that “Typically, students who are workaholics are withdrawn introverts, who spend time on projects and school work as an alternative social outlet; however, extroverted individuals can also become workaholics.”

Though introverted students are more anticipated to exhibit an obsessive work ethic, the idea that this addictive pattern can be displayed through extroverted students alike demonstrates how prevalent the impact of workaholism is.