Chapter 16

Workaholics Beware

There is nobody as good as a person who keeps time. That person is a man of his word, he is dependable and every employer’s dream come true. It is a pleasure doing business with such a person and the list goes on. But over here, there is the scent of a problem.

Sometimes the preoccupation with time can make a person a workaholic. Now, this is no joke in fact it is a phenomenon that is very much on the rise especially among executives. Are you a workaholic? Well, why don’t you find out? There are a series of questions given below, if you have the time, why don’t you go through them and find out if you are a workaholic or not.

All you have to do is answer yes or no to the following questions.

i. Do you find yourself constantly preoccupied with your work?

ii. Do your family and friends complain that they hardly get to see you?

iii. Do you take your work with you when you go home?

iv. Do you find it increasingly difficult to get time to relax and have fun?

v. Do you find it difficult to have food at the correct times?

So what are your answers like? If your answer to all the questions was ‘yes’, then you might as well join the club of “Alcoholics Anonymous”. If three of your answers were affirmative, then you might send in your membership request. If you gave only two yes answers still you are not safe, none of your answers should be yes!

But I have bad news for you. Becoming a workaholic is not all that good. I suppose you have heard the proverb, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Man is not a one-dimensional piece of glass. He has a lot of facets and sides, interests and drives which must all be developed. He is more like a diamond that must shine and sparkle when viewed from different angles.

It’s almost as if money becomes the only thing that motivates a person. Now, I want to make one point very clear. Workaholism is very different from meeting deadlines. We all get deadlines and times when work just piles up in the office. But that should be a passing phase, probably like when an audit or an inspection is taking place; then of course all the people are just flying around.

That is not workaholism. In such a situation everyone just joins the team and works as hard as possible to get things done in the best possible way within the limited time. Though every one may groan and swear, it is something that gets over within a few days or in a week at the most. That is not an unhealthy thing. In fact the, very though t that there are lot of people working along with us is something that gets the drudgery out of the job.

Workaholism on the other hand is very different thing. It means that you are going to miss out on a lot of the good things in life. And before you even know what happened to you, you will end up like one of those steel collar workers, or in other words a living robot.

Work is important in life. We need to work to earn our daily bread. But work is not the only important thing in life. Being a person who is very time conscious does not mean that you have to end up being obsessed with your work. In fact if you are time conscious and are really concerned about getting things done on time, then there are very little chances that you will end up as a workaholic.

Getting things done on time means working well within the office hours. And that in turn means having enough free time to enjoy your leisure hours. Every body need time to unwind. And unwinding must certainly be there. Or else you will end up totally worked up.

Contrary to popular belief workaholism is in reality counter productive. That’s because when it lasts it might seem good enough, but nothing in this world lasts for ever. Sooner or later you will experience what experts now refer to as the Executive Burnout. I will deal more with the executive burnout in the next chapter.

Before I conclude this chapter, I just want to raise a point for you to ponder on.

Imagine that you have been working a little more than harder the whole day. You have been on your toes doing this and doing that. Towards the end of the day you realize, or you just come to know that there is some urgent work to be done that must be dispatched the following day.



You have two alternatives before you, you can tell the security that you will be working a few extra hours while the others pick up their bags and leave. The very thought that you have to stay back when the others are leaving is going to weigh down on you, though you might feel kid of grand when you look at others with the air of a person who has to do his duty.

Then you have to telephone your spouse or friends and tell them that you will be late and may probably have to call off the date that you had fixed for the night. That itself is going to make you grumpy especially if you hear an unenthusiastic grunt from the other side of the line.

After that with a private sigh of resignation you have to sit down to finish that @#%^& piece of work. (I’m sure you will think of unprintable words to describe the work at this juncture). You have to remember that you are already exhausted with the busy day that you had. It goes without saying that if at all you finish the task, the work will be far from satisfactory.

Your other alternative is that you take a quick look at the work and estimate how long is will take for you to finish it. Then you forget completely about it and pack you things and clear up your workstation and leave with all the others, bidding a cheerful goodnight to every tom Dick and Harry, and every Jane Susan and Mary. You reach home in the best of spirits and have a nice time with the kids or enjoy yourself with your date. You go to sleep early and wake up thoroughly refreshed in the morning. You work out for sometime, have a shower and a good breakfast and try to reach your office a little earlier than usual with a song in your heart and a spring to your step.

Now if you sit down to do the work, not only will the quality of the work be much better but in all likelihood you will take less time than is really required for it. Well, what do you think, isn’t it worth trying out?

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