Are you a workaholic?

Hi, my name is Vikki and I am a workaholic."

Yes, there are such things as Workaholics Anonymous meetings, and while I have never attended one I have in the past needed help to overcome the impetus to be constantly working.

At that time, I could intellectually acknowledge there were a lot of important things in life besides work - health, children, partners, extended family, and the community to name a few.

However, I felt the wellbeing of myself as well as those people and organisations somehow hinged on my ability to work hard, for long hours. While my identity wasn't grounded solely in my work, it was nevertheless hard to imagine a day without work, and holidays or sick days left me bored, restless and frustrated.

So what is a workaholic? Psychologists say the label is subjective - long hours of work may be positively stimulating, energising and beneficial for one person while another may be at risk of developing a severe psychological disorder, health problems including stress and burnout, and relationship problems.

Over-working can also be an expectation of some employers, employment environments and certain political environments. Obviously, people who are forced or expected to over-work are not addicted to working - psychologists say the term 'workaholic' implies the individual has choice but is easily tempted to over-work in the same way an alcoholic has choice but is vulnerable if alcohol is present.

"People need to think 'at what point does this become a problem?' It can be difficult to tease some of the reasons for [over-working] out," says Giles Burch, a registered organisational psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School.

Burch says some employees feel compelled to simply be seen at work rather than actually over-work, an issue labelled "presenteeism" which is commonly driven by anxiety and often surrounds restructuring of the workplace.

He says workaholics, by comparison, are those who choose to overwork for reasons that may be conscious or unconscious. For example, a workaholic may have been chastised by a parent as a child for not working hard enough and be unconsciously trying to prove that parent wrong.

"The workaholic can believe they are happy. But if it is a problem it can cause all sorts of issues, such as raised levels of stress and physical disorders and psycho-sociological disorders," says Burch.

Auckland clinical psychologist Dieter Dvorak says clinical psychologists "quite commonly" acknowledge 'workaholism' and that there are different psychological and historical paths leading to it. He says for some people, work is so rewarding that all it takes is a slightly impoverished life outside of work for work to take over.

"If there is positive reinforcement then over-working becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. People will also overwork as a distraction from areas of their life that are problematic - work can be abused like other substances as a form of self medication," says Dvorak.

The psychologists say awareness of over-work as a problem in New Zealand is not high, partly because New Zealanders have a culture of hard work and long hours are subsequently acceptable, and even admirable. Dvorak says when he came to New Zealand from Germany 11 years ago he was immediately under the impression that people work harder here.

"While 30-35 hours per week might be normal for Europe; more than 40 hours in New Zealand is not considered [abnormal]; there is societal pressure [to work hard] here," he says.

Burch says it is hard to get understanding in New Zealand that working too hard might be harmful.

"If anything, there is more expectation that people will work harder and perform more than before," says Burch.

Far from being a boast, true workaholics are often profoundly miserable - anxiety, 'bad stress', fatigue, digestive problems, heart and circulation problems, headaches and occupational overuse syndrome commonly plague those who can't switch off or who crave work for a sense of purpose. Further, the social effects on friendships and families can be devastating, say the psychologists.

"If you exceed your resources, there is the potential to have some kind of breakdown or to become vulnerable to a full mental illness," says Dvorak.

Ironically, workaholics can also destroy their careers through burnout, too-high expectation of others leading to conflicts, or too many days off ill.

Burch says someone who works long hours and is addicted to work has high standards of others and colleagues may feel they have too much to live up to. He says one way to answer the question 'am I a workaholic?' is to consider whether the way an individual works is negatively impacting themselves and others.

"There's the view that [working too much] is only a problem when it became a problem for the individual or those around them," says Burch.

Dvorak agrees, saying whether or not someone is working too hard is highly subjective.

"Does it exceed your personal resources and become a source of stress?" he says.

In New Zealand, help for those who over-work to their detriment is surprisingly limited. Employers may find it difficult to take the term seriously and public health services tend to be weighted towards more serious psychological disorders, say psychologists. That leaves private psychotherapists and psychologists - all of whom can provide quality help, but you'll have to pay for it.

While there is a 'workaholics anonymous' web site in New Zealand, it publishes reviews of useful books and little else, and there does not appear to be a formal 'workaholics anonymous' organisation. Contrast this with New York, where there is a Workaholics Anonymous organisation with a formal '12-step recovery programme' for compulsive workers based upon the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous.

New York's 'WA' organisers estimate dozens of weekly meetings are held in the United States as well as in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Britain - but not New Zealand.

Dvorak says people can help themselves by taking a day to 'take stock' on a regular basis.

"Weigh up the benefits and gains of long working hours against relationships and personal health. Balance is the key word for dealing with this issue. We encourage people to develop something else alongside work," he says.

Burch says employers also need to recognise there is something going on with workaholics and that it is worth trying to get to the bottom of the problem. He advocates life coaching, saying this sometimes results in people realising they should be spending more time with their families.

"An employee might be able to raise the problem with their manager if they trusted that relationship; managers can then try to identify whether the [over-work] is just part of the job, and therefore is the job the problem, or there is an actual addiction," says Burch.


Workaholic checklist

You might be a workaholic if you:

* Work through the day and part of the night, most days of the week

* Consistently take work home

* Consistently work weekends

* Discuss work incessantly; constantly re-iterating how busy you are and how much you have to do

* Put work commitments before family and personal commitments

* Fidget and feel irritable when you can't work

* Resist taking holidays

* Automatically run work goals and problems through your mind when you are trying to sleep

* Feel depressed or unwell, but don't believe you have the time to address it

* Regularly agree to extra work and projects when you already have enough to do

* Are constantly told by family and friends you are work-obsessed (as opposed to be told you 'work hard.')