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Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

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Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#121

Post by whalesalad »

exclusiv wrote: post #118
whalesalad wrote: post #2

I would posit that deeper psychological issues are what lead someone to workaholism (as a maladaptive coping mechanism). I believe it is a symptom of a larger issue which is what ultimately leads to the problems with mental and physical health.

That makes more sense to me than the other way around. As a workaholic, and learnaholic, I did it as a path to financial freedom and to accelerate my learning at at time I knew I had the bandwidth and will. It made me a better entrepreneur and business owner later, which is what I really wanted to do. But as I've gotten older and have a family now I've been removing obligations for my businesses. And working more nor…

One man's crippling workaholism is another man's dream life. To one it could be an escape or avoidance of their true self and to another it could be the most rewarding work of all. That is to say, I do not think immersing yourself in your work and working crazy long hours is inherently a bad thing. You can certainly thrive on that energy with the right balance.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#122

Post by bradstewart »

exclusiv wrote: post #105
markus_zhang wrote: post #6

I believe workaholists do not neccesarily love their job, but hate something else so much that they would rather find some place to take a bit of rest. I think I'm developing into one...

I think it's different for entrepreneur workaholics. Your startup is your baby. It's fun. It's challenging. It's rewarding. And when you're young I think it's great to dedicate to work. You accelerate your learning. You make more money. You meet smart people. I don't know anyone very knowledgeable and skilled for their age that did a work/life balance route. If you are a workaholic but also a learnaholic, then I don'…

The important distinction, for me, is the self-awareness to truly chose to work more and understand what you're giving up in the process.

I spent a long time being sucked into overworking primarily because I wanted to avoid some aspect of my life without realizing it. I compromised relationships, stopped hobbies that made me relaxed and happy--again without realizing it.

It's scary how life can just pass by while you're in a state like that.

But as long as you're aware of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and the "life debt" you're taking on--rock and roll. Pouring yourself into creating something really is an incredible thing.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#123

Post by axxxo93 »

justathrowa wrote: post #106
vorpalhex wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any kind of meaningful social connections outside of work? Whether it's family, religion, non-religious social orgs, hobbies or whatever, a strong set of social connections tends to correlate with happiness. It might also be worth looking into adopting or rescuing a pet, a senior dog tends to be low energy and they typically have low adoption rates. They are often loyal, loving and excellent companions. I…

>Do you have any kind of meaningful social connections outside of work? No, but that's been the status quo so I was a child. Wouldn't having a social circle that cause more problems though? Suicide's main issue is the distress it causes for social connections. No circle, no problems.

No, my friend. Suicide's main issue is that you will be dead. I urge you to talk to a professional. You don't have to feel this way.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#124

Post by mistersquid »

justathrowa wrote: post #56
honkycat wrote: post #30

Most of the time I've seen it, it is avoidance of the rest of their life. "Change diapers? Oh, sorry honey, I uhh... gotta do this thing at work. Darn it!" One phenomenon I've always noticed about workaholics is that they THINK they are being more productive, but often times they are just spending more time spinning their wheels. Also the effect it has on their mood/interpersonal skills, and the pressure it puts on t…

>But that doesn't mean it is a healthy way to spend all of your time. Dunno about that. Just a personal anecdote, but this year my boss specifically told me to work less, slashing my salary down by $10,000 a year to emphasize the point. Prior to this, 200 to 240 hours a month was pretty typical and has been for the last 8 years. (I doubt it's out of real concern for my health, my workload hasn't been reduced). What I…

Because you've taken concrete steps to prepare for suicide, please take a few minutes to discuss this with a doctor or a mental health professional.

One resource is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#125

Post by scyzoryk_xyz »

exclusiv wrote: post #105
markus_zhang wrote: post #6

I believe workaholists do not neccesarily love their job, but hate something else so much that they would rather find some place to take a bit of rest. I think I'm developing into one...

I think it's different for entrepreneur workaholics. Your startup is your baby. It's fun. It's challenging. It's rewarding. And when you're young I think it's great to dedicate to work. You accelerate your learning. You make more money. You meet smart people. I don't know anyone very knowledgeable and skilled for their age that did a work/life balance route. If you are a workaholic but also a learnaholic, then I don'…

You do know that social media is not the only thing one can do outside of work, right?

Like, there are ways of spending time living that don’t revolve around trying to make “gains”; social, financial or any other kind.

Maybe this is something that your parents mean - they’re expressing a worry over whether you’re getting value out of life, as you’re hustling through all those businesses you seem to be running?

I notice entrepreneurs using the baby analogy a lot. It’s an interesting distortion of reality...

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#126

Post by allenu »

throw_away34892 wrote: post #93

Anyone whos at a FAANG (or similarly paying company) willing to share some insights into what the work culture is? I'd guess that its mostly dependent upon the team, manager, and project. But as my career progresses and I realize I dont want to be doing this shit well into my 50's or hell..60's I figure I can bite the bullet early at a FAANG and stack so much money by the time im 40 I can tell anyone and their mother…

I would say from my experience, having worked at a FAANG-like big software company for a long time, it's very easy to work longer hours because of the culture. You see people responding to emails after hours and during weekends, you see people going the extra mile to meet a deadline, the promotion process is regularly pushed and you're always trying to do more to move onto the next stage, etc.

It's all part of the corporate culture, so you don't even think of it as "workaholism", it's just normal. You live in a bubble and many of your friends work at the same company, so you can't even see a different perspective.

That said, it can be very lucrative over several years since they pay so well. I've since left the company, but have a good nest egg from my work there.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#127

Post by filoleg »

trianglem wrote: post #24
vmception wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was most focused on my career after a breakup. The structure of the work environment coupled with the reward is pretty unparalleled. Other things I can think of with structure usually have a kind of endless goal that can't be spent at your discretion. Rehab, fitness, organized religion. I've never done rehab, but it seems to overlap with fitness where even if you gamify it with achievements, its not like a game at…

I find all of this so hard to relate with. I’ve worked for a decade, have a high paying job and have been promoted multiple times but to me none of it is enjoyable. I don’t think I could ever be happy in a situation where I’m required to do something for 9 hours everyday. I can’t get around the idea that all of this a weak abstraction to make money and care very little for approval from authority figures.

As someone who currently has a pretty emotionally stable life and can totally relate to how you feel right now, I think the "emotionally stable" part is what prevents you from relating to the parent comment.

Back when I had a lot of emotionally turbulent events happening in my life, I was in the same boat as the parent comment you are replying to. Things in life going extremely sideways and leaving me heartbroken/depressed were what pushed me to that same kind of workaholism described above. Every single significant side project I wrote was during some awful-feeling events happening in my life. Those were also the times when I spent the least time doing "fun" things (e.g., videogames), because I just didn't feel like it.

That drive for me had nothing to do with the actual desire to make money or have career advancement, it was just a mirage. In fact, I would say I have more of the actual desire to make more money and advance in career when I am in "good times", but the drive isn't quite there. But when the "bad times" come, I have no actual desire for money/career advancement. I do however get that insane intrinsic drive to just get away from all the "bad things" in life at that time by diving deep into working/studying/etc. It wasn't about money, it was about doing something productive, because most of that work (at least for me) was just side projects that I didn't get paid a dime for, and neither was I expecting or cared to get paid for it.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#128

Post by detaro »

exclusiv wrote: post #119
markus_zhang wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's out of my definition of workoholics though. So I could be biased as I'm using my own definition. IMO if you really enjoy your wor then you are not a workoholic.

I'd agree with you on that too. The article says 7 more hours a week is a workaholic though and based on my experience with friends and family - they too make no distinction on whether you enjoy it or not. Even if you tell them, they don't have that experience to understand. Kind of funny though. Nobody tells an athlete they "train too much". Or a researcher that they "research too much".

> Nobody tells an athlete they "train too much"

Given that the side-effects of that are even worse than other over-work, fairly sure that happens.

> Or a researcher that they "research too much"

Of course they get told that they work too much, or don't let go of work enough. Common stereotype actually.

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#129

Post by legerdemain »

I used to work at a place where "going above and beyond" was celebrated.

Our products were deployed on premises. The support model was that the on-site team would exhaust their ability to troubleshoot and then send you a P0 email or Slack message, and then it was you against the machine, at any and all hours, until the problem was solved.

On Mondays before lunch we'd all pile into the open space to clap as the product lead delivered kudos like, "Oh, and thanks to Will for helping Deployment Foo fix their database corruption on Mother's Day!"

But now I'm not there anymore and their stock is making me money. Grind, little drones, grind, grind!

Re: Workaholism leads to health problems, work addiction risk depends on occupation

#130

Post by honkycat »

justathrowa wrote: post #56
honkycat wrote: post #30

Most of the time I've seen it, it is avoidance of the rest of their life. "Change diapers? Oh, sorry honey, I uhh... gotta do this thing at work. Darn it!" One phenomenon I've always noticed about workaholics is that they THINK they are being more productive, but often times they are just spending more time spinning their wheels. Also the effect it has on their mood/interpersonal skills, and the pressure it puts on t…

>But that doesn't mean it is a healthy way to spend all of your time. Dunno about that. Just a personal anecdote, but this year my boss specifically told me to work less, slashing my salary down by $10,000 a year to emphasize the point. Prior to this, 200 to 240 hours a month was pretty typical and has been for the last 8 years. (I doubt it's out of real concern for my health, my workload hasn't been reduced). What I…

Hey: I'm sorry you are suffering so much you are thinking about taking your own life. I know your pain is real because I have felt it myself before.

I do not want you to commit suicide, please stay with us.

Please call the suicide prevention hotline and get help. Just try to talk to someone on this phone line at least once. It helped me: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

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