Defence

Work–Life

Don't die for a deadline!

It seems nowadays that it's not so much about working hard to sustain life and make ends meet; working too hard or too much has become something of an addiction or compulsion. Why should we be working harder when our quality of life is better? Isn't that a contradiction? Katharina Chase explores the phenomenon of workaholism ...

There is a difference between a hard worker and a workaholic. Hard workers are those that put in 100 per cent of their effort to every job, but once that job is done, they get on with the rest of their life. Workaholics, by contrast, are people who place work at the top of their list of life priorities, for a variety of reasons. The workaholic is not in control of his life, and cannot set that important boundary between work and life. It is surprisingly easy to fall into a pattern of work being the main focus and the rest of life being secondary, or even nonexistent.

You may assume that the majority of people would do anything to work less and play more. This could be generally correct; however, if someone's only source of fulfilment or form of amusement is work, then work becomes something desirable. In fact, a slow descent into workaholism will often cause alienation from friends and family, and in turn work becomes the only thing of value in someone's life.

Many people have a love–hate relationship with work. They find work stressful and challenging, yet at the same time they need that stress and challenge in their lives as a form of motivation or amusement.

Addicted to work

The label 'workaholic' does not simply correlate directly with the number of hours someone works. Working long hours is the unavoidable norm in the life of many professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, accountants, consultants, academics, and teachers. You could safely say that when people get into these types of jobs, they have a general understanding of the level of work involved and an expectation in relation to the length of working hours. It is also probable that the types of people who get into these professions in the first place are those that are prone to workaholism.

A classic sign of a workaholic is someone who fears that the work task or project will all 'fall apart' when he or she isn't at work. It is often the person who takes the most responsibility for a project. Workaholism can begin with a short stint of working excessive hours to finish an important task. Many people actually produce better work under pressure, and if the outcome is successful, it can be easy to continue to work in this way and being certain of producing good work. Supervisors begin to expect a large amount of output and often don't realise the amount of effort required.

A way out

According to one theory, preventing or stopping workaholism is all about setting boundaries, in order to be clear on what is work and what is life. For example, even if you work from home, setting a boundary would be ensuring that you're working a set number of hours during the day and working only in the study and not in the lounge room or bedroom. Such arrangements make sense in most cases. Working can be a great tool to help get you back on track after a confusing time in your life, particularly if it involves adhering to a routine. Using work as a way of moving forward with your life may be effective in the short term, but it is unhealthy to have nothing in your life except work.

A sign of the times

A hundred years ago, most people didn't worry about working too much or too little; they didn't have a choice. Working was usually about earning a living, and there was a clear distinction between work and leisure time—if there was any of the latter to be had. You made ends meet by working, and the difference between what was needed and what was unnecessary was clear. People didn't worry about the luxuries; they just worked, earned their living and lived.

Things have changed. According to one current theory, the acquisition of goods—that is, consumerism—is a direct cause of workaholism. What was previously considered luxury is now considered vital. A recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Oliver James discusses this theory, saying that in the latter part of the twentieth century, consumption itself became 'a need, not just a want'. The change in society is described as a vicious circle, whereby the more people worked, the higher the standard of consumption became, which in turn increased working hours. Mr James suggests that, instead of indulging in workaholism to keep up with societal pressures, people should 'create a new domestic economy of regard' between themselves that 'makes life worth living'. It is true to say that allowing work to take over your life in order to maintain a high standard of living (which you can never fully appreciate because you're working so hard) is not the ideal and should be avoided. However, in reality, those supposed 'luxuries' really are necessities for some people; things like a reliable car, a decent house, insurance, a credit card could all be considered luxuries, but for many different reasons they're all things some people can't do without. So it's not enough to say we should be willing to sacrifice luxuries in order to have more time with our families. Some people have sacrificed as much as they can and still have to work long hours in order to make ends meet.

Working yourself to death

This may seem like an extreme concept, and it is; however, in Japan, there is a word for it: 'karoshi'. This term describes the concept of workaholism involving working yourself to death. According to Human Capital Asia (HCA) magazine, there have been over 30 000 cases of 'karoshi' in Japanese workplaces since its recognition as a workplace hazard in the 1980s. The problem is so great that the Japanese Government actually provides a pension for families of 'karoshi' victims. What they're actually doing to prevent this phenomenon remains to be seen. HCA magazine reports that no other government in Asia has recognised the problem to such an extent.

The statistics, as reported by HCA magazine, are not as extreme for other countries around the world; however, the Unites States has surpassed the Japanese, British and Germans in terms of the average number of hours worked per year.

HCA magazine also mentions 'kiasu', a fear of making mistakes, which is apparently very common in Singapore and other Asian cultures. The idea is that a person has a great fear that even the smallest mistake could have dire consequences, and will go to any length to check and double-check work in order to prevent such an occurrence. Although the intention is to create perfection and prevent mistakes, this obsessive checking in fact creates more work and therefore inefficiency. Many workaholics are not actually efficient workers, but their dedication gives the impression that they are working hard and therefore producing results.

Closer to home

So what is the Australian Public Service (APS) perspective on this? The Australian Public Service Commission's State of the Service Report 2004–2005 showed that, of those people intending to leave the APS in the next three years, over 36 per cent indicated that their reason for leaving was due to lack of job satisfaction, and 11 per cent said their workload was excessive.

The Defence Attitude Survey of 2004–05 revealed that almost 30 per cent of Defence employees considered their working hours to be excessive and over 25 per cent disagreed that their workplace encourages a healthy balance between work, home and family.

Statistics from the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes 2003 published in Australian social attitudes: the first report (Australian National University, 2005) show that the lower the job satisfaction, the higher the percentage of people wanting to work fewer hours.

How does all this relate to the phenomenon of workaholism and what can we do to stop it? The fact is that there will always be those who work too hard for the wrong reasons. For those Defence people who know this about themselves but feel out of control of the situation, there are a number of avenues to investigate in relation to gaining control of work and life balance.

Defence's Employee Assistance Program provides fair access to professional counselling services for all employees and their dependants. The three-day Results through People workshop and the one-day Personal Effectiveness workshop can be very beneficial in terms of addressing key behaviours in a Defence context. Both workshops look at the integration of the individual into a work context.

The D'Arcy Consulting Group delivers the Personal Efficiency Program (PEP). PEP is a structured learning experience that focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the individual in the workplace as well as team interactions.

Further information on these services is available as follows:

Employee Assistance Program: www.eap.com.au

Results through People: [ site not publicly available ]

Personal Effectiveness: [ site not publicly available ]

Personal Efficiency Program: [ site not publicly available ]

In addition, further general information on wellbeing can be found on the Defence Personnel Executive Wellbeing page, at [ site not publicly available ].

[ top of page ]