Workaholics

I was amazed to find a community of workaholics in a social networking site. What was even more intriguing was that some of my friends were members of it!!!. 5 out of 70 members were chartered accountants!!!!Why do people take pride in saying that they are workaholics??? Being a bandh today, I am at home and feeling bored as ever, I googled this topic and landed up with some interesting answers.

First Who is a workaholic?

A workaholic can be defined as someone who spends extraordinary time or effort at his or her work. The similarity with the word "alcoholic" provides a negative tone, meaning that the person is "addicted" to his or her work and would rather spend time at work rather than activities that most people find enjoyable.

Workaholics can be of 2 types. Voluntary and involuntary workaholics. Who are these involuntary workaholics?

In this context, the term "involuntary workaholic" can seem puzzling because it conflicts with the general belief that workaholics derive pleasure from what they are doing.

Involuntary workaholics are those people who are driven by external forces to work longer, even though they would rather be doing something else. Insufficient staffing, inflexible deadlines, lack of planning, improper prioritization, bad estimates, poor quality and unforeseen risks can create circumstances where employees and managers have to work harder and longer. Many workaholics are actually victims of situations created by themselves or other people or processes in their organization. They are working harder because they have no other choice.

How are involuntary workaholics created?

A second type of involuntary workaholic is created by managers who wrongly associate more effort with more output, and reward or encourage workaholic behavior. Such managers are themselves busy all the time and they want to see everyone put in as much effort as they do. Such a direction puts pressure on everyone to demonstrate their "dedication". However the proxy for more effort is simply "more time spent in the office" or "more face time with the manager", not necessarily actual work.

What are the problems for workaholics?

Quality is the first casualty in a workaholic environment as people hit biological limits on their body and brains and start making elementary mistakes. Then, the rate of work getting done starts decreasing, because people get too tired to contribute as effectively, and also need time to fix the mistakes that they made. In the end, there is only a very short-term improvement in productivity coupled with major quality problems and a long-term decline in productivity and increase in attrition due to employee resentment.

From organisation's standpoint?

From an organization's standpoint, there are significant advantages to having voluntary workaholics over involuntary ones. Voluntary workaholics are more knowledgeable and produce high quality of work consistently. They tend to be more flexible with changing needs because they have more time at their disposal. They are willing to take on more responsibilities, even if they sometimes overestimate their capabilities.

Crudely for workaholics the law of diminishing marginal utility does not apply.

Hard work hasn't killed anybody but why take a chance!!!!