Being a workaholic is not a badge of honor.

It's a sign that there are deeper issues you need to address.

Does enjoying your work mean that you are a workaholic? 🤔 

As with any pleasurable activity or habit, enjoying work while setting clear boundaries is a healthy approach. 

However, becoming obsessed with work to the extend that you are unable to switch off, or unable to focus your attention on other things/aspects in your life is a workplace behavior that bears huge costs on your mental health as well as on the organization that you are working for. 

What drives workaholic behavior? 

Intrinsic factors

1. Need for control: lacking confidence in your ability to adapt to change and thus, constantly seeking predictability. This may also lead to micromanagement and inability to delegate tasks. 

2. Achievement orientation: if your mantra is "more work = more recognition" then you may see long hours and relentless effort as necessary for achieving your goals. 

3. Emotional avoidance: work can offer an escape from difficult situations in your life and it becomes a distraction or a way to fill a void. 

4. Societal and cultural conditioning: you may feel societal pressure to work excessively to meet cultural expectations, especially if your role models growing up have set this example. 

Extrinsic factors

Additionally, there are -extrinsic factors- that drive workaholism such as workplace culture.

You may find yourself in a high-stakes or competitive environment where overworking is normalized or even rewarded. These types of environments also tend to lack psychological safety and score high in job insecurity. 

What can you do about it? 

1. First, try to understand whether the enjoyment you get from working has become an obsession (and whether you can still maintain healthy boundaries with other areas of your life). 

2. If that's the case, define whether the factors driving your workaholic behavior are intrinsic or extrinsic. If the latter is the case, ask yourself if it's time to find a different (and healthier) work environment. 

3. But, if there are intrinsic motives to your behavior, you will need to apply different tools and strategies, such as:

   1. Time blocking for breaks and other non-work activities 

   2. Mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing exercises for reducing anxiety 

   3. Delegation worksheet for your team

   4. Coaching or therapy to address the root causes 

As with any "obsessive" behavior, realization and self-awareness are hard. And, building positive habits to counteract its effects is even harder. However, the impact of workaholic behavior can be so destructive in the long-term that it's worth the effort of making a change.