On being a workaholic
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
– Anatole France
Those of you who read my blog may know that I come from a family that works really hard. My Mom and Dad, both originally lawyers but also educators, put a lot of hours every day to fit everything in: our schooling, our extra-curricular activities, our family life, etc. My brothers (all of them, but in particular the two who like me have PhDs and are academics) put in really long hours.
I won’t even begin to describe my own approach to work because I am pretty sure people know that my work ethic is solid and I am willing to go the extra mile as well. That’s how we were raised – to do our best, and to put in the hours that we needed in order to become successful at what we do.
I don’t actually think I’m a workaholic, to be quite honest. I do think that I have a fairly decent work/life balance. As indicated by Oates (1971), workaholism is perceived primarily as an addictive disorder. I really enjoyed Solapietro and Salomone’s (1994) definition of workaholism
an excessive commitment to work that is manifested by a neglect of other important aspects of life
In my case, I have never fully neglected other important aspects of my life. But I will have to admit that in the past, I’ve done too much work and stopped going to the gym. But this 2010, as indicated in my 2010 Manifesto, I’ve decided to take care of myself again, and that means that I am working really hard at not letting my work get in the way of anything else. I think I’m succeeding (I am still swimming, dancing, exercising and I’d say my social life hasn’t suffered).
But having work/life balance doesn’t mean slacking off or working much less. Being successful means putting in the (sometimes countless) hours required to master skills and knowledge. Something that made me ponder whether our society rewards us when we are “workaholics”? Because, seriously, sometimes we just need to work really hard and put in long hours. How to achieve perfect balance? And is such a thing possible?
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I don’t know if balance is possible! As a workaholic myself, I think it can be helpful when others tell us when we should/shouldn’t “cut ourselves some slack.”
Sorry Raul, but yes you are a workaholic. Working or being at the office 7 times a week does not equal a work/life balance in my humble opinion. You have to have the time to push away and concentrate on yourself. Yes you are working out and hitting the gym, but that too can become “work” and an obsession by some. You need to be able to just go out and enjoy what life has to offer. Turn that email off, turn the computer off, turn twitter off. Just have a what I like to call, a veg day where you do absolutely nothing.
Yes society has told us that to succeed we need to put countless hours into work, but when you start to forget the last time you had a vacation or took time off work, then you have to really answer the question – was it worth it?
Even today you tweeted that you were holding extra student hours and then tweeted right after that you were exhausted. So why have the extra student hours? Do you think you students would benefit more if you were rested when giving them advice?
Ok I can go on and on here, but I won’t I have work to do
[...] in the academic realm, and he blogs several times a day. To this end, he talks to us about being a workaholic and how he is still able to maintain a relatively healthy work-life balance despite having such a [...]