Workaholism is described as the inability to stop working ... or thinking or talking about work, writes CIARÁN BRENNAN
LAST YEAR, the Nagoya District Court in central Japan ruled that a Toyota Motor employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month, reversing an earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow.
The Toyota Labour Standards Inspection office had refused to pay the usual compensation for a spouse's work-related death, saying the man had only logged 45 hours of overtime in the month before he died, Japanese media reported.
The employee died of irregular heartbeat in February 2002 after passing out in the factory at around 4am.
It wasn't the first death in Japan from overwork. Japanese corporate culture has been criticised for encouraging, or turning a blind eye to, "workaholism" among employees. Working overtime is so common for the Japanese that they even have a term for it: karoshi.
In Japan, an average worker uses fewer than 50 per cent of paid holidays, according to government data.
In fiscal year 2005-2006, the labour ministry received 315 requests for compensation from the bereaved families of workers who died of strokes and other illnesses often seen as work-related.
But overwork, work addiction or workaholism is not limited to the land of the rising sun.
A recent survey of 8,000 people by the UK Institute of Personnel and Development found that one in every three people works more than 48 hours per week and claims to be addicted to their jobs.
And while another survey here by the Small Firms Association concluded that small businesses in Ireland lose on average €793 million per annum through absenteeism, conspicuous by its absence was how much firms gain from employees who work overtime without being paid, bring work home with them or come in at weekends to get jobs and projects finished.
That's because work addiction or workaholism is known as "respectable" addiction - and in a society where people are increasingly measured by what they do, how and where they work, and what they achieve at work, those who are addicted to work are more often than not rewarded and encouraged for their unhealthy activity.
Workaholism can be described as the inability to stop working, says psychologist and stress expert Karen Belshaw.
Whether you are in the office, at home, in bed, or socialising, if you find that you cannot stop thinking about work or talking about work, then it is very likely that you are, or are about to become, a workaholic, she says.
"It is basically when someone feels addicted to work, they need to work, they work seven days a week, more than eight hours a day and every time they sleep or go home, they constantly think about work and are obsessed about work," agrees Owen Fitzpatrick, psychologist, time management expert and presenter of RTÉ's Not Enough Hours.
The key thing to realise is that workaholism or work addiction is not the same as working hard or working long days. Work addiction is when work interferes with your life.
"If you love what you do and you don't have any other responsibilities and you are very happy in your life - if you are working 10 hours a day, seven days a week, it is probably not the most healthy thing in the world, but it is still okay," says Fitzpatrick.
"I wouldn't have too much of a problem with somebody if they were delighted with that and that was just a phase they were going through at the time, but 90 per cent of people aren't in that situation.
"These are people who work and have family, have friends, have other hobbies they would like to do, but work takes predominance."
There are two types of work addicts, according to Belshaw.
"The passive workaholic tends to be that person because of low self-esteem and a need to please and a need to prove themselves and they are almost afraid not to work," she says. "They don't have the self confidence so they keep on pushing themselves."
Aggressive work addicts are thriving on the release of dopamine in the brain which is a reward/pleasure chemical released when we achieve something, get work done or a project finished.
"It's almost as if, the more they work, the more they need to work," says Belshaw. "In the long run they are going to lose out on the personal side of life.
"They miss out on a lot of things - relationships, parenting, they just miss out on what I call the 'me time', that moment to do nothing or do something you enjoy."
As the Japanese case demonstrates, they are also putting their health at risk.
Whether it truly is an addiction in the manner or alcoholism or drug use, or a coping strategy, it is unhealthy because many workaholics are highly stressed, says Belshaw.
"From a physical and emotional point of view, workaholics are suffering a lot more physical problems like chest pains and headaches, stomach troubles, back pain, even arthritis, heart disease and migraines."
Both Belshaw and Fitzpatrick say that the first step in dealing with the problem is to recognise it and acknowledge it. Only then can you start to cope with it. That can involve everything from doing something which signals work is finished such as changing your clothes and having a shower when you come home, to finding new hobbies and pursuits where there is a strict rule about not talking about work.
The idea is to get some balance in your life, says Fitzpatrick.
"There's nothing wrong with working hard," he says. "I work hard but I give myself lots of time for enjoying life as well. It's just about building balance."
'The turning point was recognising the problem'
Conor Holmes is a self-confessed workaholic from Naas, Co Kildare, who recently appeared on RTÉ's Not Enough Hours, a programme which looked at how we organise our increasingly busy lives.
Four years ago, Holmes and his wife set up their own publishing business, Outside the Box.
Like the promoter of any fledgling business, he worked long hours to get it off the ground and become successful. But as the company became more successful, he found he was working longer and longer hours.
"At one stage I was probably working 100 hours a week," he says.
Holmes regularly brought his laptop home and continued working in front of the television. He would even wake up in the middle of the night and start working on projects.
How work really had taken over his life became apparent when he went on holidays to Italy a few years ago. He brought his laptop with him and would work a few hours every morning from 5.30am, so that his children would not know that he was working while on holidays.
His was the classic case of the difference between a hard worker and a work addict. A hard worker will be at his or her desk dreaming of a holiday on a beach. A workaholic will be on the beach fretting about work in the office.
"I had a problem saying no," says Holmes. "People would come to me because they probably knew I would always say yes."
The turning point was recognising he had a problem and enlisting the help of psychologist Owen Fitzpatrick.
"I never bring my laptop home and that has been a big plus," he says. "I don't work weekends. I don't come in early in the mornings anymore. I'm much better at being able to say 'that's today's work done'."
He says he is now much more organised and has learned to delegate tasks, which has helped ease his workload.
"I use a to-do list and have everything categorised in terms of importance."
