Workaholism
Effie Mansdorf 
 

Several moths ago, my employer Phil Friedman, founder and owner of Ward Media, went on his honeymoon to Hawaii. Together with his new bride and luggage, he also took his laptop, his Blackberry, and his cell phone. While some might see his commitment to his job admirable, others might classify him as a text book case of a workaholic. 

Workaholism, or Compulsive Work Syndrome, is defined as, “a compulsive and unrelenting need to work.” The official term was coined around 30 years ago, and brings to mind a tattered business man in his office at 3:00 AM surrounded by McDonald wrappers. These days, however, the term workaholic has been redefined. No longer affecting mostly men, workahlism is not gender bias and effects women at the same rate. Furthermore, you do not have to be confined to an office to be deemed a workaholic. Nowadays, with the widespread use of cell phones, internet connectivity at home and wireless PDAs, the line of where a workday begins and ends is blurred.

I myself, being immersed in the daily e-marketing stress of drop dates, deadlines, server uptime and URL redirects, have been a victim of some form of workaholism in one way or another. Many times, my day does not end when I leave my office. Having an obsessive need to check on campaigns, email clients, and work on projects with tight deadlines, I often find myself working out of home on weekends and evenings.

Dr. Irwin Kafri, an internationally renowned psychologist specializing in stress disorders, targets the modern home office as a breeding ground for workaholics. “People must create boundaries between work and home”, says Dr. Kafri. He recommends using a separate cell phone for work and shutting it off at home as well as putting away all wireless devices in a drawer. “Out of reach out of mind”, he says, “This way you are not constantly reminded of and lured by work when you are in your home”. He also recommends using a laptop for work and a desktop for home related use. This helps create differences between work related activities and home related ones.

Having a home office can prove to be a challenge when creating these boundaries. David Adelsberg, a home-based web designer finds it particularly difficult. “I don’t have the typical 9 to 5 workday”, he says. “I’m often up at 6:00AM hard at work on a project”. He claims that when clients see his email time stamped at odd hours, they feel it’s ok to call him at home at those times. “I have a client who is crazy workaholic and is up at those hours as well. My wife can’t stand it when I get the crack-of-dawn-phone calls”, says David. Indeed, a study that has appeared in American Journal of Family Therapy, followed 1,000 individuals whose spouses were diagnosed as workaholics. The study showed that these couples had a 40% higher divorce rate than their non-workaholic counterparts.  

Dr. Bryan Robinson, a therapist and professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte who also lead the study, remarks that, "Workaholism is a very serious problem. It's a compulsive disorder that not only affects the workaholic but also his/her family, and their workplace." Dr. Robinson says that the workaholic’s health is also significantly affected. Aside from mental health issues such as depression, workaholism can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease as well as psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches and fatigue.

Studies show that people are more productive at the workplace when they take time off and have a healthy work-home balance. A recent catch phrase term has been coined for obsessive compulsive Blackberry users. They are called “Crackberries” for the constant need to check their Blackberries every 5 seconds. Are you ready to put the Blackberry down?  Go ahead- you’ll feel better doing it.

Effie Mansdorf is the Director of Production and Operations at Ward Media Inc.