HR executives and many senior leaders recognize that working significant overtime hours regularly can cause employee stress and burnout, negatively impact an employee’s personal life, and frankly, is just plain unhealthy.
An internet site now addresses the problems: www.workaholics-anonymous.org. According to a statement on their site, “Workaholics Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover from workaholism.”
Here are some characteristics of workaholics as described on the website:
It is very difficult for us to relax. We often, if not always, feel the need to get just a few more tasks done before we can feel good about ourselves and allow ourselves to relax.
At other times we feel resentment about having to complete tasks when we would rather relax or play. At these times we procrastinate, usually wallowing in self-pity and self-judgment.
We often think of ourselves as either the most intelligent, capable people we know or the most incapable and worthless people we know.
The website hosts online meetings and includes lists of in-person meetings available in many regions. There are many free resources in the form of downloadable PDFs available on the website to help individuals recognize whether they are workaholics and to help them recover from this condition.