Workaholics

Even as the precise outlines of workaholism remain a bit fuzzy, various studies have tried to identify its physical and emotional effects. At the risk of carrying on like a Pfizer ad: research has associated it with sleep problems, weight gain, high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression. That’s to say nothing of its toll on family members. Perhaps unsurprisingly, spouses of workaholics tend to report unhappiness with their marriages. Having a workaholic parent is hardly better. A study of college undergraduates found that children of workaholics scored 72 percent higher on measures of depression than children of alcoholics. They also exhibited more-severe levels of “parentification” — a term family therapists use for sons and daughters who, as the paper put it, “are parents to their own parents and sacrifice their own needs … to accommodate and care for the emotional needs and pursuits of parents or another family member”.

In the new September issue of The Atlantic, Jordan Weissmann goes through several studies to examine who psychologists deem to be actual workaholics vs. workers who are just really dedicated to their jobs but not truly addicted to them. Estimates from one of the studies show that 10 percent of the American workforce are workaholics, though a much higher percentage of workers believe themselves to be one. I’d like to believe that I am one but let’s go through some of those symptoms: sleep problems (check), weight gain (check), high blood pressure (nope), anxiety (sometimes), depression (nope). Perhaps I am not a workaholic then, but I am halfway there.

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