Are you a Workaholic or an Engaged Worker?

Workaholics are the one kind of “aholic” that society values. In fact, many people are proud to call themselves workaholics, thinking that it makes them seem more like a valued employee. Workaholism is hardly ideal. It’s definitely not great to be obsessed with your work at the expense of your other interests and loved ones. We all know what happened to Jack: this tendency to work, work, work makes all of us dull boys (or girls). True workaholics are even worse than dull, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

There are quite a few people that became workaholics when the Great Recession hit a few years ago. The shadow of downsizing inspired many employees to crank it into another gear of productivity just to keep the job.

But even before the great recession threatened all of us with downsizing, societal pressures drove us to work hard and make more money in the “pursuit of happiness”, despite all the evidence that tells us that more money simply doesn’t make you happier. But that didn’t stop workers from trying to prove them wrong.

As a business owner I like my team to work hard but not at the expense of their family life. I have always looked at this as ‘swings and roundabouts’, what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts. There are times when I expect my team to work long hours if we are to achieve a deadline. To me it also shows how Customer centric we are as the team wish to do a good job for our clients. I also believe it shows commitment to our company and their colleagues. But I also expect for the team to get ‘paid back’. It’s important that it’s not all one way. We are lucky to work all over the world. When a colleague visits a different country to help a client improve their Customer Experience, I encourage them to take time off during working hours to explore their surroundings. It’s ‘swings and roundabouts’.

Engaged Workaholics

Tim Gould’s ‘Engaged workaholics’ differ from traditional workaholics in that they are devoted to their jobs simply because they love them. An engaged workaholic is at work because it doesn’t feel like work. They derive a lot of self-satisfaction from what they do, which they perceive as important. In addition, Gould’s engaged workaholic has healthy relationship with their family, a network of friends, and an occasional outside interest or two.

The late Steve Jobs is an excellent example of a hardworking, engaged workaholic. He was an expert in all things Apple and took the company to unparalleled heights during his reign. He was quoted as saying: “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” Jobs did what he did because he loved it.

These new types of engaged workaholic/outliers add significant value to the workplace but they also change the world. Each of these people was or is an outlier because they put in the time and the hard work to become the expert. They are engaged workaholics that love what they do, so much so that they worked very hard at it for at least 10,000 hours.

Colin S.