Workaholism?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been in work for 3 and a half years now as a software engineer.

Ever since, I've felt happiest while working. When I'm at home, I'm feeling down more than half the time.

I hate being late, so I'm usually between 5 and 20 minutes early every day. I often stay at work late, either to finish stuff off or just because my boss likes to chat a lot.

I pay attention to detail, and I try to do everything perfectly. If I see the slightest mistake I go fix it. This might sound like a good thing and, while in the long term it generally is, it does mean that in the short term everything takes a lot longer than expected, and I get distracted and side-tracked extremely easily... refactoring how a form system works when I just started editing this file to add a couple of fields, for example.

With that said, in a way, I'd like to work more so that I'm feeling better more often, but I do get tired, and I know I can't do any more than I already do.

I had a read of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workaholic and several things there seem to apply to me. I'm bad at working in a team (though I feel like I have improved somewhat in this regard), and I feel like I don't get enough sleep, though I certainly have plenty of chance to sleep earlier for some reason I often don't because it just doesn't seem appropriate to do so? If that even made any sense. Like, right now it's 11pm and I'm staying up and writing this post when I could be sleeping.

Is this a problem? should I try and change how I work? I don't think I can, though, even if people say I should: I always feel that I have to do them in what I feel is the "right way".

I tend towards being a workaholic and it's a very real struggle for me. I take pride in my work and feel a lot of responsibility to ensure it's all done and all done right. We're short-staffed, so there's never a day that I leave and don't have more work to do. What's helped me most is to try to find things that are enjoyable to do at home so I have more motivation to get home. If going home means doing the laundry and vegging out on the couch in front of the TV till bedtime, then I'm liable to just stay at work and get more done, because that's way more fulfilling than watching TV. But, if I have something I'm looking forward to at home, then I'm more eager to leave when the day is over and go enjoy whatever it is I have at home to enjoy. So, maybe see if you can find some home projects to interest you? Maybe even something still related to software engineering, if that's something you really enjoy, but it could still be a home project of your own. Ever thought about collaborating on an open-source project? Or programming mods for a program or game you enjoy? Something like that could enable you to enjoy your coding but also enjoy being home for a bit.

As far as the sleep schedule is concerned, getting enough sleep is important and the only way I know to do it is to set a bedtime and stick to it. That being said, it's 9:15 and my bedtime is 9:00, so I don't stick to it well. However, I've found that my performance at work suffers if I get to sleep past 10, so I make myself go to bed at 9:00 (or close to it) most nights. Use your desire to do good work to encourage healthier sleep patterns. If you're often up past 11, maybe start with 11 being your bedtime, then try moving it back to 10:30 or 10:00 after awhile, and see what bedtime makes you feel best and be most productive at work.

Like I said, I struggle with being a workaholic as well. But try to remember that this is a bad thing. Working hard and taking pride in your work are good, but being a workaholic is not. Thankfully my boss is a living reminder of why it's bad - he's usually at work by 6am, and rarely ever takes even 1 weekend day off, hasn't taken a vacation (even of a day) in many many years, and works all holidays etc. Anytime I catch myself working too much, I look at him - all the hours he puts in and all the lack of appreciation he receives - and remind myself it's not worth it. I don't want to die of a heart attack at 50, so I'm trying to balance my life out and find ways to enjoy relaxing at home so that I actually want to leave work at a reasonable hour.

I'm a recovering workaholic. The question you constantly have to ask yourself is "Do I work to live or do I live to work?". Once your live is about your job and you identity is 100% about your job, you've crossed a line and need to step back to regain your perspective.

I'd suggest trying to balance the two--work and life--with a schedule.

If you're able to get into a routine (for example, go out with friends on Tuesdays, stay in on Fridays), the time you spend relaxing will automatically feel more like relaxing, because, although your day is structured, you know you're not working to an unhealthy point.

The trick is to "... live to work", by picking a job or adopting the attitude that you "can't way to get to work".

There are 3x 8 hours in a day That means a job is only 1/3 of your time.

There are 60 hours between Fri at 6pm and Mon at 6am, that means you can work 40 hours on a weekend and still have 10 hours every day to do whatever.

There are not many activities outside work that have the potential to be as worthy as many jobs are.

So it's been a while since I last posted here... it's come to my attention that I only end up doing things like posting here when I'm feeling depressed, but that's another topic...

I'm staying late a lot less these days, though it helps that there's less pressure at the moment.

A million times I've started hobby projects, but they've never got very far. I usually get bored or get another idea and go off and do that instead. Or I hit a snag and never come back to it.

As for collaborating on an open source project, what's the point? Whatever task it is you're picking to do, someone else who knows far more about how it works will have already done it. Also I'm extremely picky about code style, as is almost every open source project I've ever seen, and sadly those code styles almost always do not line up, to the point where just trying to concentrate on understanding some source code is impossible because I want to punch someone in the face for using spaces instead of tabs or putting braces on separate lines. (Being used to reading GNU source with its ridiculous policies for half-indenting braces and aligning continuation lines to the right of brackets even though that meant shoving what should be three lines into a tiny ten-line column, I actually had a pleasant surprise when I loaded up OpenSSH's source code to find that they had decent formatting...)

But, again, that's another topic.



Setting bedtimes doesn't work because how well I can sleep depends on how I'm feeling at the time.

If I'm feeling totally peppy at ten and could either try to go to sleep straight away or stay up til midnight then sleep til 7 the latter's a much better idea, because if I tried to go sleep at ten or even eleven I'd still be awake at 1am wondering what the hell to do.



That is indeed serious, it makes it hardly worth calling my situation workaholism at all. (Especially now that I'm not actually overworking myself.)



My identity is already 100% about my job and has been for at least a couple years.

There are a few hobby things I spend my time on but hardly anywhere near enough to call it 'what I do'.



I have no life to balance with.



Implying going out with friends is something I'm even capable of?



In the number of times I've come back to look at this thread and ponder replying I've probably stared at this for hours in total, and I still don't understand the logic. Why would I want to work on a weekend? And you seem to be forgetting that another 1/3rd of everyone's time is spent sleeping.

Workaholism is a kind of unhealthy addiction. If other important things in your live are getting less attention than it should, I would talk about addiction of the thing you pay too much attention too. Therefore I think, workaholism is unhealthy and should be looked at. How to solve it?

It is in the same row as drugs, gamble, smoke addiction. Also uncontrolled autistic preoccupation fits in that same row. Eating, sleeping, working, cleaning your house, finances are very important things and must be paid attention to.

Sometimes I do work related things (outside my working hours) but not structurally. Yesterday evening I sent a work related mail to one of my colleagues, with a CC to my boss. I don't see as a problem, as long as you don't that each evening. It is not in your working time, after all.

You've never lived among the Old Order Amish and Mennonites. Their entire mantra is "Work until you drop dead, then get back up and start working again, ya lazy no good fer nothin' bum."

Work being 100% of your identity would be a bad thing it you are/were an NT. Since you are here, I would say it is a good thing (depending where you lie on The Spectrum). It gives your life purpose! It also allows a socialization structure which will keep you from becoming too isolated.

I can relate to this. My self identity revolves around my work and my history of works. Without it I would be an empty head occupying empty space.

However, as Jack said in the shining, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"