In our culture, the idea of workaholism is widely accepted. We hear about people who stay at work until late at night or even sleep at the office. It is considered a great achievement to throw yourself into the fray for the sake of completing a project. There is no such thing as too much work—everything should be manageable. However, workaholism is not only pointless but also unreasonable. Just because you work more doesn’t mean you accomplish more or deliver better results. It only means you are working more. Workaholics often spiral out of control, creating more problems than they can solve. First of all, it’s simply not possible to maintain that pace all the time. And when the wave of fatigue catches up with you—and it will—the impact will be stronger the longer you’ve been running from it.
Workaholics often miss the point. They try to solve problems by dedicating more time to them. They attempt to compensate for a lazy mind with brute force. All of this, of course, leads to inelegant solutions.
They even know how to create crises. They don’t look for ways to improve their efficiency simply because, in reality, they…likework a lot. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unconsciously) just to dedicate themselves more to work. I, in this. The post reminded me of a joke about “standing, on skates, on a horse,” which is about workaholics.
Workaholics make those who don’t stay late and only work during regular hours feel uncomfortable. This leads to feelings of guilt and a drop in motivation among everyone around them. Moreover, it causes people to become “glued to their chairs” — they stay late at work as if they are obligated to do so, even if they aren’t doing anything useful or productive during that time.
If all you do is work, you have no chance of making sound decisions. Your values and choices become skewed. You lose the ability to understand what requires more effort and what doesn’t. You simply enter a state of constant fatigue. No one can make good decisions when they are tired.
And finally, workaholics really don’t do anything more than non-workaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that only means they spend an excessive amount of time on trivial details instead of moving on to the next task.
Workaholics are not heroes. They don’t save time; they just waste it. The real hero has been at home for a long time because he has found a faster way to get everything done.