Tobiasz Fic
Mrs. Headley
ELA
8 December 2015
Workaholism and Its Effects
Since the world is now fully developed to the point where people do not need to worry about their own survival, new problems arise. There are now modern conflicts, such as cancer, pesticides in the food and water, lack of sleep, and unusual addictions like workaholism. With the new world depending on how much money an individual makes, some men and women fall into an obsession with their career. This process is called workaholism, or simply an addiction to work. Workaholics often are not aware they are addicted to their job, or do not want to talk about it. However with workaholism rates rising, society needs to be aware of all the trouble this wolf in a sheep 's costume
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In his article, "Are You a Workaholic? Workaholism symptoms and regaining balance", Neal Osterweil quotes Bryan E. Robinson: "I always say that the difference between someone who 's a true workaholic and someone who 's just a hard worker is that the workaholic is on the ski slopes dreaming about being back at work, and the hard worker is in the office dreaming about being on the ski slope." (Osterweil). This is a good analogy for this illness, as workaholics often do not know that they are workaholic or do not want to talk about it. The symptoms and effects reveal the …show more content…
Its cause is well known, it is the workaholic 's wage. Many people are workaholic, but plenty of those people do not even realize it. Workaholism has numerous symptoms and consequences, which are separated into physical, mental and social. As physical problems, there is back pain and sickness absence (not feeling well). For mental problems, workaholism is a self- winding treadmill which perpetually gets faster and faster. This causes depression, stress and other symptoms, including headache and stomach ache. Social problems are those within social groups. This includes a workaholic 's relationship, friends, family and children. Workaholism is a brutal mental sickness and with workaholism rates rising, the society needs to be aware of
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
Wilson is the go getter of the group and a workaholic. But his personality creates an interesting dynamic of the fact that he hates it, his work that is, “It makes him seem richer than he already is, though in is mind, it 's a little bit like he 's drowning or gasping for air-like he can 't quite get enough air-and he doesn 't like it” (Bass, 44). From Psychology Today, “ Workaholics use work to cope with emotional discomfort and feelings of inadequacy. They get adrenaline highs from work binges and then crash from exhaustion, resulting in periods of irritability, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression.” Bass never states if Wilson has anxiety or depression, nor low self-esteem, even though that could be an inferiority complex which wouldn 't show except form the workaholism it self. Moreover, an inferiority complex could explain Wilson 's behavior very adequately. People that suffer from an inferiority complex have a lot of the same symptoms of workaholism, like low self-esteem, which is usually overcompensated for by wanting to excel at everything they do. Unfortunately, at other times his addiction comes out in anger, like when he said, “I could kill him,“ (Bass, 46) Here he 's referring to Clifford, the last character of the story; also, this is a common symptom of an inferiority complex, belittling
In the reality of the postmodern world, where nature is gone and has been replaced by technology, where the world and humankind have become fused with the machine, and the existence of morality and reality are uncertain, it is difficult to find hope for a better existence or motivation to attempt to change one's existence. Addiction then becomes a logical avenue of escape from these bleak circumstances--not affecting reality, but transforming it into something bearable. The addictions that Case turns to allow him to escape from the hard reality of his life th...
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
A staggering amount of Americans struggle with a form of addiction or “dependency”. According to Winters, 96% of Americans suffer from codependency. Codependency is referred to as a national epidemic, because almost every form of compulsive behavior can be classified as an addiction (1996). Knowing this staggering statistic, we must ask ourselves: How are we contributing to our own codependency?
Samuel corrects this outcome in her article by explaining, “Whether it’s an overflowing inbox, a backlog of unread articles or a Twitter feed that moves faster than we can read, most of us are suffering from an information overload.” By having multiple programs open at once, such as a web browser, word processor, and email application, people are overloading themselves with too much information, and are therefore less efficient. Richtel explains how multitasking has been scientifically proven to be less efficient by stating, “While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting down irrelevant information, scientists say, and they cause more stress.” By only selecting one task at a time to complete, one can stop the information overload causing the loss of focus and the ability to let go of useless figures and programs. However, a loss of focus is not only the consequence of multitasking. A disorder, or as Sam Horn describes it, “. . . a distinctive type of brain organization,” called ADHD causes odd behaviors such as restlessness in children and impatience in adults (Restak 413-414). Restak describes ADHD’s involvement in the workplace by stating, “In order to be successful in today’s workplace you have to incorporate some elements of ADD/ADHD” (416). Multitasking has made the behaviors stated above normal in the workplace, but the symptoms from ADHD or ADD can be limited by reserving a person’s attention to one matter at a time. Though working on only one task at a time may seem less efficient at first, having to switch between programs could cause a loss of focus due to the many distractions such programs could bring
When the U.S. is compared to the conditions of other workers in other countries the numbers come as quite a shock. According to the magazine Psychology Today, “The United States—one of the richest countries in the world--ranks 28th among advanced nations in the category of work-life balance, 9th from the bottom” (Cummins 1). This stressful imbalance of home life with excessive work hours has left us in desperate need of more time and is becoming a strong identifier of American culture in the world. As Cummins explains, “We log long hours at work with the fear of losing our jobs through downsizing hanging over our heads. Then we fight rush hour traffic to get home in time to be super-parents, putting dinner on the table, helping our kids with their homework, and checking in with friends and family members we feel we have neglected because we are so overwhelmed” (Cummins 1). This well pa...
Labor Day is not like many other U.S. holidays. It is a celebration without specific traditions, like family dinners or prayers. For most people, Labor Day just marks the last weekend of summer and the start of a new school year.
My past experience of procrastinating caused me to nearly fail a class, due to letting the gratification monkey get a hold of me. Even though, Tim Urban in his article, “Inside The Mind Of A Master Procrastinator,” discusses the entities of procrastination. Unfortunately, procrastination can cause many health problems, physical and emotional. Procrastination can make a person feel a sense of self-reliance. Finally, managing tasks in order of importance allows a person to gain more control over their sleep, health, as well as their outcome of tasks. At the end of the day it is about getting it
Jon Olson wrote an article on procrastination because it affects the workers at his fabrication company. He looked into a study from a recent conference of the Psychological Society at a university in Toronto shows “200 Canadian students found that procrastinators put themselves under so much pressure by delaying action that they suffered more stress-related illness than others” (Olson 20-21). Stress from adjourning can cause illness? Definitely not a good sign. Especially because most everyone puts off working. I know if I put off work, it ends up getting done really late at night, then I don’t get enough sleep. This can be one way I make myself more vulnerable to illness. In the same study, supporting the fact that illness occurred more with procrastination, the student’s positive attitudes turned into colds, back pain, headaches, allergies, and sleeping issues (Olson 20-21). These effects are unhealthy, so much so that their lagging could get worse due to their health conditions. If they get little sleep or feel like they are hurting, they will want to sleep to ‘do it tomorrow’ when they are energized or healthy. This will lead to more stress as the deadline for their assignment gets closer, leading to more feelings of
Among the stressed college students, the busy teachers, and the common people in the workforce, one question stands to be asked and asked again; is procrastination natural? Is that why it comes so easily to most people? It goes without saying that millions of people have stood awake in their beds at night contemplating if the habits that come with procrastination are normal. Another question that is likely to follow, is are they worse than average? Can anyone else in the entirety of the world relate to them? The fact that other people may be going through the same thing is reassuring to them.
to the environment and social life. There are different types of stress and its stressors we face in our daily lives. A huge source of stress comes from the workplace. It is caused by work and workload. Many employees become victim of the stress in the workplace both physically and mentally. This is underlying the workplace stress. This essay will discuss internal and external stress.
Everyday, there are workers who come home from their jobs with a high amount of health issues. Headaches, aching muscles, exhaustion, and many more health issues have workers wondering why this is happening. All of these symptoms can be linked to stress in the workplace. Job stress has become more of a problem than ever before. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades (“Workplace Stress,” 2004).
Research indicates that long working hours contribute largely to stress and stress related diseases. Currently, employees are being put on pressure by the organization in order to achieve the set goals. Nevertheless, the employees are willing to work for longer hours in order to earn more money to satisfy their increasing needs (Gullotta et al., 2003:23). On the other hand, the organizations have been compelling their subordinates to work for longer hours as a way of punishment or increasing the possibility of achieving the set goals within the stipulated time. This aspect has increased the number of depressed people in the population. With many people being unaware of how to deal with depression, they are turning to smoking. As a result, long working hours have been associated with smoking behaviors (Burke & Cooper 2008:46). The most affected people are the young people. This behavior has increased the number of people suffering from cancer and other respiratory related diseases in the world. In addition, it has increased the number of people suffering from heart and lung diseases.
In some instances in our life we experience stress. Stress can have both a positive or negative impact in a person’s life. On the positive side, stress can be the force that drives a person to perform well during an interview or a piano recital. However, from another perspective, stress can be a negative force that people do not desire. For example, if a person is waiting in traffic for a long time, then, the resulting stress will have negative impact on their mood and their day can be spoilt. If a person’s stress is left untreated for a certain amount of time, then there is a high chance that it can become chronic. This essay will focus on some of the effects that stress can have on a person and the