Workaholism or Workload Overload

Question 1

On January 1 2017, French laws came into effect to protect workers from having to attend to

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emails out of hours

Question 1

The term ‘workaholism’ first appeared in the literature in the

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1970s

Question 2

much of what has been written on the topic has not conceptualised workaholism as a

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behavioural addiction

Question 3

Scott, Moore and Miceli (1997) define workaholism as consisting of three core elements:

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a) A great deal of time spent on work activities;

b) Preoccupation with work, even when the individual is not working; and

c) Working beyond what is reasonably expected of the individual to meet their job requirements.

Question 4

Other researchers have suggested that workaholism also includes

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spending longer hours at work due to internal compulsion rather than external factors (Ng, Sorensen & Feldman, 2007) and a psychological inability to detach from work (Taris et al., 2008).

Question 5

While some researchers propose that the number of hours worked is a key indicator of workaholism (e.g., Taris et al., 2008), Griffiths (2011) argues that

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this is not a core feature of this form of addiction

Question 6

Other behaviours thought to typify workaholism include

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job involvement/commitment, job stress, perfectionism, and difficulty delegating

Question 7

Schaufeli et al. (2006) proposed that workaholics

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are actually unhappy obsessives who have low job performance

Question 8

Another view is that work addiction provides a socially accepted avenue for people to

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neglect other elements of their life (Persaud, 2004) or avoid thinking about their personal and emotional life (Robinson, 2000).

Question 8

Griffiths (2011) concluded that workaholism is higher amongst

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professionals, and particularly professionals in the field of medicine

Question 9

A large Dutch survey study (n = 9,160) found high average scores of workaholism within

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agricultural, construction, communication and consultancy workers, people working in commerce and trade, and managers and higher professionals (Taris, Van Beek, & Schaufeli, 2012)

Question 10

agricultural, construction, communication and consultancy workers, people working in commerce and trade, and managers and higher professionals (Taris, Van Beek, & Schaufeli, 2012)

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high levels of job stress due to the demands they place upon themselves

Question 10

Workaholism has also been linked to poorer relationships with

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work colleagues and increased competitiveness at work

Question 11

The findings regarding workaholism and job satisfaction and career progression are

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mixed (Clark et al., 2014).

Question 12

There is also evidence to suggest workaholism is associated with high levels of

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burnout, particularly the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and depersonalisation (Clark et al., 2014).

Question 13

Workaholism has been found to be positively correlated with

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ADHD, anxiety, obsessing and depression (Andreassen, Griffiths, Sinha, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2016), suggesting a co-morbid aspect to this addiction.

Question 14

The meta-analysis by Clark et al. concluded that workaholism was positively associated with

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work-life conflict, marital discord, and negatively related to family satisfaction and functioning

Question 15

The overall life satisfaction, physical and mental health of workaholics is also generally lower than

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ordinary workers (Clark et al., 2014)