"Notes" #8 Here Is a Thought For You!

The person was totally overworked, working 60 hours a week, sometimes 10 days in a row and of course was near burnout. He had tried many times to convince the workplace to change how it treated their employees and it seemed nobody listened, not even colleagues. The quotas and bonuses were more important than personal health.

I did my best to have this person understand that he needed to take care of himself because the workplace certainly wasn't going to. It is not easy to convince someone - in this case a "People Pleaser", a person who all his life has tried to please everyone, at the workplace, as well as in his personal life - to change. After much discussion we concluded that he needed to stop being the "Go To" person as well as always having to be a really nice guy--it was killing him!

I encouraged him to resign from the "Go to Person" club. Membership in this club means you probably have a condition where you need to be the first person everybody comes to when they need extra help or something done that is over and above the normal work day. The condition is brought on by low self-esteem. "There is a great need to be needed"--that's how the individual gets his/her recognition and "strokes". They believe they have to do more than anybody else just to be accepted.

I suggested he write out his resignation. We laughed, but he began to see that his over-commitment to his job and his role of super nice guy, available to everyone who asked, was pointing him towards burnout and his present unhappiness.

How many of you still belong to the "Go to Person" club? Do you need  to turn in your resignation and get some balance in your life?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some tid-bits to consider after COVID-19 ends and we get back to the workplace.

Workaholism can be a serious, lifestyle-threatening disorder.
    
In Japan, they've termed the problem karoshi, and courts there are now dealing with lawsuits over executives whose widows say were worked, literally, to death.

Psychologists say workaholism can be blamed for a number of heart attacks, stress, migraines and high blood pressure.
      
How widespread the problem is, is hard to determine, but a Statistics Canada study showed one in three Canadians feel stressed out.

Workaholism can lead to stress-related disorders with severe physical symptoms ranging from ulcers to migraine headaches. In severe cases, workaholism can lead to separation, divorce or family breakdown, all of which can trigger problems on their own, from substance abuse, to depression, to an increased need to overwork.

In some cases, clinical workaholism is caused by feelings of inadequacy in areas of life outside work.

Inability to deal with emotions, problems interacting with family, or difficulty dealing with free time can all lead to workaholism. For these people, weekends and vacations are hell, because they have to be away from work. Work allows sufferers to immerse themselves completely in activities they excel at while allowing them an easy out from the problem areas of their lives.

If you use work as an escape, it won't work because none of us can derive sufficient amounts of satisfaction from work. We need balance in our lives.

The more you go beyond 40 hours a week, the greater your risk of breaking down. Hard workers with active social lives, harmonious family relationships, a balanced approach to life, and a lack of symptoms also have less to worry about.

Some warning signs of work addiction include: erratic behaviour, increased drinking, relationship troubles and physical symptoms including gastrointestinal disorders, heart palpitations, tension and those physical issues mentioned above.