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In Praise of Workaholics
It’s usually unfair to call someone a
workaholic, a term derived from
“alcoholic.” That implies that people who
work long hours can’t control themselves, that
they’re addicted to work.
Of course, some people are workaholics-- they
know perfectly well they should stop but they just
can’t. One example: the widget salesman who
could earn a perfectly adequate living working just
40 hours a week, but chooses to work 60 even though
he’d find other activities more rewarding.
But many people work long hours for a more
justifiable reason. Think of how often you’re
frustrated that you send email and get no response.
So, is it fair to dub as workaholic a person who,
in the evening, finds it more rewarding to answer
email than to watch sitcoms? Do you really want to
give greater status to the millions of Americans
who spend their evenings watching CSI, American
Idol, and Survivor? Do you really want to give
greater status to people who, on vacation, bring
People magazine instead of their laptop?
Or let’s say a person works long hours to
save up for a home in a safe neighborhood, where
the kids can attend the public schools without
being shortchanged. Is it fair to call such people
workaholics? Or is it fairer to call them caring
providers?
Other people work long hours to avoid their
depressing apartment or pain-in-the-butt roommate
or spouse. Should they be dubbed workaholic, or is
it more accurate to describe them as flexible,
making the most of a bad situation?
Most impressive, many people work long hours in
the service of making the world a better place. Is
it fair to dub as workaholics the many scientists
who forego pleasure to work long hours searching
for a cure for cancer? Even if they’re
“addicted” to finding a cure for cancer?
How about those who work for nonprofits trying to
help poor people? Would you denigrate Mother Teresa
as “work-addicted”? How about a doctor or
even a career counselor who works evenings so he
can help more people? How about even a management
trainee who works long hours to ensure her company
produces good toilet paper at a fair price? As far
as I’m concerned, the more accurate term for
all of them is not workaholic, not work-addicted,
it’s hero.
In fact, most great achievers deliberately
forego balance in favor of pursuing their passion
long after lesser lights have gone home. I’ll
bet that few Nobel Prize winners work just a
40-hour workweek.
Many people criticize hard workers because they
don’t spend enough family time. But the
research is clear that what matters is quality
time. So, as long as that physician who sees
patients five nights a week is, on the weekend, a
loving spouse and parent, he or she should be
called not a workaholic but a hero.
My wife, Napa County Superintendent of Schools,
Dr. Barbara Nemko believes that many people
denigrate hard workers as workaholics because they
feel inferior. It’s much easier to put down a
hard worker than to face the reality that
they’re lazy.
Let’s start a movement
If we’re going to use a “holic”
word for workers, it shouldn’t be for the hard
workers. It should be for the lazy ones. Let’s
call them “lazyholics.” In fact,
let’s start a movement. Every time we meet
someone who is minimally productive, refusing to
work more than part-time on a cushy job, devoting
too much time to golf, cooking, or TV watching, or
taking lots of classes without serious intention of
using it to prepare for a career, we should call
them lazyholics. Maybe then they’ll stop
calling productive people workaholics.
A word to those who work long hours
To be modest, many hard workers call themselves
workaholics. That unfairly denigrates them and
their fellow heroes. Consider substituting, “I
really enjoy working,” I’m trying to save
up enough to buy a home in a safe
neighborhood,” or even “I’m on a
mission.”
Also remember that working long hours is not
unhealthy; working stressfully is. So, yes, try to
be efficient but don’t get hurry sickness: a
sense of rushing, impatience. That is not good for
the body. Also, beware of anger building up.
Sometimes, over a long period, stress and, in turn,
anger builds. Try to remember that no single little
thing matters that much. If something goes wrong or
is too hard, get help or see if there’s a way
you could do the project without having to do that
hard part. Relax. Even if you’re only working
at 85 percent efficiency, you who work long hours,
to me at least, are still a hero.
© 2007, Marty
Nemko
* * *
Marty
Nemko holds a PhD from the University of
California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught in
Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He is
the worklife columnist in the Sunday San Francisco
Chronicle and is the producer and host of Work With
Marty Nemko, heard Sundays at 11 on 91.7 FM in
(NPR, San Francisco), and worldwide on
www.martynemko.com
 .
400+ of his published writings are available free
on that website and is a co-editor of
Cool
Careers for Dummies.
and author of The All-in-One College Guide.
E-Mail.
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