When Work Takes Control

The Psychology and Effects of Work Addiction

Pernille Rasmussen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429923944
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The purpose of this book is to explain, first, what happens when we become too involved in our work, and, second, how we avoid being controlled by our work and how we prevent family members, friends, colleagues, or employees from being so. In addition, it is hoped that the book will help bring about a debate about our work habits and initiate thought and discussion about our values and how much space work should be allowed to take up in our lives. The book is addressed to everyone who deals with the psychological working environment, among them business managers and counsellors who treat people with work-related problems. In addition, anyone who wishes to establish a better balance between their work life and private life would benefit from reading the book.

CHAPTER ONE


Introduction

Through the ages, work has been the basis of the survival of the human race, and it has been an important and necessary part of our lives. Today—as opposed to former times—it is no longer necessary that we work all day long. Still, we live in a time when work, both mentally and in terms of time consumption, takes up a lot of space in many people’s lives. Most jobs are limited to a certain number of hours per week. In France, it is thirty-five hours per week, and in Denmark the working week is thirty-seven hours. But, in spite of this, a large number of Europeans experience that this limit is overstepped time and time again, so that work intrudes on their spare time. Many people know the feeling of slowly being controlled by their job to the point that it becomes the very essence of their life. A large number of us are actually addicted to our jobs to a certain degree. This addiction is not financial, but rather psychological or even physical.

Most of us have tried working overtime for a certain period of time. Sometimes a large number of tasks may find their way to our desk, a deadline has to be kept, or a certain project may take up a great deal of time. Several different situations may make it impossible for us to stay within the number of hours we are supposed to work each week. In situations like these we may choose to work both evenings and weekends. To contribute something out of the ordinary from time to time at work does not mean that you are addicted to your work—if it is only for a limited period of time. A person addicted to his or her job, however, will often claim that the extra workload is limited to a certain period. “It’s a bit busy at the moment, but it will soon be better.” Comments like these will have become familiar to family members, who are told how things will eventually change and that they will soon spend more time together. Often the family members wait in vain. The extra workload is seldom limited to a specific period. New important assignments keep turning up, which the workaholic thinks that he or she needs to deal with. This situation follows a pattern (Fassel, 1992). Which factors are involved when we work too much? What do we gain by it?

To the workaholic, his or her job is very important, and it occupies a great deal of the person’s time. The partner, the children, leisure activities, and friends are often put aside. The workaholic finds it difficult to take time off work because of a guilty conscience or the restlessness that creeps up on him or her when he or she is not at work. When workaholics eventually do take some time off and spend time with family and friends, they will find it difficult to relax and to be present in the moment. The workaholics will often be absentminded because their thoughts are on the job (Robinson & Chase, 2001). The workaholics are driven by deep-seated psychological needs rather than external needs. In other words, the workaholics are not working to be able to afford a nice present for their partner, or because the children need new clothes—even though many of them claim that they work too much for the sake of the family. The driving force behind the work addiction is the deep-set satisfaction that the work process brings to the workaholic (Robinson, 1998a). One could say that the addiction to work is centred on the adrenalin kick and the recognition from one’s colleagues that often follow when one performs a quantitatively and qualitatively great work effort.

Many people have jobs in which they are not themselves able to control the workload; these kinds of jobs demand a long working week and a great deal of commitment. One could claim, based on this, that it is therefore the workplace and the type of job you have that decides if you will become addicted to your job. Research, however, implies that the workaholics are inclined to apply for jobs that demand an extra effort; in doing so, they choose to live lives dominated by their jobs. Individuals who are not likely to become addicted to work will often be unable to thrive within a company culture that requires him or her to “marry” the job. If you are predisposed to develop a work addiction, the environment, including your family and the workplace, will be a deciding factor in determining if this happens. The question is, then, how do we know if our work is taking control of our life? What are the signs, and what do you do if work has taken control of your life, or the life of a friend, a colleague, or a partner?

Workaholics can be found, to a certain degree, within most jobs, but most of them are found within the so-called knowledge-intensive professions (Rasmussen, 2004a,b). Within these professions, working hours are often not fixed, and it is the actual tasks rather than the clock that dictate when it is time to go home. This is in sharp contrast to unskilled labour and workmen whose work hours are often more structured and, to a much larger degree, adhered to. Some workmen, however, often work overtime, and it is possible to find workaholics within this sector. Thus, workaholics can be workmen (skilled or unskilled), kindergarten teachers, chefs, engineers, journalists, self-employed people, and so on.

It is a privilege to have a job that you find exciting and that you look forward to going to every morning. It may also bring you a great deal of satisfaction to work with something that you are really passionate about. It should, therefore, be seen as neither wrong nor dangerous to be committed to, and willing to go the extra mile for, one’s workplace. What we should pay attention to, however, is whenever our job begins to control us so that we no longer have time to do anything but work. When we can no longer achieve balance in our life, it is time to come to a halt and to reassess the situation.

Wayne Oates presented the term “workaholism” thirty years ago, and his book, Confessions of a Workaholic, was the first to touch upon the subject. In the book, Oates describes how workaholics behave compulsively when it comes to work, just like alcoholics do in regard to alcohol (Oates, 1971). Today, three decades later, experts in the field still do not agree on how the phenomenon should be defined and understood. A few of them see workaholism as something positive. They claim that people who work excessively are merely conscientious, hardworking, and have more energy than other people. Therefore, they see these people as an asset to any company that employs them (Korn, Pratt, & Lambrou, 1987; Machlowitz, 1980). Other experts refrain from taking a position on the question of whether workaholism is a positive phenomenon or not, but instead concentrate on other areas of the phenomenon such as personality (Scott, Moore, & Miceli, 1997). In the course of this book, workaholism will be understood in the way shared by the majority of experts in the field. Most experts, including the most prominent, perceive workaholism as an addiction comparable to other forms of addiction. They point to the fact that there are varying degrees of addiction and describe a severe addiction to work as an affliction (Burke, 2000; Fassel, 1992; Killinger, 1991; Robinson, 1998a). Work addiction, in this book, will be defined as an obsessive need to work. The workaholic will often work more hours than the average population; most other activities such as spending time with family and friends as well as leisure activities are not given a high priority.

In the USA, they are now recognizing work addiction as a phenomenon. The amount of American research in the field, however, is limited, despite the fact that in many areas the USA is the leading nation with regard to psychological research. The limited research in the USA, as well as in the rest of the world, may be due to the fact that the field is a relatively new one, and that experts do not agree on how the field should be defined and understood.

In Denmark, there is a lot of talk about stress and burn-out, and for good reason, as one in four Danes experience work-related stress (Netterstrøm, 2002). In several cases, the stress is caused by a form of work addiction, and it is therefore important that we pay attention to this phenomenon. I hope that this book will help to bring work addiction and its consequences into focus. When we do not acknowledge work addiction in Denmark, it is probably because there has not been enough focus on the subject. In order to change, this and to make work addiction a subject discussed in the workplaces and by politicians, it is vital that we research the field. In this way, data will support the claim that we are facing a social challenge.

At the moment there are no Danish studies of the phenomenon. This may be due to the fact that this type of addiction is the only one that is rewarded by society and is associated with a certain degree of prestige. This book is based mainly on research from the USA. My experience is that we Danes copy the American way of life to a large extent, and we may therefore benefit from the knowledge collected in America. The existing knowledge in Denmark, in relation to people’s over-involvement in their work, has so far come from experts who express their concern about the rising number of stress cases caused by people working too much over long periods of time (Baldursson, 2004). In Denmark, there is no specific treatment for severe cases of workaholism, such as we find in other countries. In the USA, Canada, France, and the UK there are, furthermore, self-help groups called “Workaholics Anonymous”, which work in the same way as Alcoholics Anonymous, and are free of charge (Robinson, 1998a).

Due to the limited amount of research in the field, there are still many unanswered questions when it comes to work addiction. For example, there are, as yet, no studies that determine the number of workaholics—either in Europe or in the USA. For this same reason, it is also impossible to say anything on the gender division among workaholics.

It is important to point out that in this book I understand work addiction as something to do with one’s main occupation. This means that the addiction is only related to the work and one’s commitment to it. It is therefore not possible to be addicted to one’s stamp-collection, golf-playing, or other hobbies. Work, however, should not be understood as merely paid work, but as the activity that occupies the main part of an individual’s waking hours. Defined in this way, work includes schoolwork, studies, housework, as well as voluntary work, as long as it is the main occupation of the individual.

In the course of the book I will use interviews and statements from people who have experienced that work took control. Names, ages, and other characteristics have (at the request of the individual) been changed, allowing the interviewee to remain anonymous. The case examples are included in order to describe some of the different characteristics and situations that define work addiction, as well as to illustrate the different theories and themes within the field. The interviews include both men and women, as it is possible for both sexes to be controlled by their work. For linguistic purposes, the workaholic is, in most cases, termed “he”, but in all cases the workaholic could just as easily have been a woman.

CHAPTER TWO


Work: curse or blessing?

“Americans generally spend so much time on things that are urgent that they have none left to spend on those that are important”

(Henry Ward Beecher, quoted in Robinson, 1998a, p. 233)

Do we work to live or do we live to work—this is a relevant question to ask today, when a large number of people spend considerable amounts of their time at work. In contrast to earlier times, when work was considered a necessary evil, work today seems to be what many people live for. What are the reasons for this development? There are, of course, many different reasons for the zeal that many people show when it comes to work today. Some of the explanations will be highly individual and depend entirely on the person you ask. In this chapter, we look at the significance of religion when it comes to our attitudes towards work. In addition, I examine how much the Danes work and go through some of the circumstances that lead people to push themselves, on a daily basis, by working excessively hard.

Religion and attitudes towards work

Going back to ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, before the birth of Christ, work was an object of contempt (Lindhardt & Urhskov, 1997). If you were working it meant that you were not free, and slaves were kept for doing whatever work needed to be done. Freedom was defined as “being free from work”. A person forced to work was accordingly “un-free” and was not considered a member of society. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle thought that Man should devote himself to such activities as philosophy, art, and politics. According to Aristotle, the contemplative life, consisting of reflection and the search for truth, was held in the utmost regard. Many different cultures around the world still perceive work as a low status activity and, accordingly, see it as a female occupation.

In our society, the perception of work has changed throughout history. The attitudes we hold about work today have their roots in Christianity. Christian values are the foundation on which our society and culture are built, and, accordingly, they also influence our perception of work. These Christian values have, in other words, influenced our work morals. In the Old Testament, as in the ancient world, work was seen as something performed by low-status members of society. In Paradise, man lived a free and carefree existence, but the punishment for Sin was work. When God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, he cursed the earth, saying, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread ...” (Genesis 3: 17-19). From that moment on, work became a curse, a necessary evil that man had to live with. Work, according to the Bible, was treated with contempt, but later on it was greatly valued. One of the reasons why work was eventually perceived as positive was that in the beginning Christianity was a working-class religion, which had many followers among the poor and slaves. These people’s lives consisted of nothing but work, and the Church therefore had to represent work in its teachings as something worth doing. A parallel was formed to the hard work performed by God when He created the world.

The sixteenth century saw the rise of Puritanism in Northern Europe (Lindhardt & Urhskov, 1997). According to the Puritans, hard physical as well as spiritual labour was the only way to salvation. All sensual and sexual pleasures had to be avoided, as they were the works of the devil. Work could help people to live controlled and ascetic lives. This pleased God. The best way to stay on the right path was to work. During the same period, Martin Luther’s thoughts had a profound impact on thousands of people and their attitudes towards both religion and work. Even today, the attitude towards work in Germany and Scandinavia can be traced back to the Lutheran reformation. Luther saw work as a concrete action showing that you love your neighbour (ibid.). By working, you show that you live by the commandment of loving one’s neighbour. According to Luther, a good Christian is defined by how much he or she works. The Lutheran reformation led to a glorification of work, and it became a religious calling. We were now called to work by God. In German, work is Beruf, which actually means calling. Luther was also on his guard against idleness, which had to be fought because being idle could lead to sinful desires. The old saying, “Idleness is the root of all evil”, has its origin in religion and can be traced back to the rules followed by monks. The monks were required to occupy any leisure time between prayers with work, so as to avoid sinful thoughts. The saying is still used today, thereby indirectly helping to maintain a perception of work several centuries old.

The German economist and sociologist Max Weber has united work, morals, and religion in the term: “the protestant work ethic” (Weber, 1995). He coined the phrase in an attempt to explain why some people are willing to work more than is necessary for them to survive. The Protestant way of thinking has shaped cultures and societies in Europe and the USA, and Weber consequently felt that there had to be a connection between this way of thinking and our attitudes towards work.

Activity and efficiency are central to the Protestant work ethic. The attitude towards time is essential. “Wasting time” is a great sin. A person who is working is not sinning. A person who is not working is at risk of being consumed by sinful desires, mainly of a sexual nature. Besides, work in itself is a divine goal. This is why the rich cannot lie back and live off their money. They should not relax, but strive to administer their money in the best possible way as well as try to make more. These attitudes create what Weber terms “the spirit of capitalism” (ibid.). The Protestant work ethic includes an admiration and respect for hard work and the belief that a great effort is worth while because it leads to success. This is the reason why several experts describe work addiction as “the addiction others admire” (Robinson, 1998a), as well as “the most respected and socially accepted addiction” (Killinger, 1991). Weber points to the fact that work no longer has a purpose but has become a purpose in itself. We have to work because we need to work. This means that work no longer has any limits, it has become an ongoing process which never ends.

Today, work has almost become a sacred duty in the Western world. Many people do practically nothing but work. They are literally working themselves to death. The perceptions from former times of work being both a curse and later on a blessing, are both characteristics of our perception of work today. It is a curse because the pace is fast and the demands on our commitment and our performance are high. But it is also a blessing because the physical framework has improved, and because many jobs afford the employee opportunities of both professional and personal development. Work is very important to us, and, as a consequence, we feel sorry for the unemployed. They are standing somewhere outside the community, and are seen as having nothing to live for. In ancient times it was the workers who were looked down on and who were standing on the outskirts of the community. Today, it is the other way round, mainly because we define ourselves and each other by our jobs. What is most valued in modern society, and what is also the most important tool for the integration of people into society, is professional work. This is a paradox (Beck, 2002).

As we have seen, Christianity has played an important role in determining how we relate to work. Our religion has been a contributing factor in a development that has led to work today taking up such large amounts of most people’s time and lives. We now take a closer look at how many hours Danes spend working, then we look at the qualitative aspects that may help to explain why our jobs have become so important to us.

How much do Danes work?

A study carried out in 2000 by the Danish National Institute of Occupational Health of self-employed people and employees, showed that one in seven has a long working week. This means that they are working a minimum of forty-eight hours per week. The people who work this much are mostly self-employed, registered child-minders, male academics, and managers. The majority of people working long weeks are between thirty and fifty-nine years old; 22% are male and 8% are female. There are also large differences in gender when it comes to how much a person works each day. Three times as many men as women have a long workday (minimum ten hours), and three times as many women as men have part-time jobs. It is the men, then, who do the most paid wor...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Preface
• Chapter One Introduction
• Chapter Two Work: curse or blessing?
• Chapter Three What is work addiction?
• Chapter Four What causes work addiction?
• Chapter Five What happens when work takes control?
• Chapter Six What can we do if our work takes control of us?
• Chapter Seven Will work control us in the future?
• References
• Index