It’s easy to joke around about being a “workaholic.” Whether you love your job or you just feel obligated to stay busy and pick up extra shifts, you might think there’s nothing wrong with spending most of your time at work.
Unfortunately, that’s the problem.
By making light of being a workaholic, you could be ignoring some important – and potentially troubling – signs. Work addiction can impact people in different ways, and it’s easy for those in the nursing field to fall into it.
While you might think you’re doing something good for your hospital or practice, work addiction could actually be putting you and others in high-risk situations. If you’re burnt out or overtired, you could end up harming yourself, another staff member, or a patient.
But, how do you know if you’re struggling with work addiction? There are a few common signs to look out for. Let’s cover a few of them and how you can avoid work addiction in your field.
What Is Work Addiction?
Work addiction is the compulsive urge to overwork. Many causes and risk factors can contribute to those urges, including:
- Personality
- Work culture
- National culture
- A desire to climb the work ladder
- Genetics
Many people who deal with work addiction might also consider themselves to be perfectionists. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it can be taken to extremes.
If you’re not sure what work addiction looks like, some of the common signs include staying long hours at work, using your job to avoid your personal life, and dealing with a constant fear of failure while you’re working. You might also start sacrificing your relationships with others because of your career.
In extreme cases, people with work addiction can feel stressed when they aren’t at work, and they try to figure out how they can free up more of their time to be at their job.
If you can’t remember the last time you took a break from work – or thinking about work – you should consider that a pretty big red flag.
The Effects of Work Addiction
Even if you can recognize some of the signs above, you might be asking yourself if it’s really a big deal.
So what? You work a lot. That’s not a bad thing, right?
Unfortunately, work addiction can quickly take its toll on your mental and physical health, leading to problems like:
- Burnout
- Impaired judgment
- Lack of motivation
- Health issues
From a physical standpoint, work addiction can cause you to feel fatigued. If you’re not getting the rest you need, you can experience headaches, muscle aches, digestive issues, and even eye strain from staring at computers or working in bad lighting all day. Taking breaks is the best way to avoid almost all of these issues.
Mentally, working too much and feeling the need to be perfect while doing it will also take its toll. People dealing with work burnout have an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and distress. It can also skew your outlook on life, making you easily irritable and negative. When you’re actively working with other people and trying to take care of patients, these potential effects can be dangerous for everyone.
How to Avoid Work Addiction
It may not be easy to admit you’re a workaholic. But, recognizing some of the signs above can help you realize your drive for perfectionism could be doing more harm than good.
Thankfully, there are things you can do to avoid work addiction – or stop it in its tracks.
First, make your health a priority. Find a way to strike a healthy work-life balance that gives you time to recharge every day so your job isn’t the only thing you’re thinking about. A strong work-life balance allows you to rest, but it also will help with your relationships and other hobbies and interests you want to pursue.
Self-care is also extremely important when you’re trying to avoid work addiction. We’ve already covered some of the harmful things working too much can do to your mind and body. Self-care combats those problems. Exercise, cook a healthy meal, read a good book, or spend some time outside. Find small moments every day to do something just for you, without any other agenda.
If you’re struggling to avoid working too much, consider your goals and think about your expectations. How have you been defining success, and how does that need to change? Think about the benefits of stepping away from so much work, and how it can improve your life.
In some cases, individual or group therapy can help with work addiction – especially if there’s an underlying cause. Maybe you grew up in a family where perfection was constantly expected, and that fear of failure has stayed with you into adulthood. Sometimes, dealing with those root issues can make a big difference in how you feel and what you view as important.
There’s no denying that nursing is a high-stress job. That’s why it’s so important to find time for yourself and to step away for a break sometimes. Work addiction might not seem like a bad thing on the surface, but it can create major issues for your health and career if you don’t address it now.
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