The widely appreciated concept of being a workaholic or over-productive can easily lead to poor mental health. In today’s’ society, people are looking towards paid work, and work addiction as a necessity in life. Meanwhile, research shows that these concepts are deteriorating for one’s mental health and contribute to working more than one’s capacity.
Generally, work addiction means the obsession with working continuously or compulsive interest related to work. Most of the people are now working beyond their capacity either to compensate for their finances or due to the pressure at their workplace.
People with such habits usually work excessively and ignore the toll it takes on their relationships and physical and mental wellbeing. The latest study conducted in France shows the impact of work addiction on the mental health of people.
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The researchers included 187 workers belonging to different areas of work and demographics. These people filled different questionnaires that show the impact of overworking on different areas of life.
According to this research, the widely contributing factors to work addiction were high-pressure work environments and excessively demanding managers at their occupation. Also, the data shows women have a greater potential to become addicted to work instead of men.
Another interesting aspect of this study shows that people already living with some mental health issues are twice more prone to become workaholics. For instance, depression, excessive stress, and lower sleep durations are risk factors for becoming addicted to work.
Previous researches conducted on a larger scale also show that overwork can lead to depression. Also, this can cause mental stress, sleep disorders, and frequent exhaustion. Workaholism widely exists in industrial sectors due to their high demand for work performance.
They also measure the success of an employee depending upon how much workload they can carry. The increased responsibilities in the workplace and the pressure of contribution to economic growth also harm mental health.
We as a society and high pressure workplaces need some radical changes to improve the general wellbeing of the workers. Another study showed that people with job security and development opportunities at work had a lower risk of becoming work addicts.
Excessive working hours also tend to increase the level of work addiction and poor relationships with families. If people are able to spend more time with their friends or children, they can give better work performance. On the contrary, spending extra hours at work not only contribute to a lack of performance but poor mental health as well.
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A healthy balance between work and personal life contributes to better mental health and high performance at work. Both of these concepts are interconnected in terms of productivity and resilience. Better initiatives to equally distribute the workers’ energy between life and work can create a healthy environment at the workplace. This not only improves the physical but the psychological health of workers as well.
Small initiatives such as regularly positive feedback or the involvement of a social organization can improve the well-being of the workers. Also, frequent breaks during the day can provide support and better health to the workers.
