Workaholics have a high risk of being affected with various mental and physical health issues like depression, anxiety and sleep disorders, says a new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Workaholics usually do not like their work but are compelled to do so for long hours in a day due to internal and external pressures and are unable to mentally disengage from work even while they are not working.
The study suggests that people who are addicted to their work are putting their health at serious risk. People with high work addiction have twice the risk of suffering from depression and anxiety than people with lower work addiction. They were also found to have serious sleeping disorders when compared with non-workaholic people.
The researchers collected the data of 187 French workers, divided them into separate categories based on their profession, and then traced the link between their work addiction and health outcome. The study also found that working women had twice the risk of work addiction than men.
High-pressure work environments, fast-approaching deadlines and the overload of other tensions in life can all affect the health of working people in a myriad of ways. With the onset of the pandemic and work-from-home situation, people have been unable to draw a line between their work and leisure time.
The study aimed to point out and demonstrate how the risk of work addiction was associated with the perception of work in today's world where job demands are high.
The Job Demand-Control-Support model (JDCS) model that assumes four various work environments was used to suggest in which environment the workers experienced a different level of job demands and job control: passive, low-strain, active, and tense/job-strain. Job control is the extent to which an employee feels control over doing work.
Self-awareness about the workaholic symptoms, monitoring the time put to work, keeping a check on the impact of work on personal life, practising disengagement from work and taking regular vacations can help combat the issue to a great extent.