What’s Your Definition Of Workaholism?
06.05.2005 | Chris BaileyI ask the question because I’m curious about what constitutes a healthy work attitude compared to it’s darker side. I would never define myself as a workaholic and try to be vigilant for any signs that it is encroaching upon my life. Hmmm…after taking a quick test, I’m not so sure.
Via Sarah Eaton at BeTuitive Marketing (via Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants), comes a very unscientific, yet very insightful quiz from CareerJournal.com called Are You Obsessed with Work?. Since I’m not currently working, I put myself back into my last job as much as possible. In less than 10 minutes, I received this feedback:
You scored 92 out of a possible 147.
Your score in this range means
your career is of major importance to you and you derive most of your
personal identity from it. Such a high involvement may mean that you
base too much of your well-being on your career, excluding other
important areas of your life.
Beware: Exceedingly high commitment
may make you susceptible to unacceptable self-imposed stress and
eventual burnout. Successful individuals who sustain their career
motivation maintain other interests besides work. These allow them to
develop a more balanced life, which results in fewer illnesses,
healthier relationships and steadier career achievement.
It’s pretty vague, but here’s the learning for me: Such a high involvement may mean that you
base too much of your well-being on your career, excluding other
important areas of your life. While I don’t believe I become obsessive about my work, I do admit that I tend to base a major portion of my identity on what I do as a professional. Perhaps most of us do. That may be one of the more challenging aspects of being unemployed.
What I’ve come to find is that there is a fine balance between being dedicated to your work and being a workaholic. Take the quiz. While the results are about what you would expect from a 30 question multiple choice, you might just come away with some new personal insight.
3 Responses to “What’s Your Definition Of Workaholism?”
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I scored a 97. Yikes!
Most of the questions don’t apply to me. I work on the weekends and evenings a lot because of job schedule rather than “taking work home.”
I’ve been meaing to write you that you are anything but a “wind up toy” unless you’re really good at lying. Your writing reveals you to be thoughtful and deep…someone I would value as a friend. I visit your site often to get inspiration.
Workaholic? Not moi!
CareerJournal has this quiz (via the Alchemy of Soulful Work, via BeTuitive Marketing, via Guerilla Marketing for Consultants) testing your work/life balance. I did OK : You scored 79 out of a possible 147. Scores here represent a healthy…
Goodness.. I am soooo far at the opposite end of the scale from you. I’m glad the quiz recognizes that I simply may be more laid back about the whole thing, which I really am. I know that for me, what’s important is really a healthy balance; enough work, and plenty of play time. I never have a problem disconnecting (meaning getting away from work, in general, but more specifically, getting away from technology that keeps me tied to work), and in fact, take the last quarter of each year for sabbatical.
I haven’t always been this way, and I can’t point to a specific event that changed things for me. All I know is that, for me, there’s very little that can’t wait a day or two, and that attitude has saved me a world of stress and angst.
Thanks for pointing us to the quiz, and for showing us more about you all the time!
S