Workaholism: A Social Problem of The Present

Work and its role in society has become the subject of considerable public commentary and debate in recent years. Work, for many Americans, has changed significantly over the past 25 years. Some people believe that the world of work is changing so thoroughly and quickly that we should consider ourselves pioneers of a new historical era. Some say that the idea of a job has become antiquated.

Roszak makes a point in his essay about jobs being our salvation, where he describe there is no end to a working life. Roszak describes the waste of time in people’s jobs and that most employees don’t even put all of their effort into them. He figures

What’s more, the author explained the transformation of the meaning in the term “workaholism” and poses the different working attitude between Americans and Europeans again (Clausen 121). The word “workaholism” seems like

The theme of overemployment is a current problem in the United States. Americans are overworked. Workload has increased and society has experienced a loss of leisure. Overemployment and overworked can be defined as negative effects that occur when individuals are required to work more hours than they want to work. “Personal perceptions of workload are critical, as individuals have diverse reactions to the number of hours worked depending on their needs, lifestyle, expectations, and experiences. Individuals have different tolerances for demands and stress. While many, including professionals

Workaholism is a disorder that has ruined the lives of many individuals. The need to work can over shadow and dominate a person. Workaholism is a disorders that is driven by the person themselves. Shifron (1999) writes that the disorder itself not only dramatically affects the person but “also negatively affects the individual’s entire family system and society. This disorder dramatically takes a toll on the person’s mental and physical ability to deal with everyday reality. A workaholic may even fantasize about work during leisure time and family events (Snir, 2008). To a workaholic their drive to work is viewed as a gift or luxury to their loved ones. But in reality working is an escape from the problems, hardships, and insecurities a workaholic has. In this article workaholism is shown as a disorder that can easily ruin lives ranging from the workaholic to those in close proximity. Workaholism can easily be noticed and employers should take the necessary steps to help a workaholic out of their habits. Plotrowski and Vondanovich (2008) suggest that employers “encourage workaholics to participate in counseling.”

American entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, once said: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Some people may take a job out of necessity rather than being passionate about their work. You have to love what you do as you spend more time working than being with loved ones. In Studs Terkel’s Working, adapted by Harvey Pekar, the reader is presented with visual adaptations of the lives of ordinary Americans that show how they feel about what they do for a living ranging from farmers, miners, barbers, box boys, and a hooker are some of the jobs mentioned in the novels. The author gives the

The United States is commonly known as “No-Vacation Nation” (Thompson, 2012) because Americans typically prioritize work over studies and family. (1)Although people in America take fewer vacations than any nation in the world, socioeconomics may be a reason for why employees focus more on work than research and relationships in the American culture. "There is simply no evidence that working people to death gives you a competitive advantage" (Pawlowski, 2011). (2)As a citizen of the United States and one who has often fallen prey to these ideals, the trend to overwork has been an affliction to overcome. Family and scholarly efforts have been sacrificed, but over the past year or two, I have made a conscious effort to alter my “live to work”

There has always been a common misconception that we must work hard to find success. In some cases this is true. However according to Ellen Goodman in her article “The Company Man” success is not measured through how many hours a person works a week, but how we choose to live our life. Goodman’s article targets the atypical hard working middle class who tend to dedicate their entire lives to their job; in this case a 51 year old workaholic man named Phil who worked himself to death. She explains how the life’s of these type of people slowly deteriorates. She describes Phil as an overweight man who has no hobbies nor is involved with anything out side of work including his family. We must evaluate what is important in life and not have our whole lives revolve around work. It is important we prioritize family, have hobbies, and realize that we are just an employee nothing else.

In the second seminar, Aditya Chakrabortty’s article ‘Why our jobs are getting worse’ provides us a great standpoint of work reality and explains the reason of why people no longer enjoy going to work. Similar to Ritzer, He believed more and more occupations are changing

In this article, Laurie Granieri describes her work experience. Being dedicated to work was one important thing that her dad taught her the whole life. Her dad was a very hardworking man who was also a cancer patient. Watching her dad getting weaker day by day, she learned that it is important to do things that mean the most to her. Laurie Granieri did not want to end up suffering like her dad who worked day and night and ended up in hospital because of work stress. Laurie would rather work fewer hours and go home right after work to spend time with her family. She values this moment and thinks that it is definitely worth it to get off from work on time and enjoy her life.

Many employees work longer hours for many reasons, one of them being consumerism. They want to be able to have enough money to buy materialistic items and services as a way of filling the void of happiness, so they attempt to buy themselves happiness considering they don’t have the time or energy to actually see their families or friends and enjoy their free time so they try to buy happiness. Workaholics are also people who are known to work long hours because they feel as if they are compelled to work due to internal stress which results to damage towards an individual’s personal relationships and health as well as the quality and productivity of the work being done. Workaholics work long hours causing them to lose the sense of joy within their work as well as the joy in their personal life leading them to work more as a way to fill the void within their

Work is a place A person must go in order to pay the bills. According to Susan M. Heathfield article in Human Resource Management Dictionary Index, “The workplace is located in a variety of settings including offices, manufacturing facilities or factories, stores, farms, out-of-doors, and in any location where work is performed.” The very name “Workplace” implies no social bonds or happiness. The bulk of employees worldwide -- 63% -- are "not engaged," meaning they lack motivation and are less likely to invest discretionary effort in organizational goals or outcomes which is sourced from the Gallup report. American Workers report every year that their work places are unpleasant and lack an emotional connection to one another, or often puts

Why did I choose to write about workaholics? The main reason is that the general picture about these people is bad, but there are a lot of them around us and very often we admire them. They are doing exactly what they love – work – and they can never have enough of it. Although they spend most of their time working, surprisingly they are happy. They show so good results in what they do. But the consequences are great. Family life is disrupted, intellectual horizons narrow and the consequences to the workaholic's health are severe: fat, lack of exercise and stress. Why do people become workaholics? When a person becomes workaholic is there a way back? How should people around him act in order to keep both him and themselves

"Work" is a positive thing for many people. To some people, it may be described as a place to escape from the kids, or even a time consumption thing for a single or retired person, but most importantly it is what we do in order to provide for our families and ourselves. Work is something that we all will experience at one time or another during our lives.

Work takes on greater importance in a society where people believe that they can master the material world and shape their own destinies, and less where they believe that they can not. An Ancient Greek philosopher said that the only stability in the world was within one's mind or soul, where ideas were secure from the unending changes that took place in the material world. In Ancient Greece, philosophers believed that a person's thoughts and ideas were more important than that person's work and that work in the material world lacked permanence. For the ancient Greeks, the status of particular occupations depended on the degree of freedom a person had, the perceived moral integrity of the occupation, and the amount of mental and physical work it required. Today we tend to feel that working in an office is better than working in a coal mine, regardless of which worker makes more money. Our language suggests that it is a privilege to work sitting down.