Are You A Workaholic? Part 1

Studies show that your approach to work and your attitudes during leisure hours can indicate whether you are a “workaholic,” reports The Executive Personal Health Advisor (FH Newsletter Associates Ltd. Florida).

“Experts comment that a workaholic’s compulsive preoccupation with his job doesn’t let him enjoy his time off.  He not only works long hours, but he also drives himself relentlessly at home.  He dislikes vacations and even weekends, and if forced to relax, attempts to organize and structure activity during that time,” says EPHA.

Craig T. Norback, author of Check Yourself Out (Times Books, New York), has designed the following questionnaire to know if you are a workaholic.  Answer yes or no to each of the following questions:

• Do you always get to work early?
• Do you usually work late?
• Do you ever work while eating lunch or taking a coffee break?
• Do you generally eat lunch in 10-15 minutes?
• Do you often realize at three o’clock that you’ve forgotten to eat lunch at all?
• Do you feel that you must finish all the work on your desk before you go home at night?
• Do you expect others to work as hard as you do?
• Is there so much work on your desk that you can’t find things?
• Do you usually take work home?
• Do you hesitate to delegate work because you think no one else can do it as well as you do?
• Are you always doing three or four things at once?
• Do you always accept phone calls, no matter what you’re doing?
• Are you working in a job that you don’t really enjoy and that isn’t what you originally planned to do?
• Do you put off taking a vacation?
• Are you afraid that if you leave to take a vacation everything will fall apart at the office?
• Do you always hurry when walking and traveling from one place to another?
• Do you have interests that you don’t have time to pursue and are putting off until retirement?
• Do you dread retirement because of fear that you won’t know what to do with yourself?
• Are you ignoring instructions from your doctor to slow down and reduce stress in your life?
• Do you feel that you could do anything if only you had enough time?

(Next week, we will discuss the implications of your answers to the above questionnaire - J.P.)