However, it is a topic which from early on caused much confusion and controversy, with workaholism sometimes being conceptualized as a positive phenomenon, and promoted as a passion and positive high engagement (e.g.,Machlowitz, 1980; Ng, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2007). of Work and transmitted securely. (2011). Write an article and join a growing community of more than 166,600 academics and researchers from 4,655 institutions. Unlike other behavioral and substance addictions where one of the key criteria is typically a negative impact on occupational duties, work addicts cannot negatively impact on the activity they are already engaged in (except in the sense that their addiction to work may impact on work productivity or work quality due to the resulting psychological and/or physical illness see Myth 3). This paper comprises a narrative review and focuses on 10 myths about work addiction that have permeated the psychological literature and beyond. Such activities have been described by Ian Brown as mixed blessings addictions. The findings have Promoting work-life balance has also been shown to increase both physical and psychological health, and personal resilience for workers. The international group of researchers including Technology Addiction However, the common use of the term workaholism to denote anything related to high involvement in work may suggest that for practical reasons in the professional literature on work addiction, understood within addiction framework, it would be advisable to limit usage of this term. doi:10.1111/sjop.2012.53.issue-3, Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Sinha, R., Hetland, J., & Pallesen, S. (2016) The Relationships between workaholism and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional study. Research says a "lack of eye contact" may be to blame. B. Negative Side Effects of Kratom. Fact: The issue of whether workaholism and work addiction are the same entity depends on how these constructs are defined. Reliable statistics on the prevalence of individuals addicted to work on a country-by-country basis are almost non-existent. Internationale Zeitschrift fr Psychoanalyse. (2016). Psychology Although AI-enhanced processes can benefit workers (e.g., by assisting with exhausting or dangerous tasks), they can also elicit psychological harm (e.g., by causing job loss or degrading work quality). Such individuals may work very long hours, expend high effort in their job, delegate rarely, and may not necessarily be more productive (Griffiths, 2005a). (2010). Kotov R., Gamez W., Schmidt F., Watson D. (2010). Table2 highlights the similarities and differences in these two case studies in relation to core components of addiction (Griffiths, 2005b). A., Kassebaum N., Kawakami N., Khang Y.H., Khatibzadeh S., Khoo J.P., Kok C., Laden F., Lalloo R., Lan Q., Lathlean T., Leasher J.L., Leigh J., Li Y., Lin J.K., Lipshultz S.E., London S., Lozano R., Lu Y., Mak J., Malekzadeh R., Mallinger L., Marcenes W., March L., Marks R., Martin R., McGale P., McGrath J., Mehta S., Mensah G.A., Merriman T.R., Micha R., Michaud C., Mishra V., Mohd Hanafiah K., Mokdad A. The Impact of Watching Pornography at Work van Beek I., Hu Q., Schaufeli Q. Despite the threats of his wife, he cannot stop himself working at such a stressful pace, When he takes a family holiday, his first thoughts are always about work. The researchers looked at a total of 187 workers from a range of different occupations and demographics, who were asked to answer four different questionnaires. Burnout, work engagement and workaholism among highly educated employees: Profiles, antecedents and outcomes. 'Generation Alpha' is the term given to the cohort of individuals being born between the years of 2010-2025. It is concluded that (a)work addiction is not a new behavioral addiction, (b)work addiction in some respects is dissimilar to other behavioral addictions, (c)the consequences of work addiction are not just psychosocial, (d)work addiction is a psychological construct while workaholism is a more generic term, (e)work addiction is more than a consequence of individual personality factors, (f)work addiction or its antecedents signs might occur during adolescence, (g)positive work addiction does not exist, (h)work addiction is not a transient behavioral pattern related to situational factors, (i)work addiction is not a function of the time spent engaging in work, and (j)work addiction is not an example of overpathogizing everyday behavior. Explaining Drug Use However, the factors that contribute to work addiction go far beyond personality traits alone and include other individual factors as well as situational and structural determinants of the work activity itself. Second, assessment instruments have been developed and evaluated in terms of their psychometric properties (e.g.,Andreassen, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2014; for a review, see Andreassen, 2014; Andreassen & Pallesen, 2016; Clark, Michel, Zhdanova, Pui, & Baltes, 2016; Griffiths & Karanika-Murray, 2012; Quinones & Griffiths, 2015; Sussman, 2012) leading to scales (Andreassen etal., 2012; Atroszko etal., 2017; Orosz etal., 2016) based on common addiction components (Griffiths, 2005a, 2005b). Changes can be structural and functional and have adverse effects on ones health and quality of life. At high doses, kratom can cause tremors, seizures, and psychosis. Atroszko P.A., Andreassen C.S., Griffiths M.D., Pallesen S. (2016b). Excessive smartphone use is associated with difficulties in cognitive-emotion regulation, (2009). The relationship between workaholism, basic needs satisfaction at work and personality. The lower conscientiousness and agreeableness among some work addicts may be a consequence of the addiction itself (more specifically, work overload taking its toll on the ability to maintain being organized and increased irritability with others). Evaluation and the Health Professions, 34, 3-56. While excessive overinvolvement in work may be fairly common, strongly dependent on situational factors, and relatively innocuous, for a minority of individuals work addiction is a seriously harming long-lasting problem. doi: 10.1556/2006.7.2018.05. There is clearly lack of precise dictionary definitions of work addiction and workaholism, and there is no reason to assume they could not be used as synonyms. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102446, Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Hetland, J., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. OKeefe J.H., Patil H.R., Lavie C.J., Magalski A., Vogel R.A., McCullough P.A. If you dont have support in your workplace, try talking with friends and family, and ask for their help in refocusing your time such as having them remind you to take breaks from work. A major global factor that may have significant effect on both this relationship and the specificity of work addiction is the knowledge-based economy and changes in education that it drives (Powell & Snellman, 2004). It also appears that those who are genuinely addicted to work appear to have a compulsive drive to gain approval and success but can result in impaired judgment, poor health, burnout, and breakdowns (Griffiths, 2005a) as opposed to what might be described as enthusiastic workaholism where few problems are associated with the behavior. Taris T.W., Schaufeli W.B., Shimazu A. Kratom has been associated with various heart problems such as elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, and even heart As it was already described in Myths 1 and 4, there was a fairly long period of confusion concerning conceptualization of work addiction and its relation to workaholism and engagement in work or passion for work. Exploring the Complexities of Kratom - Psychology Today PowerPoint Presentation These changes may also lower stress and absenteeism while improving performance. Seeing Andreassen C.S., Griffiths M.D., Hetland J., Kravina L., Jensen F., Pallesen S. (2014). The .gov means its official. They found that high work demands and people who worked in high pressure roles for example managers with greater responsibilities were the most significant factors contributing to the risk of work addiction. It appears that the field is far from unified and that there are different theoretical constructs underpinning different strands of research. (2011). The question is not whether there are individuals who persistently engage for a long time in an excessive work which may lead to harm, but how many work addicts are there? Fact: There is lots of evidence that work addiction is linked to life-threatening physical illnesses. Decreased or increased appetite. In short, the factors that facilitate and contribute to work addiction are more than just inherent individual characteristics and work addiction is also influenced by both the structural characteristics (of the work activity) and situational characteristics (of the workplace environment). The potential far-reaching implications of this line research may become more evident, if we take into consideration that improving the quality and efficiency of education and training, as well as making lifelong learning fact, are among the main objectives of strategic frameworks of policymaking institutions (e.g.,European Commission, 2015). Griffiths argued that Michael fulfilled his six criteria for addiction (Table2). & Atroszko, P.A. Griffiths (2005b) has consistently argued that addictions always result from an interaction and interplay between many factors including an individuals psychological constitution (e.g.,personality factors, unconscious motivations, attitudes, expectations, beliefs, etc. The impact of the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) on workers experiences remains underexamined. In short, work addiction is a psychological construct, whereas workaholism is arguably a more generic term. They also focus on increasing a persons responsibilities at work. Burnout and depression: Two entities or one? Research into work addiction has steadily grown over the past decade. Those self-medicating with kratom for opioid use disorder may have a higher risk of abusing kratom. impact & Karanika-Murray, M. (2012). Work addiction is more common in industrialised countries where work performance is a measure of success. Money spent on substances or the loss of jobs or reliance on public assistance may cause an economic burden. People with work addiction are driven to work excessively, despite the detrimental impacts this has on their personal health and wellbeing, and relationships. During almost 50 years of gathered data, there is much evidence that work addiction is related to chronic stress in work and outside work, psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and life-threatening physical illnesses (for a review, see Andreassen, 2014; Andreassen & Pallesen, 2016; Clark etal., 2016; Griffiths & Karanika-Murray, 2012; Quinones & Griffiths, 2015; Robinson, 2014; Sussman, 2012). A gambling addiction is a progressive addiction that can have many negative psychological, physical, and social repercussions. Potential uses include the treatment of addiction and anxiety. PLoS ONE, 11: e0152978. Professor in Occupational Therapy, Life Balance and Wellbeing, Cardiff University. This distinction is crucial in terms of psychometric assessment of work addiction, as well as any other addition, because it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate high time and energy investment in an activity from compulsive engagement in work. For example, one study has found that increasing job security and opportunities for development lowered the risk of work addiction. Numerous studies have shown the negative impact of work addiction on mental health. However, it should be emphasized that such positive consequences are typically short lasting, and in the long run, addiction will take its toll on health (even exercise in excess is physiologically unhealthy in the long run in terms of immune function, cardiovascular health, bone health, and mental health. The situational characteristics of work can comprise social facilitation effects (i.e.,working with others or alone), the relationship dynamics between co-workers (e.g.,collegiality between line managers and/or work colleagues), work environment aesthetics (e.g.,lighting, dcor, and color in workspace), physical comfort of work environment, and the organizations working ethos, policies, and culture (Griffiths, 2011). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152978. The mediating role of psychophysic strain in the relationship between workaholism, job performance, and sickness absence. The prevalence of workaholism: A survey study in a nationally representative sample of norwegian employees. Griffiths, M. D. (1996). Ecstasy Addiction Although AI-enhanced processes can benefit workers (e.g., by assisting with exhausting or dangerous tasks), they can also elicit psychological harm (e.g., by causing job loss or degrading work quality). Prevalence and co-occurrence of addictive behaviors among former alternative high school youth. Villella C., Martinotti G., Di Nicola M., Cassano M., La Torre G., Gliubizzi M.D., Messeri I., Petruccelli F., Bria P., Janiri L., Conte G. (2011). Although this studys sample size was small, previous research has also shown that work addiction is associated with depression, stress, sleep disorders and lower mental health. Vallerand R.J., Paquet Y., Philippe F.L., Charest J. The formal notion of work addiction was introduced to the psychological literature almost 50years with the Oates (1968, 1971) seminal publications. At high doses, kratom can cause tremors, seizures, and psychosis. It appears that work addiction is less dependent on these personality characteristics than might be concluded from overviewing work addiction literature, and indeed different patterns of personality may be observed among those addicted to work. WebINTRODUCTION. Last week, I and two of my colleagues published a paper in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions examining various myths concerning work addiction. That medication happens to be semaglutide, the same drug in high demand largely for its effects on weight loss. However, to incorporate ethical terms into psychological contract analysis is Griffiths (2011) presented two case studies based on an amalgam of real people known to the author to demonstrate that content and context of the behavior are far more important in determining addictive behavior than time. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press. While it is almost impossible to control natural usage of terms, preference for work addiction in addiction literature would be a way to emphasize the addiction framework in which the phenomenon is being conceptualized. Korn E.R., Pratt G.J., Lambrou P.T. (1987). The core issue is the extent to which work impacts negatively on the rest of the individuals non-working life. A. Shimazu A., Schaufeli W.B., Kamiyama K., Kawakami N. (2015). There may also be some benefits from normal [and excessive] work (e.g., financial security through earning a good salary, financial bonuses based on productivity, international travel, free or reduced medical insurance, company car, etc.). Yes, pornography is extremely Orosz G., Lornd E., Dombi E., Andreassen C.S., Griffiths M.D., Demetrovics Z. Global Journal of Addiction and Rehabilitation Medicine, Behavioural addiction and substance addiction should be defined by their similarities not their dissimilarities. Norwegian studies reported that approximately 7.3%8.3% of Norwegians were addicted to work using the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (Andreassen, Griffiths, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2012; Andreassen, Nielsen, Pallesen, & Gjerstad, in press). Teena J Clouston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Work Addiction and 'Workaholism' | Psychology Today Workaholism and Psychiatric Disorders | Psychology Today Symptoms It can be hard to identify a Substance Use Disorder sometimes because people can have a wide degree of functioning and often can hide their alcohol or drug use. What is worth noting is that while the workfamily conflict/imbalance problem is present in currently conducted research (Andreassen, 2014; Griffiths & Karanika-Murray, 2012; Quinones & Griffiths, 2015; Sussman, 2012), the line of research related to direct health problems of addicts family members has been understudied in the literature and warrants more attention (Matuska, 2010). However, it is worthwhile noting that the hypothetical example of research addiction already fits well into the persisting compulsive overinvolvement in job/study to the exclusion of other spheres of life, and if it leads to serious harm (and conflict symptoms suggest that it may), then it could be argued that the person in Billieux et al.s paper is addicted to work. Why we overwork, cover up, pick up pieces, please the boss and perpetuate sick organizations, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, Andreassen, Griffiths, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2012, Andreassen, Nielsen, Pallesen, & Gjerstad, in press, Demetrovics, Richman, van den Brink, & Maraz, 2017, Paksi, Rzsa, Kun, Arnold, & Demetrovics, 2009, Atroszko, Pallesen, Griffiths, & Andreassen, 2017, Clark, Michel, Zhdanova, Pui, & Baltes, 2016, Karanika-Murray, Duncan, Pontes, & Griffiths, 2015, Karanika-Murray, Pontes, Griffiths, & Biron, 2015, Shimazu, Schaufeli, Kamiyama, & Kawakami, 2015, Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, & Charest, 2010, van Beek, Hu, Schaufeli, Taris, & Schreurs, 2012, Andreassen, Griffiths, Sinha, Hetland, & Pallesen, 2016, Michalsson, Byberg, Ahlbom, Melhus, & Farahmand, 2011, Grant, Potenza, Weinstein, & Gorelick, 2010, Schaufeli, Bakker, van der Heijden, & Prins, 2009, Atroszko, Andreassen, Griffiths, & Pallesen, 2015, DeJong, Van den Brink, Harteveld, & van der Wielen, 1993, American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013, Kirly, Tth, Urbn, Demetrovics, & Maraz, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/business/international/in-sweden-an-experiment-turns-shorter-workdays-into-bigger-gains.html, http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media//files/Studia_Psychologica/Studia_Psychologica-r2010-t-n10/Studia_Psychologica-r2010-t-n10-s179-201/Studia_Psychologica-r2010-t-n10-s179-201.pdf, http://ec.europa.eu/education/documents/et-2020-draft-joint-report-408-2015_en.pdf, http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/lll99.pdf, https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/getfile/1093, Work addiction is a new behavioral addiction, Work addiction has been studied for decades and fits very well into recently postulated criteria for conceptualization of a behavioral addiction, Work addiction is similar to other behavioral addictions, Work addiction is a fundamentally different type of behavioral addiction because it is related to possibly most important social role of an adult, i.e.,of a worker, and work is widely perceived as productive and positive activity, There are only psychosocial consequences of work addiction, There is lots of evidence that work addiction is linked to life threatening physical illnesses, Work addiction and workaholism are the same thing, This depends on how these constructs are defined but work addiction is theoretically rooted in addiction whereas workaholism includes a wider range of theoretical underpinnings and in some research is seen as something positive rather than negative, Work addiction occurs as a consequence of individual personality factors, The factors that contribute to work addiction go far beyond personality alone include other individual factors as well as the structural characteristics of the work activity itself and the situational characteristics of the workplace environment, Study addiction, conceptualized as potential early form of work addiction, has been reported in high school and university students, Some types of work addiction are positive, If an activity is defined as an addiction, the long-term consequences of excessive work will always outweigh any short-term benefits, Work addiction is a transient behavioral pattern related to situational factors, There is a compelling evidence for the persistence of work addiction in a minority of individuals; however, the prevalence rates are unknown due to lack of consensus regarding diagnosis criteria, Work addiction is a function of the time spent engaging in work, While the time spent engaging in an activity (particularly an excessive activity) is correlated with those addicted, time in and of itself is not a core component of addiction. The Highly Flexible Habits of Happy People, The Power of Beliefs in Romantic Relationships, Why Automated Talk Doesn't Scare Us, And Why It Should. and social aspects of substance use disorders Problem gambling and gambling addiction are not the same. While some individuals engage excessively in intense work tasks during periods of high demands from their job and/or due to high expectancies from the employer, work addiction is driven by inner compulsion, which is a fairly stable characteristic, and in some cases, lasts throughout adult life (Robinson, 2014). Mills K.T., Bundy J.D., Kelly T.N., Reed J.E., Kearney P.M., Reynolds K., Chen J., He J. B., van der Heijden F. M. M. A., Prins J.T. (2009). People at risk of developing work addiction often have low self esteem, experience doubt about their performance at work, or have obsessive compulsive personality traits. Sussman, S., Lisha, N. & Griffiths, M.D. In a longitudinal cross-cultural survey, study addiction was shown to be both temporally stable (Atroszko etal., 2016a) and related to work addiction after students graduate and enter the labor market (Atroszko etal., 2016b). Workaholic and work engaged employees: Dead ringers or worlds apart? addiction Physiological Adaptations of Addiction Key points. Psychological detachment represents an avoidance of work-related thoughts, actions or emotions. Addiction Attention Behavioral economics Behavioral medicine Clinical psychology Cognitive developmental disorders Cognitive function Cognitive impairment Emotion Epidemiology of mental health Environmental impact on mental health Health psychology Lived experience Mental health conditions Mental health treatment The mental stress and the situation itself can cause lasting psychological issues and severely hinder your work productivity and job satisfaction in the long run. One notable example of practical application of this knowledge includes recent innovations in Swedish companies, which have reduced time at work (to 6hr) without loss of productivity (and in some cases may even increase) (Alderman, 2016). All authors contributed to the preparation of this manuscript. Natural course of behavioral addictions: A 5-year longitudinal study.