#workaholism

#workaholism

That word, for me, was workaholism and when I heard it through my headphones earlier this year, listening to an audiobook on the tube, I felt a pang of something between recognition and panic. It transported me back to the worst time in my life. In May 2016, when I was nearly five months pregnant, I travelled to rural Norway to make a short documentary for the Guardian.

Between teaching MBA students and speaking to a lot of business audiences, I'm often interacting with successful people who work extremely long hours. It's common for me to hear about 13-hour workdays and seven-day workweeks, with few or no vacations. What I see among many of those I encounter is workaholism, a pathology characterized by continuing to work during discretionary time, thinking about work all the time, and pursuing job tasks well beyond what's required to meet any need.