Used in Sentence: “Jimmy neglects his family so he can spend more time working, he’s a workaholic.”

Despite a very accurate definition that contains more truth than anything- “One who is addicted to workahol” being a workaholic will get you a pretty nice car eventually, surely there’s a joke in there some where.

Though the severity of being a Workaholic is always a unique situation there is nothing wrong with being a Workaholic other than having nearly thousands of pet peeves in the work place because you spend so much time there, it’s your element.

You’re #1 for contributing to society that much, you deserve recognition…today is your day! The question remains..How do you correctly identify if  you are in-fact a Workaholic?

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#1:Preoccupation with work.

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A workaholic will have troubles flipping off that magical switch that rolls around the 5:00 hour. They feel like there is always more work to be done but something in their head is blocking the message that the flow is never ending. This sign can be seen in a few different ways from constantly checking the Blackberry (in this case the Crackberry) to sitting down at dinner with your hubby for the first time in a few months and you attempt to excuse yourself so you can double check that spreadsheet you made this afternoon about the supply and demand of tootsie-rolls at the local blood donation clinic.
Pretty much if you’re working as if you had taken some ADHD medication,  and you’re just plain having fun with it, or if the song “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen applies you may be a Workaholic..

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#2: Discomfort delegating.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________Some workaholics live by the rule “If you want something done right, you have to do it your self”. Putting work onto that intern who’s is itching to be your slave can be a rough process for a workaholic, delegating work means you’re no longer in control of that project, meaning you get to go home and enjoy a beer while watching the new episode of American Idol. If you have a problem with that signs point to yes, you are a workaholic.

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#3:Neglect other aspects of life.
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Coming home for dinner may make you the number one father but returning to work afterwords screws it up more than Kanye West raining on Taylor Swifts parade at the Grammy Awards. A workaholic makes their work everything over outside life. missing birthdays, dinner dates, baseball games, outings with friends means you’re a workaholic. Sometimes a workaholic is too busy to worry about fun and friends. There’s a meeting tomorrow morning that they plan to blow out of the water, and nothing is going to stand between them and a happy boss.

Maybe you should ask your kids if you work too much, after all kids are innocent.
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#4: Merge other parts of their lives into work.
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In that rare occasional hang-out session with friends or family you may be watching a game on the TV or playing kick-ball at the cabin with family and anything that happens you want to turn it into a business endeavor.  Say if you’re a writer you may think the time you just spent with friends makes for a great short story to sell to schools teaching young scholars how to read, or if you’re a salesman that extra sale can always be squeezed in. This kind of thing gets noticed quickly and typically people around you will want to stop hanging out with you, because they don’t hang out with you to thinktank, they hang out with you to talk about how much they actually hate work, so you’re not helping.

Remember: No one likes a person that always talks about work…unless your talking to someone you work with..then you could get away with it.

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#5: Sneaking’ work.
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Being a workaholic falls under the category of an addiction and like all people who have addictions, they try to hide it. Hiding an addiction consists of lying to friends and family about where you’re going (Yeah i’m going out on a night with the guys!) like alcoholics who say something along the lines of “Going to the movies!” you get the idea.
The scene of a husband coming home at about 2AM greeted by an angry wife sitting in the dark just waiting to tear him a new air-hole comes to mind. Instead of smelling alcohol on your breath, she sees your work bag, a few pen marks on your hand, and the smell of copy paper.

Being an workaholic and working behind the scenes to be at the work place can affect many around you. Leading to an intervention.

 

Making a life change can cause stress so to avoid width-drawl from work, consider bringing Sudoku and have your boss assign it to you, if that helps.
But hey today (July 5th) is National Workaholics day so if you now believe you’re a workaholic today is your day and be proud! Stay as late as you want, take the two years worth of vacation days you accrued and throw em’ out the window because there’s no better way to take a vacation than looking at the screen saver on your desktop of some island some where other than your office! Just make sure you say hi to your kids! Buy em a Happy Meal for goodness sake!