Addicted to Work? In the End, Everyone Suffers

verwork has become epidemic in the American work force, many experts say.

Modern technology makes employees accessible 24 hours a day to their bosses and clients, and the operating philosophy at a lot of companies is that good workers never let up. At some offices, those who take lunch are considered wimps, and those who head for the parking garage promptly at 5 p.m. are thought to be vying for the top spot on the next layoff list.

But even though compulsive overwork can jeopardize employees’ physical and emotional health, damage their family lives and even signify a serious addictive disorder, few bosses are raising their voices in concern. Many, in fact, are urging their hardest workers to toil even faster and longer. These bosses encourage employees to arrive early, leave late and spend nights and weekends sifting through take-home work.

But now the secret is out: Overwork is not necessarily a ticket to fame, high esteem and financial glory. If anything, it can be a career killer--even though it appears to enjoy a wide range of societal support.

Compulsive overwork is perhaps the only addiction supported by religion, education, business and society, some workplace observers say.

In “Working Ourselves to Death,” (HarperPaperbacks, 1993), author Diane Fassel calls it “the cleanest of all addictions.” Diligent workers are perceived as patriotic and virtuous. “Uber-workers” who go beyond the call of duty are often elevated to corporate sainthood. Rising productivity--at whatever cost--is the battle cry at many businesses.

American employees in the 1990s put in an extra month of work annually compared with their counterparts of 20 years ago, according to Harvard economist Juliet Schor, author of “The Overworked American” (Basic Books, 1993).

Americans labor 300 more hours a year than do workers in France, Germany and Sweden. Only Japanese workers, whose business leaders are now reevaluating their country’s workaholic culture, surpass Americans in work hours.

But in Japan, overwork’s hazards are being seriously appraised. Karoshi victims--employees who die or commit suicide from overwork--are regarded by their countrymen with a mixture of sympathy and awe.

From 1987 to 1994, nearly 200 karoshi claims in Japan were settled through no-fault workers’ compensation payments.

One 38-year-old accountant, who remained at his office in Tokyo for 14 days without a break, was found dead in his bed just hours after he finally returned home.

Meanwhile, hundreds of incapacitated Japanese workers have filed claims alleging that they have developed cardiovascular diseases--including high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, cerebral hemorrhages and myocardial infarctions--as a result of their heavy workloads and unremitting occupational stress.

“Our business culture seems to applaud the people who do more than their share,” says Jean Hollands, chief executive of the Growth and Leadership Center, a Silicon Valley-based executive coaching organization.

But has the cost become too dear? Even corporations suffer repercussions for overtaxing their codependent workers. As their employees’ overtime hours mount, work quality concurrently declines, studies show. In addition, the risk of accidents, illness, injury and errors in judgment among these workers rises incrementally.

“Someone at my job told me, ‘First you steal time from yourself. Then you steal it from your family and friends and, finally, you’re so wiped out that you steal time from the company, so nobody wins,” says a woman we’ll call Sharon, who recently resigned from an Internet portal company, where she says she routinely put in seven-day weeks.

“I’d often fall asleep at night on the couch, with my laptop on my lap,” she says. “I guess I played the role of the stoic. I wanted everyone to think this was easy for me.”

Many factors prompt codependent workers to take on more than their fair share of the job.

“One problem is that these people haven’t adequately defined themselves,” says Dr. Paul Baard, a Manhasset, N.Y.-based psychologist. “So they depend on someone else to define their value.”

Certain codependent personality types have been identified in the workplace. “Superheroes,” for instance, crave recognition, power, respect and financial rewards. For them, no task is too overwhelming, too time-consuming or too complex. Underneath their bravado, however, lies a need to control others.

“They want to be able to say, ‘Look how I saved the day,’ ” says Barbara Moses, author of “Career Intelligence: The 12 New Rules for Work and Life Success” (Berrett-Koehler, 1998).

By rescuing office mates, superheroes foster dependency on themselves. They need to be needed, to temporarily stifle feelings of inadequacy, loneliness or failure. Many compulsively focus on work to avoid problems in their personal lives.

A 1992 American Medical Assn. study revealed that nearly half of the managers surveyed said that they worked longer and harder to escape pressures in other areas.

“It’s an insidious thing,” says Max Carey, chief executive of Atlanta-based Corporate Resource Development Inc., who admits that he has suffered from this syndrome. “I still combat this every day. Work gives me a worthy excuse not to do the things I’m less happy doing. It shields me from the parts of my life that may not be as comfortable--like being close to my wife and children.”

“Office mommies and daddies” parent their firm’s personnel. They buy doughnuts, cake and pizza for late-staying co-workers. They organize surprise birthday parties. They send greeting cards to depressed colleagues, flowers to the ill, and assume others’ tasks in their absences.

As children, many “office parents” were forced to grow up quickly, because they had to shoulder responsibilities their parents could not or would not handle. Some unconsciously learned that to be appreciated, they had to be helpful, smart and worthy.

“I call this the ‘good-girl syndrome,’ ” says Moses. “They’re looking for the love they never got from their families.”

But now these adult workers are reenacting their family dynamics at the office.

“The trouble is, the work situation is the wrong place, and they’re the wrong age,” says psychologist Jim Osterhaus of the Armstrong Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.

“Conflict avoiders” can’t say no. They’d rather neglect their families and surrender their leisure time than risk a clash with company personnel. Even when they’re floundering under avalanches of work, they won’t ask for help. Such individuals tend to dodge conflict in other areas of their life, too, says Osterhaus. As children, they may have cowered from volatile-tempered parents or, conversely, modeled themselves after dispassionate parents whose motto was “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”

One conflict-avoiding middle manager consulted Moses because he hadn’t been promoted in five years, even though he had earned a reputation as his office’s beast of burden because he’d take on any assignment.

“I told him, ‘Before you take on a project, ask whether it adds value to your boss’ work, your work, or enhances your resume,’ ” Moses says, ticking off positive priorities. “He had to learn to put each request through a sieve.”

“Compulsive consumers” are trapped in an endless work-spend cycle that they’ve created for themselves. They use their salaries, bonuses, commissions and overtime pay to purchase the latest, greatest status symbols they’ve “just got to have,” such as a new Lexus, big-screen TV or another 1,000 shares of a hot new stock. They may loathe their spending habits, and sweat about their mounting debts, but they can’t stop spending. So they must toil endlessly to pay for things they don’t have the time or energy to enjoy.

How hard is it for codependent office workers to break their self-defeating work habits, and stop accepting too many assignments? Very hard, the experts say.

“If you attribute your successes to the behaviors that [actually] undermine you, are you going to give them up?” Moses says.

For most codependent workers, the first step to working healthier is intense self-scrutiny. Often, they possess an exaggerated sense of their efficacy, says Hollands. “They think they can do it better than anyone else, so they threaten the boss, ‘This place will fall apart without me.’ But it doesn’t, unfortunately for them.”

Sharon concedes that this was true for her at her Internet job. “I think I spread myself so thin that nothing got done as well as it should have been,” she says.

Candace Talmadge, a Lancaster, Texas-based writer and former copy editor, says she had to undergo a form of therapy to finally break her workaholic cycle. She learned that at each of her jobs, she augmented her workload to gain validation. But when the accolades weren’t forthcoming, she’d grow frustrated and leave the position, only to find herself repeating her workaholic behavior.

“I’d say to my boss, ‘I’d be a team player, except I’m the whole damn team!’ ” Talmadge says. “I eventually realized that, since I had felt so unloved as a child, I wanted to get love somewhere else, and I looked for it at work. Wrong.”

Talmadge doesn’t believe that codependent workers can easily unlearn their behavior. “I don’t think you can train people out of this,” she says. “Unless the feelings [that cause the behavior] are resolved, it’ll happen again.”

Hollands, however, gives her workaholic clients a short, simple warning: Abandon your self-injurious work habits now, or risk learning how through disastrous consequences later.

“I say to them, ‘If you get a heart attack and don’t die, your doctor will offer you rehabilitation classes, and you’ll have to leave work at 3 p.m. to attend them. You won’t have any misgivings about leaving work that early, you know. You’ll be very glad to do it.’ ”

Tips for Helping Your Inner Worker

* Be honest about how bad your situation is. Admit your fears. What might happen if you say no to extra work or additional hours?

* Answer honestly: Why do you behave like this? To be liked and admired? To control others? To be the best? To earn money for “toys?” What are you running from?

* Recognize that your needs are as important as those of others.

* Start saying “no.” Don’t apologize. Don’t cave in. “Say to your boss, ‘This is how you’re used to using me, but this is how you’ll get the best of me,’ ” says Laura Berman Fortgang, author of “Take Yourself to the Top: The Secrets of America’s #1 Career Coach” (Warner Books, 1998).

* Re-educate your co-workers. Share the news that you’re no longer the office grunt.

* Be prepared for a learning curve--yours and theirs. Changing a lifelong habit takes time, and requires repetition and patience.

* Develop an identity outside of work. Spend time with family and friends. Develop new talents and abilities. Experience life. A whole world awaits you outside the office doors.