Workaholic

When I was young in my career before 40, I could be considered a workaholic. I can work more than 12 hours a day, and sometimes even overnight and on weekends. That was how driven I was to learn and learn and contribute and gain visibility. 

But once I had my second kid, I changed, mainly also due to circumstances as taking care of a family requires a lot of my time since we don’t have helper. 

But I was glad of this change. It was permanent. It made me worked hard but smart, and gave me a North Star which is family and self care vs running like a blind chicken. 

Being exposed to the ruthlessness that of reorganizations and layoffs since my early 30s also made my much more self aware of what the workplace should mean in my life.

Workaholics always think they are needed and the team they are in is useless. Therefore they tend to overwork, taking on things and tasks from others as they believe they can do it faster and better than their team mates. It also comes from a lack of faith and trust, plus an unwillingness to tolerate mistakes made by others. If you try to tell them that they need to work smart, they won’t listen. The answer is always “but the others don’t know how to do this!”. It is a very serious issue to me. It meant they will work themselves to death, not just their physical and mental health, but also their relationships with their loved ones, their spouse and their children. 

Remember, if you fall dead in office, within a few days, they will start interviewing to find your replacement and life goes on for everyone in the office, including those “lousy incompetent” colleagues that you used to not trust to do the “important” things. These people will simply take over what you would be doing if you were still alive. And guess what? Life goes on and the company won’t collapse. It’s the same if you were laid off. The work will just be handed over to those not laid off. The company won’t close down. 

This meant, you are not that indispensable. It’s a fact. The company don’t have single point of failure especially a large MNC. No one is so important.

So while you are still alive and working, don’t take on everything. Learn to let others do their work, learn to accept and deal with mistakes they make, and learn to guide them. If not you will not only end up miserable but your colleagues will also not be able to grow, and worse, they will start resenting you behind your back, since they will also be frustrated about the lack of faith and trust you showed them. And that’s a vicious cycle… you have more and more work on your plate since everyone don’t want to take it from you. 

So, workaholics, mend your ways before it’s too late. 

Learn to age gracefully and pivot to use your experience to guide and work smart. 

You have a family at home. They are the ones who will cry for you. They are last persons your eyes will see before closing for good. You won’t be thinking about any work not done well before your heave last breath.