Workaholic: My career/school comes first

Workaholic: My career/school comes first

I have heard it said before, that when people put their job over their home life or their well-being they can get burned. Sure it’s nice to have a sweet paycheck that goes up, and a boss nod or recommendation or promotion, but is it really super awesome when the people you love, don’t get to see you ? I can’t launch into my opinion without providing my own scope at work. I want to be able to be a level three data manager and it would be incredibly cool to be able to travel, write for Google and lead a team, but that’s a lot to ask for someone who has only been here a year. Try taking a red eye flight, juggling a laptop and a conference call, with a beeper in hand for emergencies (over dramatized version, but pretty close), and then it becomes clear. Deadline for tests or project comes up, say goodbye to social life, sleep, and normal until said studying or project is finished. People claim they love the constant go and non-stop hit the ground running schedule, and others claim it’s the quickest way to burnout even if they won’t admit it to your face. I talked to people who work full time and still attend night school to get a masters or a PHD. Add children into your mix, and your life just became a whole heck of a lot harder (major respect for those who juggle all of the above). It can be difficult to go dark, ignore texts, calls, emails, or it becomes very nice to hide underneath a schedule to mask any emotional feeling; which is only dangerous if taken too far to point of exhaustion. I guess you can consider the people on the other end, who for some three days of work before a holiday can either mean slammed or completely calm and quiet to the point of sheer boredom(alright, so maybe this week isn’t’ so busy, but still). As most of my colleagues would say, “it’s better to not waste a vacation day and just come in to work.” Workaholics are those who can’t say no to anything, and they don’t make time out for anyone, their goal could be sole set on working themselves to death, because maybe all they have is work, or it’s a competition to beat out someone else or take on something more than they can handle for a review or raise. I am not sure what would be more important than family and friends, but I have come to find that most due days are, and saying sorry, “I will be MIA for a while,” is fair rather than waiting for people to figure out if he/she fell off a cliff out of desperation. Or it’s the crappy, ‘oh I have just been stuck in a hole, but I am back now, and I can respond to letter or message you sent three days ago(guilty as charged, have done this so many times!). You can’t be a workaholic, (supposing) if you don’t make excuses for life events and social calendar avoidance to go and work. It could be this person is engrossed in a project or task, and doesn’t really realize that time has run away with them, and the day is practically over or too late to contact anyone. No harm against the dedicated, driven employee( I would do the same), but if no one knows you exist, or plans get trumped because another so-called meeting or deadline, then there’s something amiss. Every Christmas, my family usually watches ‘Hook.’ I remember Peter in the movie as a workaholic dad who did not spend any time with his children at all. Jack and Maggie became pretty resentful and retaliated in their own ways. Peter had to learn that their needs to be a balance of work and home life for marriage to work, for children to be loved and for life to be doable. The movie demonstrates the typical working man, and teaches him to have a little imagination of his own; worth the rental/viewing to show that not everyone who works forever reaps amazing rewards, and if they do, it comes at a high cost. In the Devil Wears Prada, the main lady has been married twice, and headed into a divorce and hardly sees her kids if barely. However, the job title speaks for itself and shows that no one no matter how hard they try cannot do what she does. I have appreciation for those men and women whose jobs are irreplaceable and as sad as it may be for us to see, for them it may be their calling and ‘it is what it is’ factor. Workaholic or no, a job does not and should not define you or bring you warmth at night.