Being a workaholic does not help your career

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Journal Of Occupational Health Psychology, which included 139 full-time employees in Italy, concluded that most workaholic employees are unhappy with their life both outside and inside the office, as compared to those who stepped back from work from time to time. There’s enough research to show that millennials (typically those born between 1981 and 1996) forfeit time off for several reasons, from being afraid of their superiors, to constantly worrying about maintaining a pristine reputation before their bosses.

Millennials, or Gen Y, like to be “work martyrs", pushing themselves to work long hours and endure unnecessary stress—something they learnt from their hard-working baby boomer parents who lived through tough financial times like the 2008 recession and the pandemic. That’s one of the reasons workaholism has been a trend among millennials, concluded a 2016 survey conducted by Project: Time Off (a project launched by the US Travel Association) and market research company GfK that involved 5,641 workers in the US.

This kind of emotional investment in work is actually detrimental and can also strain relationships with colleagues, says Delhi-based Ruchi Ruuh, an independent counselling psychologist. “Such people are likely to engage in constant criticism and may find it difficult to delegate work.

They also look at work failures as personal shortcomings," adds Ruuh. “Such behaviours will certainly cause high-stress levels, create resentment and make them defensive even in the case of minor feedback." Taking work so personally can eventually bring down creativity and impact work in the long run—which is why it is advised to have a thick skin in today’s competitive world.