What is a workaholic? 12 signs and what to do
How to tell a workaholic from someone who simply works hard. Plus what you, or a manager, can do about it.
A workaholic is someone who feels driven to work far more than the job needs and struggles to stop, even when it costs their health, relationships or rest. The difference from simply working hard is compulsion: a hard worker can switch off and enjoys the work, while a workaholic feels restless, anxious or guilty when they aren't working.
What is a workaholic, exactly?
Researchers describe workaholism as two things together: working excessively, and working compulsively, driven by an inner pressure rather than by the job's demands.
- Long hours alone don’t make someone a workaholic. Engaged employees often put in long hours too, but with enjoyment and without the compulsion (Di Stefano and Gaudiino, Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 2018).
- In a nationally representative survey of 1,124 Norwegian employees, 8.3% met the cutoff for workaholism. It was more common among younger adults and unrelated to gender, education or marital status (Andreassen and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2014).
12 signs of a workaholic
The first seven follow the Bergen Work Addiction Scale, a questionnaire researchers use to measure workaholism. The last five are everyday versions people tend to recognize.
- 1.You keep looking for ways to free up more time to work. Errands, plans and sleep get squeezed so the work can grow.
- 2.Work keeps running far longer than you planned. "One more email" at 7 turns into closing the laptop at 10.
- 3.You work to quiet guilt or worry. Working is how you calm down, not just how you get things done.
- 4.People close to you have asked you to cut back. A partner, friend or doctor has raised it, and you didn't change much.
- 5.Being kept from work makes you tense. A holiday shutdown, a lost connection or a forced day off leaves you on edge.
- 6.Hobbies, exercise and friends keep losing out. Things you used to enjoy get moved to "after this busy stretch", which never ends.
- 7.Your health has paid for your hours. Sleep, meals or checkups slip because work always comes first.
- 8.Your mood rises and falls with your output. A slow day feels like a personal failure, not just a slow day.
- 9.Handing work off feels impossible. It's faster to do it yourself, so you do all of it.
- 10.Rest has to be earned, and you never quite earn it. There's always one more task standing between you and a break.
- 11.You volunteer for more when you're already full. Saying yes feels safer than admitting you're at capacity.
- 12.Your mind stays at work during downtime. Dinner, the gym and your kid's game all turn into planning time.
A quick self-check
Rate each of the first seven from never to always. On the Bergen scale, answering often or always to at least four of them may suggest you’re a workaholic (Andreassen and colleagues, University of Bergen, 2012). It’s a research tool, not a diagnosis.
Workaholic vs hard worker: the difference
Both can work long days. The difference is why they do it and whether they can stop.
- Why you work
- Hard worker: The work matters to you, and you like it
- Workaholic: You feel you have to, and stopping feels wrong
- When the work is done
- Hard worker: You stop and feel good about it
- Workaholic: You look for the next thing to do
- Days off
- Hard worker: You rest and come back fresh
- Workaholic: You feel restless and check in anyway
- Busy seasons
- Hard worker: Long hours for a while, then back to normal
- Workaholic: Long hours are the normal
- Other parts of life
- Hard worker: Still get time and attention
- Workaholic: Get squeezed out, one by one
When a whole workplace treats long hours as proof of commitment, it’s a culture problem as much as a personal one. We cover that side in hustle culture.
Why it's worth taking seriously
Extra hours stop paying off sooner than most people think, and very long weeks carry real costs.
- In a study of World War I munition workers, output rose in step with hours up to about 49 a week, then flattened. Output at 70 hours differed little from output at 56, and a 48-hour, six-day week produced slightly more than a 70-hour week with no day off (Pencavel, The Productivity of Working Hours, IZA, 2014).
- WHO and the ILO estimated that working 55 or more hours a week was linked to 745,000 deaths from stroke and heart disease in 2016 (WHO, May 2021).
If the goal is getting more done, our guide on how to increase productivity at work starts with focus, not hours.
What to do if you're a workaholic
Small, concrete limits work better than a vow to work less. Try two or three of these for a month.
- 1.Track your real hours for two weeks. Include evening email and weekend check-ins. The total is often a surprise.
- 2.Ask your manager what good looks like. Once you know what counts as strong work in your role, you have a point where you can stop.
- 3.Set a finish time and tell someone. A partner, roommate or teammate who expects you offline makes the stop real.
- 4.Book one weekly plan someone else counts on. A class, a team sport, a standing dinner. Work bends around it, not the other way.
- 5.Keep one full day a week work-free. No email, no "quick look". Sign out of work apps on your phone for that day.
- 6.Notice what pulls you back to work. Before reopening the laptop, name the feeling: worry, guilt, boredom. Naming it makes it easier to wait.
- 7.Talk it through with someone. A friend, a mentor, or your employee assistance program (EAP) if your company has one.
This is general wellbeing information, not medical advice. If you can’t cut back when you want to, or work is affecting your sleep, health or relationships, talk to a doctor or a licensed mental health professional.
When work stress is the bigger problem, see how to reduce stress at work or these stress management activities. For a reminder you can pin above your desk, pick one of these work-life balance quotes.
How to help a workaholic on your team
A manager can't fix someone's habits for them, but can stop the workplace from rewarding them.
- Judge results, not hours or reply times. Say it out loud, so nobody thinks the late nights are what you're grading.
- Stop rewarding the midnight email. Thank people for finished work in the daytime, and don't answer late messages until morning.
- Turn down extra work on their behalf. When they volunteer for a fourth project, you can say no for them.
- Make vacation real. Help plan coverage before they leave, so there's nothing for them to check.
- Talk privately, with specifics. Name what you've seen, say their work is valued, and ask what would help. A script is below.
- Show the hours you want to see. If you work weekends, your team will assume they should too.
What to say
“I've noticed you're often online late and on weekends. Your work is strong, and I don't need those hours from you to keep it that way. What would make it easier to stop on time?”
Say it in a one-on-one, not in front of the team, and follow up in a couple of weeks.
