Medical News Today defines “Workaholism,” or work addiction, as a behavioral pattern in which a person experiences an excessive and compulsive drive to work. This may lead to reduced self-care, relationship issues, and health problems.”1 Healthline.com says, “The term “workaholism” was first used in 1971 by psychologist Wayne Oates, and he defined it as a compulsion or an uncontrollable need to work incessantly.”2 And, Wikipedia.com says, “A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. A workaholic experiences an inability to limit the amount of time they spend on work despite negative consequences such as damage to their relationships or health. There is no generally accepted medical definition of this condition, although some forms of stress, impulse control disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be work-related; ergomania is defined as “excessive devotion to work especially as a symptom of mental illness.”3
Today has been designated by the National Day Calendar as National Workaholics Day. Interestingly, it comes right after Independence Day. Do you suppose the psychologists of today would have declared all of our forefathers to have been workaholics? I’m thinking that if they had slacked in what they did, we wouldn’t be here today as a nation.
As I read through the definitions of workaholism, I’m sure that there are those out there who have some sort of weird attachment to their jobs and will sacrifice life, living, family, and everything else for the job. However, in my non-professional opinion, I believe those individuals are few and far between. Those who are putting in long hours are individuals who: 1) are working excessive hours because others won’t, 2) have a great work ethic that drives them to get the job done, and 3) they need the job and value an honest day’s work.
My dad farmed. Farmers are going to put in extremely long hours. That’s the nature
of the job. When he got out of farming and went into woodworking and cabinet making, dad still put in long hours. Working 12-, 14-, or 16-hour days wasn’t unusual if there were projects needing to be accomplished. I never felt that dad was putting the job ahead of the family. Dad was doing what needed to be done. He was a worker!
Working with dad instilled some lessons.
The earlier we get started, the better. I listen to some kids talk about how they sleep until noon or later. WHAT?!?!? Sleeping till 7 a.m. was sleeping in and half the day was over. Even Saturday haircuts at Dean’s Barber Shop in Stryker got me rousted out of bed so that we could be first in the chair at 6:30 a.m. We can’t wait till later because there’s too much to do.
Breaks are for sissies. OSHA guidelines were not followed. If you need to get a drink of water or go potty, that doesn’t take 15 minutes. You can do BOTH in a minute or less, then it’s back to work.
You don’t need a half hour for lunch. If you need a half hour for lunch, you must be eating too much! Whenever I worked jobs where the lunch break was 30 minutes, I honestly didn’t want to go back to work. I was “out of the groove.” Dad prevented this! Even today for me, a typical lunch lasts long enough to eat something and then I’m back to work. I might sit down to watch a segment of The Price is Right but if I catch it at the wrong time, they are on a commercial break and by the time the commercials are finished, I’m finished with lunch and I’m back to work.
You don’t have time to stand around with your hands in your pockets. If you do, those hands can easily be wrapped around something. If you are AT work, then WORK.
Supper doesn’t necessarily mean the workday has ended. The workday ends when the work is finished or you just can’t go any more.
We are supposed to have a good work ethic. But, how much more important is it that we have a good spiritual work ethic? I don’t see anything in Scripture where the Lord tells someone that they are working for Him too much.
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
1 Thessalonians 2:9 “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.”
2 Thessalonians 3:7-8 “For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; (8) Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.”
Yes, God provided the saints in the Old Testament with the Sabbath, a day of rest. Their activity, though, was to be redirected in worship. We need that time of worship, too, and the first day of the week ought to be different from the other six. We can be involved in a different work, the work of the Lord.
Let’s be honest. Our issue is likely not that we are workaholics. It’s that we don’t work as hard as we could at any work that is available for us to do, especially the spiritual work God has entrusted to us. Remember that our payday is future and rewards await.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 reminds us, “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or
absent, we may be accepted of him. (10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
1https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/workaholic
2https://www.healthline.com/health/are-you-a-workaholic#What-is-workaholism?
3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workaholic
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