Does Your Organization Foster A Culture Of Workaholics? Here’s What To Do

When prominent leaders publicly encourage workers to do long hours, it hits the headlines.

Think of Elon Musk telling X/Twitter staff to work “long hours at high intensity” or get fired, or Wayfair’s CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah’s end-of-year message, which actively encouraged employees to clock up hours.

Specifically, Shah said. “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.”

Both CEOs were widely criticised online for these statements, but some leaders quietly chimed in agreement with the duo. More often, when this is the attitude, it’s communicated in more covert ways.

Overworking is usually a symptom of an organization’s culture. At its core, a workaholic culture is characterised by an insatiable drive for productivity, often at the expense of employee wellbeing.

Employees may feel compelled to work late, or constantly be available, sacrificing personal time and boundaries in the process.

These cultures usually combine a build up of unspoken agreements with technologies that make it easy to anchor employees to work, such as laptops, email, and certain cloud-based communication platforms.

Know the signs

It’s easy to identify the signs of a workaholic culture.

• Are employees regularly working beyond standard business hours?
• Is there an expectation to respond to emails and messages immediately, and out of hours?
• Are you or coworkers calling in sick with stress-related illnesses?

If you answer yes to any of these, chances are you’re working in a toxic workaholic culture.

Addressing this kind of culture requires leadership to set the tone. This can be achieved by encouraging staff to take time off, promoting a non-instantaneous communication style, and making allowances for flexible working arrangements that are beneficial for employee wellbeing.

Managers also need to model healthy work habits, like taking adequate breaks and holidays, and holding firm boundaries around disconnecting during their personal time.

Managing workloads effectively is also key. By communicating clear expectations around deadlines, and with adequate resources considered, there should be no need for employees to continuously work late.

If you’ve asked for support or changes to deadlines, or communicated dissatisfaction around response times or out-of-hours work, and you haven’t received the right support, it could be time to look somewhere new.

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