Today (July 5) is National Workaholic Day, because the day after the Independence Day is supposed to be for lounging by the pool and doing nothing.  But some of us have to work, right?  Here's what they mean.

We know today is not a day off for everybody, because restaurants are open and we gotta eat, and stores are open and we gotta shop.  And then you add hospitals, police and fire departments, hotels, water parks, movie theaters, and malls to the list, and well, plenty of folks are at work today.

But are you addicted to your job?  That's a whole other animal.

Forbes points out that National Workaholics Day is meant to raise awareness that work addiction can have a really negative impact not only on the workaholic but also on that person's family and on relationships with coworkers.  Workaholics let work take top priority over everything else in life, and there are several ways to recognize it.

Workaholic Red Flags, according to Forbes:

-- Rushing and hyper busyness.  The more we can cross off our list, the better we feel.  Appointments are back-to-back and we victorious when we've used up every minute in between.

-- Need to control.  When a project is out of our hands, we feel a loss of control so we like to work solo and get it done our way.

-- Intimacy is hard and relationship crumble.  We put work events before family events, and we do put family first it's hard to concentrate and be present in the moment.

--  Work binges. We get a high from working nonstop for days on end and we might sleep off a work binge in our clothes like an alcoholic sleeping off a bender.

--  Restless and can't relax. We consider a fun thing to be an unproductive waste of time because there's nothing to show for it, and we make every attempt to turn hobbies and recreation into productive outings.

-- Neglecting ourselves.  We don't pay much attention to our physical or mental health and might end up with caffeine abuse and compulsive eating because we're focused on work and we're not making conscious choices in our personal lives.

Okay, wow.  Even if you've never considered yourself to be a workaholic before, maybe you can relate to some of those things a little more than you'd like to admit.  Me too.  I'm going to try not to feel good anymore about crossing things off of my to-do list.

If you are at work today, thanks for making us part of your day and may you find a couple of hours this weekend to sit and relax and enjoy your people.  If nothing else, Workaholic Day provides a huge incentive to do just that.

 

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