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CAD Workaholics

Are you a workaholic?  Most people would say no, but do you show any signs of working too much or focusing too much time on your work life?

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Thank God it’s Monday! – I hope you don’t find yourself saying that too often 🙂

In the book “Workaholics” by Marilyn Machlowitz (1981) she identified four distinct types of workaholics:

• The dedicated workaholics – they appear single minded and one-dimensional.  They seem to have no interests other than work and actually hate vacations, sports and amusement.

• The integrated workaholics – they incorporate outside activities into the job itself, or blend work into other activities.  They consider a wide variety of activities to be part of the job.  It may be “research”.

• The diffuse workaholics – this person has multiple irons in the fire.  They have  a short attention span that is punctuated by getting excited by many things. They  will work intensely, but loses interest after a short period of time.  (Sounds like A.D.D., which in the eighties may not have been defined as well as it is today.  Type A person.)

• The intense workaholics – they pursue leisure activities with the same passion, sense of purpose and pace as work.  They are likely to become a marathon runner or to exert great effort in what most see as leisure time.  (Now days they might be considered “obsessive compulsive”.)

You may ask… How would I know if I am a workaholic?  Everyone is putting in more hours these days and working harder to get or maintain a job.

Here are  a few statements in a quiz geared toward CAD Users that may help indicate.  Short bursts of effort come and go with a career.  Answer these looking back over your whole work life in general, not just for a short period of time, but for extended periods.

Answer the following statements as realistically and truthfully as possible. Each question should be either TRUE or FALSE:

1. You regularly work more than eight hours a day.
2. In addition to daytime work, you also work on CAD projects in the evening.
3. You sometimes (or even often) voluntarily skip lunch in order to get work done.
4. You take work home with you in the evening three or more times a week.
5. You also work when watching television or prefer to be involved in work while watching TV, the news, during commercials, or whatever.
6. You are still working on the internet, or your own projects after others have gone to bed.
7. You are usually on the way to work or on the way home from work in the dark.
8. You are often the last person in the office when the cleaning crew arrives.
9. Getting your CAD project done is more important to you (not the boss) than getting home for dinner on time.
10. You usually or always take some kind of work with you on vacations, stay connected and check email often.

If your answer was TRUE to six or more of the above questions, then you may lean toward workaholism. If your score is seven or more TRUE answers, then you may be nearing, or already be  a workaholic.

1 Comment (Open | Close)

1 Comment To "CAD Workaholics"

#1 Comment By Bryan Tanner On August 9, 2010 @ 10:34 AM

I have to (sadly? frighteningly?) admit to answering 9 of those 10 questions as true. I suppose not all the work I do is directly CAD related, and I might try to pass some of the things I take on as a hobby, but it really all does come down to me being a workaholic. I need to learn to ‘switch off’ and enjoy other things a little bit more. Nice article, though. Definitely something we all need to think about from time to time.