We'll be right back. Yeah, but she didn't get to keep it, so never mind. Scandalous, scandalous. But, you know, she had work to do, and she's done a lot of work since then.
She has been a lot of places. Right, right. Well, speaking of work, there was a pretty unknown celebration on Saturday, on July the 5th. People were stealing leftovers, probably.
I bet they were. And speaking of leftovers, the ground beef was more expensive this year than it was last year. I thought it was expensive, and then I heard it on the news kind of confirming that we made more for the ground beef. I bet everybody bought some, which is like, yes, we did.
Complained about it. But anyway, you had to work extra time just to buy ground beef, but where are we going with this? Well, Saturday, July 5th, it's also known as National Workaholics Day. Yeah, which is interesting.
People were taking off the day before. People were working the day? Yes. So, do you know anybody in your life, or maybe at times we have been guilty of this, that maybe goes into work early or skips for lunch to keep working on something or stays late that doesn't have a clear boundary between work and home?
There have been days. There have been days. You know, and sometimes we've got to get there and handle stuff. Yeah, you get deadlines sometimes.
We get that. But workaholicism, that's right. That's lifestyle, though, right? It is.
It's not just every now and then thing. It becomes how a person chooses to live, truly. So, this term has kind of been around since the 1940s. I didn't even know where the term workaholic came from.
People were workaholics in the 40s. A newspaper in Canada was actually the first one to use this term. The Toronto Star wrote an article about people working a lot and came up with the term workaholic in 1947. I mean, the U.S.
didn't write this news? No. I know. It was our neighbors to the north, the Canadians.
Oh, they cared enough about us to realize we were working too hard in this world. And I have to give credit. Actually, about a century earlier, a Swedish physician came up with that word because it's like a play on alcoholic, you know, workaholic. So, that tells me, a century before 1947, people have been working hard for a long time.
And people, physicians, psychiatrists, a lot of people are seeing the negative effects of it. So, we're going to kind of dive into what it is to be a workaholic. And this is not stepping on anybody's toes, you know, but we do want to bring awareness to the importance of having some work-life balance. Well, you know, I think in a lot of circles, being a workaholic is almost celebrated.
It makes it look like, oh, that's a dedicated employee. I agree. And in today's world, especially post-COVID, like, you're right, it's kind of glorified. And we are all available 24-7.
So, you've got to be able to set some boundaries. But let's kind of look at the signs of somebody that could be termed a workaholic. One of the things people do is to prioritize work above everything else, including their own personal relationships and their own self-care. Okay, Sarah, I've got to ask you about this.
Because you have a family at home. And so, when you take your work home and you're doing things and doing things work-related, and you've got people at home that also need things from you, is that prioritizing work over your family relationships? It can if it becomes something that happens all the time. Okay, so we've got a deadline.
We can explain that to our family members and do it. And with our jobs, sometimes we have to work at night. Right, right. But it's not five days a week.
No, it's not going to be five days a week. And if I do have to take something home, I try to get it right when I get home or everybody's kind of settled down. But a workaholic doesn't do that. Like, work comes first.
It can really become a problem for their personal relationships and their own self-care. You know, getting enough sleep. Yeah, yeah. You know, paying attention to what your body's telling you, eating appropriately, drinking enough water, exercise.
And, you know, sometimes you can almost train for this as a teenager or a college student. Because you see students staying up late, skipping meals to work on this, on just snacking, on unhealthy things, and, you know, focusing only on what they have to do. Right, it's not a good habit to find yourself. No, and then you carry it on into adulthood.
It's your job. Right. And if you are willing to work that much, most organizations are going to like you. Thank you.
Yes. So that's one sign, is that you prioritize work above everything else, even the people, you know, in yourself. Another sign is feeling anxious or guilty when you're not working. Do you have a problem?
No. Me neither. Okay. I do too, yeah.
That's not right. You should have periods of time when you're not working. Yes. So that's...
We're not a machine. Right. So, you know, that's an indication that you may be a workaholic for sure. Yeah, you've got to be able to step away.
And I do realize, you know, because I know some people that own their own business, it's hard for them to fully step away. That's true. You know, but at some point, hopefully you've got people that are working for you. That you can trust us.
Yes. And I also realize, because my husband has a job that sometimes when we're on vacation or out of town or whatever, he still gets calls because of the nature of his job. You know, he handles it and we move along with things. But some people, it's hard to step away completely.
Now, I'll be honest. When I'm on vacation, I'm still going to check my email. Now, you're not going to get a response from me. But I'm going to read and see what happened today.
See, and I'm not. Because I'm going to get anxious, though, that I'm going to miss something that happened. So I want to relieve my stress just by saying, okay, nothing, nothing earth shattering. We're good.
No. If I don't have to check in, I'm not. Another sign of a workaholic is that they tend to neglect their hobbies and activities that they choose for themselves that bring them joy. Like, oh, I'll have another day to do that.
Yeah, that's sad. It is. You need to have some joy every day. I know a lot of people get joy from their work.
And I'm one of those people. We get joy from our work. But there should be things outside of your work that bring you joy. Exactly.
Whether it's gardening or reading a book or. Just watching a movie. Yeah, bingeing. Yeah.
You know, whatever that is, you need to make sure that you do that. Yeah. Again, another sign of a workaholic is that they can begin to experience physical symptoms like fatigue or insomnia or headaches because they are overworked and their body is telling them you need a break. Okay.
Is that they may not experience many other emotions other than stress and anxiety because they let that rule their lives because they're so anxious and worried about if I'm not working, I'm going to miss something. Or, you know, I can't trust people to do this. I've got to do it. And, you know, there's always going to be work up until the time that you retire or die or whatever happens.
That's right. There's going to be work. You're not going to be finished with work. It's just going to keep going every day.
So I guess we shouldn't carry that stress and anxiety that we complete this. Yeah. Because it's going to keep going. Well, and, too, when you do retire or leave a position, they're just going to put somebody else there.
Yeah. I mean, and I say this often. If you pass away, they're going to probably send out an email. They might attend your service or send a flower, and then your child's going to be posted.
It's going to be your family and those other people that love you that are really going to have this loss for a very long time. Right, right. And not saying that what you do doesn't matter, but there is life outside. There is.
That's where we need to focus on time, too. Because, you know, if we don't, if we become a workaholic, we can have issues with relationships within our family, our friends, a loved one. It can even have a negative impact on the people you work with because a lot of workaholics resent that other people don't carry at home. They resent the fact that people don't have boundaries.
I can think that I'm a better employee than you are because I check my email when I'm on vacation. You don't. Yeah, I don't. Unless somebody texts me like, hey, I need you to take care of this real quick.
Yeah, yeah. That could cause problems. It could. They may be resentful of people that are able to set those boundaries.
It can also lead to burnout. Oh, I can see that it would. I can see that it would. Like, work consumes you so you get burnout on it.
I have heard the phrase, if you don't schedule a day to take off, your body will choose the day for you or something like that, just indicating that if you don't slow down and set aside some time for yourself, you're going to have that breakdown. You know, your body needs a break. Exactly, exactly. Because when you're walking around, you're full of stress and anxiety.
That's not really important how your body works. No, no. Kind of do, like, a gut check. You know, like, hey, my life is more than this paycheck.
Yeah. You know, you kind of need to check yourself. Okay. We need a paycheck.
Yeah. But we're more than a paycheck. Right. And me being here extra, I'm not getting a bigger paycheck.
No. You know, and I'm not saying we all don't go above and beyond at some point. We're always going to do that. Yes.
But it doesn't need to consume your life. You know, we also, and I think this touches on something you said, we don't need to glorify overworking. We do not. We do not.
Because that does not equal a better employee. No. It really doesn't. Because it could indicate that that person lacks organizational skills or lacks time management skills.
Right. Or, you know, they just have trouble deciding what's most important, prioritizing their list. Right. You know, so that doesn't mean that they're doing more work.
It could mean that there are some things that they could address to work more efficiently. Efficiently, exactly. So, yeah, I think one thing that we can do in light of this July 5th holiday is to kind of do a gut check, to pause and reflect and think about, let's have a real talk with myself about the way that I do work and my home life. So, another thing we can do is start to set clear boundaries for yourself.
And, you know, that goal could be different for different people. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, maybe there are people that wake up and the first thing they do is check their email. Or the first thing they do is, you know, see what the stock market did, like where did they close yesterday.
You know, it could be anything. Maybe that could be something that you want to change. Or maybe your boundary is that you want to start leaving work closer to your work stop time. Yeah.
So, that would look at, like you mentioned, time management. I'm happy more patient in the time that I'm here so that when I leave, I can leave this year. Right. I think that's great.
Also, too, most workaholics do not delegate well. So, starting to delegate. What task can someone else do that I don't have to continue to do? And this could even work for stay-at-home parents.
This could be people that don't work outside the home. They can also delegate. You could be a workaholic inside your own home. Oh, for sure.
So, you may need to delegate better. Yes. So, I think after you do kind of gut check, self-assessment, you realize that you have some boundaries that are either grade or non-existent. You set some that you know you can achieve.
I'm going to go back to our very first podcast six years ago. Oh, oh, oh. Wait a minute. That was too fast.
But we talked about smart goals. Yes, we did. So, set yourself some smart goals that you know you can achieve, okay, that involve your personal time and your work-life balance. And then, you know, all of your happiness should not be derived from your success at work.
No. Now, does it make me happy when I have a class and somebody tells me they've made a lifestyle change? Or, hey, I've learned how to budget and my family is saving this much money a month. Like, this is life-changing.
Yes, that makes me happy. But all of my happiness in life should not be derived from what I do at work. That's exactly right. You need to have a full circle of things that bring you joy and make you happy.
That's right. So, I encourage our listeners to contemplate what we talked about today and think about, you know, maybe I need to reevaluate my work-life balance and then take some steps to make that more manageable for me. So, maybe we should have taken today off. I mean, a lot of people are at work today, but we are.
But like Vanessa Williams said, we have work to do. So, we're here. But, you know, we need to learn how to set clear boundaries. And, you know, that's the process.
I think you learn that as you go along in your work years and, you know, pass it along. Yes, definitely. Good conversation today. Thank you all for listening in on it.
And in the words of Bob Marley. Oh, he was a workaholic. Oh, he probably just had things, just music and lyrics just come into his head. He couldn't cut it off.
But anyway, he would want us to live the life we love. And love the life we love. It's July, people. Woo, drink the water.
Bye.