Are German or American workers better off

Are You a Workaholic?

Some Facts:

Gallup Poll last summer found that 44 percent of Americans call themselves "workaholics." (US News)

A recent survey of 8,000 managers in MANAGEMENT TODAY showed that working long hours is often confused with commitment and considered to "go with the job". One fifth routinely work six days; at least a third have only partial control over hours; and less than half are happy about their work-life balance (WA).

It's Sunday and the whole world has a day off. Where are you?

a) In bed with a cup of hotcoffee and lots of
magazines.
b) In bed with hmm...
c) On a chair hunched over your computer in
a dimly lit office working away.

It's 8 p.m. and the whole office is on its way home.
Where are you?

a) Balancing on one foot in the local bus.
b) Balancing on one foot in the local train.
c) Balancing more than 30 files on your desk.

It's the lunch break and the whole staff files out to fill its stomach. Where are you?

a) Digging into a masala dosa in the office canteen.
b) Digging into a veggie burger at the local restaurant.
c) Digging into moth-eaten, cobwebbed files for a voucher signed in the year 1942 .

Articles:

June 26, 2000- Are Americans too busy for Workaholics Anonymous? (US News)

New KNOWLEDGE WORKERS - "Courtesy of laptops, cellphones, home fax machines, and other
appliances, knowledge workers are now online in cars, planes, trains, and homes, virtually tethered
to their offices," wrote Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "The 24/7 culture of nearly
round-the-clock work is endemic to the wired economy. Acceleration of productivity growth
through hard work alone isn't sustainable: People simply can't work harder and harder indefinitely.
That's a lesson that should not be lost on America and its brave new economy."

Are German or American workers better off? Pointing to the U.S. economy, many economists argue that
wider pay scales lead to greater work effort that produces rising productivity and higher levels of income
for all workers. On the other hand, surveys indicate that many Americans are ambivalent about their long
work hours. While they are reluctant to give up the chance to enhance their incomes, they would prefer to
spend more time with their families. (Why Americans Work So Hard Business Week; New York; June 11, 2001; Gene Koretz; p. 34).

Secretary of State Colin Powell made it clear to his staff when he came on board the Bush administration
in late January that he did not endorse a workaholic culture: "Anybody who is logging hours to impress
me, you are wasting your time." Powell's admonition to "get the work done and then go home to your
families" may well be the rallying cry of a new movement. (Living a balanced life, Association Management; Washington; May 2001; Anonymous; Volume: 53 Issue: 5 Start Page: 24).

Working Ourselves to Death : The High Cost of Workaholism and the Rewards of Recovery -- by Diane Fassel; Paperback

Chained to the Desk : A Guidebook for Workaholics, Their Partners and Children, and the Clinicians Who Treat Them -- by Bryan E. Robinson

Being a workaholic doesn't just mean being a hard worker, says Robinson, a psychotherapist and
professor at the University of North Carolina who has been studying people's work habits for years.
It means you've got a progressively worsening addiction like any other, in which work becomes the
substance you use in an attempt to meet your unconscious psychological needs. Robinson calls
workaholism the "best-dressed addiction," because it's often rewarded--at least in the short
term--and is seen as a positive attribute by people who don't understand the destruction it can cause.
Chained to the Desk provides worksheets to help you recognize whether you or someone close to
you is a work addict, case studies that demonstrate workaholic ways of thinking, and treatment
methods that involve the entire family. It sheds considerable light on a topic that mental-health
professionals often don't recognize--in part because, as Robinson points out, many of them are
workaholics themselves. --Ben Kallen, Personal Growth editor

Robert H. Kamm, author of The Superman Syndrome: Why the Information Age Threatens Your Future
and What You Can Do About It (2000, 1st Books Library) decries a business culture of "blurred
boundaries and vanished time... [that] places unlimited demands on workers" at the expense of their
personal development, spouses, and children.

THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS JOB FOR A LIFE: A Chronic Overachiever Finds the Way Home Jonathon Lazear. Crown, -- "Work was nothing. What was really stressful was everything but work. Our jobs, as demanding as they were, were actually the safest place to hide from the realities of life." He helps readers assess their workaholic tendencies and learn strategies for change.

onathon Lazear describes how American males are increasingly
finding their own perceptions altered as they subjugate their personal lives to their professional ones.
Lazear candidly discloses how he once let his own work rule his existence, tracing a trajectory from
a workaholic father through an early career in the time-demanding publishing industry and an
eventual role as head of his own company. He tells how he became "stretched to the limit" while
bringing home a seven-figure income--and, as a result, "emotionally distant" from the family he loved.
He then offers a series of suggestions (i.e., Acknowledge That You're Not Perfect, Reset Your
Work Clock, Start Small, Stay Positive) to help others similarly afflicted develop a more
well-rounded presence. This is one of several recent books aimed at slowing society's hectic pace,
although it may be the first aimed exclusively at men and the related gender-specific problems they
face. --Howard Rothman

ISSUES

1 As employees are forced to clock workaholic hours from their workers, in the global, 24/7 economy, companies are making offices seem more and more like home. Is this a solution or part of the problem?

2. Workaholics Anonymous 12 step program