The prevalence of workaholism has negative consequences on human health. Lack of sleep, a well-known problem among adults in modern society, is often attributed to overwork as a result of workaholism. Yet there is a lack of empirical research examining how and when workaholism will lead to sleep problems. To answer this question and to examine the longitudinal effect of workaholism on sleep in China, we investigate the mediating role of perceived evening responsibilities of work and the moderating effect of work autonomy. Two hundred and five Chinese working adults (58.0% female) voluntarily completed the online questionnaires at Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2; 1-month later). Results showed that workaholism at T1 had a significant and positive correlation with sleep problem at T2. Further analysis suggested that perceived evening responsibilities of work fully mediated the relationship between workaholism and sleep problem. Work autonomy was shown to buffer the positive effect of workaholism on perceived evening responsibilities of work and attenuate the indirect effect of workaholism on sleep problem. While workers should be made aware of the negative impact of workaholism on sleep, organizations should also consider interventions to enhance employees’ autonomy and control of their work.

Organizations characterized by a climate and culture of competition and overwork facilitate the emergence of the workaholism phenomenon, as they provide favorable conditions for employees to spend more time in the workplace. Many of these employees are successful in their careers both in financial terms and in job satisfaction. This article aims to study the influence of workaholism on the perception of career success. The sample consists of 234 Portuguese individuals who were working in a professional context. The results reveal that pleasure at work influences career success perception in both objective and subjective dimensions and that work involvement influences only the subjective dimension of the career success perception. The findings of this study will contribute to the increase of knowledge in the workaholism and career success areas in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic so that companies are able to adopt strategies in order to optimize their resources and increase their productivity.

Le workaholism correspond à un dysfonctionnement affectif, cognitif et comportemental de l’individu à l’égard du travail. En se traduisant par un excès d’investissement pathologique dans l’activité professionnelle, nous interrogerons le fait qu’il puisse s’agir d’une « addiction au travail ». Il renvoie en effet à une culpabilité de ne pas être au travail, une pulsion irrépressible à travailler malgré le peu de plaisir éprouvé et une négligence de la vie extraprofessionnelle. Ses conséquences sont délétères y compris sur le travail avec une mauvaise intégration dans l’équipe de travail et une diminution des performances. Le workaholism peut entraîner également un syndrome d’épuisement professionnel, et la perte du sentiment de cohérence qu’il engendre est associée à une augmentation du risque de trouble de l’humeur, d’autres troubles addictifs, pouvant conduire parfois au suicide. Il existe des vulnérabilités individuelles mais aussi des risques organisationnels qu’il faut identifier pour préserver la santé psychologique au travail. Nous présenterons dans un premier temps une synthèse des travaux les plus récents, visant à montrer l’importance du contexte sociétal et organisationnel dans l’apparition du workaholism. Nous présenterons dans un second temps différentes stratégies thérapeutiques calquées sur celles utilisées dans d’autres addictions comportementales :

– la thérapie rationnelle-émotive ciblée sur les croyances irrationnelles concernant le niveau de demande au travail ainsi que sur les émotions négatives ;

– l’entretien motivationnel pour favoriser la prise de conscience des conséquences négatives du workaholism ;

– la psychologie positive en aidant le sujet à s’extraire d’une vision réduite de sa propre vie pour en dégager des objectifs plus larges ;

– la participation à des groupes de workaholics anonymes.

This research examined the relationships between work environment (i.e., workload and development opportunities), heavy work investment (i.e., work engagement and workaholism) and work-to-family conflict (WFC) over time. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among 464 employees from a Belgian public administration. Workload and opportunities for development at Time 1 were found to be respectively negatively and positively associated with work engagement at Time 2, which in turn was negatively associated with WFC at Time 3. Only workload at Time 1 was positively associated with workaholism at Time 2 which, in turn, was positively associated with WFC at Time 3. In the interests of both organizational effectiveness and employees’ well-being, it is important to identify the work-related variables that influence perceptions of WFC. Moreover, in order to manage human resources effectively in companies, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which the work environment influences WFC.

Although addictive syndromes have been traditionally related to substance-use disorders, during the last few decades a novel addictive group, including the so-called “behavioral or no-drug addictions,” has been recognized and has attracted increasing attention for its relevant social impact. This group includes pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, TV/Internet/social network/videogame addictions, workaholism, sex and relationship addictions, orthorexia, and overtraining syndrome. Substance and behavioral addictions show similar phenomenological features, such as craving, dependence, tolerance, and abstinence, and perhaps they share a common possible pathophysiology. It is, however, controversial whether all or at least some of them should be considered real disorders or just normal, albeit extreme, behaviors. The aim of this article is to review current data on pharmacological treatment of behavioral addictions. As no specific and validated treatment algorithms are currently available, only an improved knowledge on their psychopathological, clinical, and neurobiological features may have relevant implications for more focused preventive and therapeutic strategies.

Workaholism is an important workplace phenomenon that has received less empirical testing than might be expected. This study of 100 New Zealand blue-collar workers tested whether three dimensions of the workaholism triad: work involvement, drive to work and work enjoyment were related to anxiety, depression and insomnia, and in the majority this was supported. Work involvement was positively related to all outcomes, while work enjoyment was negatively related. Drive to work was positively related to anxiety and insomnia only. Overall, consistently, large amounts of variance were explained by the workaholism triad. While previously untested in the literature, a three-way interaction of the workaholism triad was found towards anxiety and insomnia. Overall, higher work involvement was useful in buffering detrimental outcomes for those with either high work involvement or high drive to work, but not both. The present study provides a new way of understanding the effects of workaholism in the workplace.

Taking the Resources-Experiences-Demands Model (RED Model) by Salanova and colleagues as our starting point, we tested how work self-efficacy relates positively to negative (i.e., work overload and work-family conflict) and positive outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment), through the mediating role of workaholism (health impairment process) and work engagement (motivational process). In a sample of 386 administrative staff from a Spanish University (65% women), Structural Equation Modeling provided full evidence for the research model. In addition, Multivariate Analyses of Variance showed that self-efficacy was only related positively to one of the two dimensions of workaholism, namely, working excessively. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical contributions in terms of the RED Model.