Personal experience: how I worked for a year and a half without holidays and weekends
'19.05.2019'
Source: Rambler
Workaholism is a sprint. Being in such a state for a long time is a vicious path, it has many minuses. So says Elena Krasovskaya, the publishing editor. Rambler. In the column, she shared her story.
To workaholism attitude in society is ambiguous. On the one hand, the workaholic gets more income, and the employer is pleased with the reliability and efficiency. On the other hand, psychologists claim that workaholism provokes emotional burnout, fatigue and eventually drives a person into depression.
Some time ago I worked non-stop and on my own experience I appreciated the advantages and disadvantages of such a schedule.
How do you imagine a workaholic?
Is this a person who comes to work before everyone, goes after all, does not stop for smoke breaks and tea during the day, and continues to write reports on weekends, answer calls and make business letters?
Yes, that’s probably what a classic workaholic looks like.
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But there is another kind. Such a person works on a par with the others, starts a working day on time and finishes on time, and colleagues consider him to be an ordinary employee. But when he returns home, he is waiting for a second job or part-time job. And so it takes everything, absolutely all free time.
As a rule, in such a situation there are people who, for whatever reason, do not have enough earnings on their main job.
This is a kind of forced workaholism, and it was just such a “forced workaholic” that I became a few years ago, being in a difficult financial situation.
Non-stop operation
Due to a long break in my career, I no longer interested employers and could not count on a good salary. Having settled in a company with a small salary, I tried myself in copywriting. The beginning specialist, which I then was, does not pay much, therefore, to earn more or less substantial money could only be due to huge amounts of work.
I had to independently master the basics of the profession, while simultaneously searching for customers on the stock exchanges. I spent writing 7-8 hours a day to create texts, sacrificing rest and sleep. I also spent the weekend near the computer and wrote endlessly.
Working in this mode, I quickly gained experience, created a reputation for myself and acquired a base of regular customers. Within a few months I was invited to a web studio for a permanent job with a salary. At the same time, I did not leave either the main job or the side job.
Not without pride, I can say that in terms of dollars, then I earned even more than now. For a year and a half I didn’t have a single day so that I wouldn’t work, I even sacrificed a vacation for the next large order.
About problems
But this professional breakthrough turned into problems in life. I always felt like I was broken, I had never been anywhere, and in general I rarely left the house. I missed the first school year of my daughter, which is why she had a problem with her studies, which I then solved for several more years.
I almost forgot how my friends look, my relationship with my parents has seriously deteriorated. I was haunted at any moment when I was not working.
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The idea that instead of standing in line at the supermarket or drinking coffee with a friend, I could write another text, was constantly in my head, and this was really depressing.
The turning point was the commonplace cold, which knocked me out of a rut for two weeks, a person with excellent health. Moreover, I learned from the therapist that all the ailments that I attributed to fatigue were symptoms of neglected anemia. Everything was so bad that if I came to the clinic for a month or two later, I would be immediately hospitalized. And then I realized that it was time to stop.
Pros and cons of workaholism
Analyzing that period of my life and workaholism as a phenomenon, I can say that you can be a workaholic and even need to be at some moments. But we must be aware that the period of workaholism is a race for a short distance. Being in such a state for a long time is a vicious path, it has many minuses.
- Workaholism is synonymous with fatigue. A person must rest and recover, otherwise his internal resources will be quickly exhausted. I had enough for a year and a half, and by the end of this period my body was simply worn out. Constant sitting at the computer, a minimum of physical activity, the lack of fresh air - all this does not contribute to a good state of health. There was another problem: I did not fill up my energy with sleep, but with snacks, as a result, extra pounds were added.
- Moral fatigue is not an empty sound. The change of impressions and sensations can seem nonsense. But exactly as long as you are not alone with the same picture before your eyes. Constant thoughts of work exhaust no less than monotonous physical work, and devastate. All the time thinking about work / customers / deadlines, I have seriously limited myself emotionally, and this immediately affected my physical condition.
- Guilt is the way to depression, and this is true. The realization that I was wasting my time on stupidity like shopping, rare walks with my family, or meeting with friends, made me angry. I thought that I could and should work more, more and more. For every “wasted time” I reproached myself and eventually began to think that only work is the meaning of existence.
But, surprisingly, I see plumes in workaholism. For example, such.
- Workaholism is a great way to improve your financial situation. Permanent work means a steady income and often rather big. And because there is no time to spend money, they accumulate very quickly. So if you urgently need to save some amount, then why not work without days off for a period?
- Admiration of others - a good way to assert themselves. Although I worked non-stop, but occasionally I still met with friends. Phrases like “wow, cool!”, “You are a good fellow, I could not do that!”, “I always believed in you”, “you are a model for me” I heard all the time. And yes, it was nice.
- Relentless work - the path to self-improvement. Starting from scratch and having a natural science education, in one and a half years I mastered the profession at the interface of the humanitarian field and IT. I can definitely say that if I didn’t have to do it in a short time, I wouldn’t have been wasting my energy and zealousness and definitely wouldn’t have become a sought-after specialist.
Can I call myself a workaholic today, seven years later?
In a sense, yes. I have a good office job, but I often take part-time jobs. Now I rarely look for a side job myself, more often clients come to me that I found a few years ago, they bring other clients, so I still practice freelancing.
I have two blogs, one for adults, the other for schoolchildren who are poorly taught in chemistry. On weekdays, I spend up to two hours on outside work, the weekends, when I don’t work at all, are extremely rare.
The only thing I firmly refused was work on vacation. I allow myself a full vacation and do not take a laptop with me anymore, because I know for sure that I deserve a rest.
