I could have called this article workaholism, but evocative terms are death to clarity. Work dysfunction is clear. It means my functioning at or because of work is impaired.
Here are some ways it manifested:
- Tying my identity, value, and purpose up in work
- Working too many hours, leaving little time for other things
- Allowing work to stretch to fill the day (instead of: leave when done)
- Not taking holidays
- Working on holidays
- Not taking weekends
- Working on weekends
- Being too tired when not working to engage fully in other things
- Becoming overtired generally, reducing efficiency, thus baking in the pattern
- Normalising emergency protocols as standard operations
- All the stops being permanently pulled out: volume at 10
- Making decisions based on other people's (imagined) emotions
- Acting out of anxiety, detail-orientation, or lack of perspective
- Treating all things as equally important or critical
- Being available too much of the time for incoming comms
- Being available continuously rather than in bursts or with interludes
- Being available to all people with the same degree of availability
- Permitting interruption to activities requiring steady focus
- Responding to all incoming comms straight away
- Letting others set the comms mode and agenda
- Not pausing before responding so carpet rather than smart bombing
- Not allowing others to think things through themselves
- Not allowing others to get things wrong and learn
- Fixing rather than challenging and letting others fix
- Fixing everything, not just critical problems
- Failing to fix small things with big efficiency impacts
- Disorganisation
- Holding to-do lists in my mind
- Engaging in battles that would have passed naturally
- Not delegating, not coaching
- Unnecessarily long meetings
- Unnecessarily long discussions
- Inefficient comms (too much person, not enough principle)
- Calling when an email or text would have sufficed
- Emailing or texting when a call would have resolved the issue fast
- Editing emails: if you're editing, you're unclear or manipulating
- Elaborate emails with sparse real content
- Too much etiquette, nicety, fluff, and fudge in comms
- Acting out to blow off steam
- Numbing instead of relaxing
- Thinking about work when not working
What's the solution? Well, the Steps, obviously, but the above offers a guide to what can go wrong. Each item, if you look carefully, contains its own solution.