Are YOU a Workaholic? The “King of Rolls” Phenomenon and How to Spot It!

In today’s hyper-competitive world, the line between dedication and obsession can blur. A new term is emerging to describe this dangerous trend: workaholism, sometimes called the “King of Rolls” phenomenon. It’s not just about working hard; it’s about a compulsive need to work that can severely impact your health, relationships, and overall well-being. Are you at risk?

The King of Rolls: More Than Just Dedication:

Workaholism isn’t simply about having a strong work ethic. It’s characterized by:

• High Work Involvement: You’re constantly thinking about work, even outside of working hours.
• Work Compulsion: You feel an irresistible urge to work, even when you’re exhausted or stressed.
• Negative Emotions When Not Working: You experience anxiety, guilt, or restlessness when you’re not working.
• Excessive Work Goals: You set impossibly high standards for yourself, leading to constant pressure and stress.

Why Are We Becoming Workaholics?

The rise of workaholism is a complex issue, influenced by several factors:

• Hyper-Competitive Culture: The pressure to succeed, especially in the wake of intense academic competition and a challenging job market, can drive individuals to work excessively.
• Work Environment: A culture that glorifies long hours and discourages breaks can contribute to workaholism.
• Personal Drive: Some individuals are inherently driven and find fulfillment in their work, but this can easily cross the line into unhealthy obsession.

Are YOU a Workaholic? Take the Self-Assessment:

While there’s no magic cure for workaholism, recognizing the problem is the first step. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you consistently work beyond what’s expected?
• Do you feel anxious or guilty when not working?
• Does your work interfere with your relationships and personal life?
• Do you prioritize work above your physical and mental health?

Breaking Free from the Cycle:

Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix for severe workaholism. However, recognizing the problem and seeking support from friends, family, or mental health professionals is crucial. Companies also play a vital role in preventing workaholism by fostering a healthier work-life balance and discouraging excessive working hours.

The Bottom Line:

The “King of Rolls” phenomenon is a serious issue with potentially devastating consequences. By understanding the characteristics, causes, and impact of workaholism, we can take steps to protect ourselves and create a healthier work environment for everyone. Share this important message and help raise awareness about this growing problem!

Do you have a paper king at your side? Whether it is the internal competition that everyone has experienced before the college entrance examination, or the workplace atmosphere where everyone is in danger under the current employment situation, many people have spontaneously become the king of papers. Some people will send and receive work emails on Yulong Snow Mountain, and some will communicate with customers on the beach in Sanya, as if the preaching of “raise one point and kill a thousand people” before the college entrance examination is still echoing in their ears.

In the 2024 Annual Review of Organisational Psychology and Organisational Behaviour, the aforementioned book king is given a more academic name: workaholism, and is considered an addictive behaviour. According to the 2023 meta-study, which spans a range of professions and cultures, around 15% of people in the workplace are considered workaholics. “The healthy work philosophy can cross the line into addictive behaviour, and this transition has profound implications,” says Toon Taris, a behavioural expert at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “People tend to use the word ‘workaholic’ at will, but in fact this addictive behaviour is more common, complex and dangerous than people realise. “In the eyes of psychologists, workaholics around the world, or what we often call the king of volume, have entered a kind of dangerous state that can be compared to obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety.

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However, before discussing workaholics, we need to rule out some people who work hard but are not workaholics. For example, if an editor really likes writing articles, he can’t help but want to write words every day when he opens his eyes (Is there really such a person?), such people working overtime to write articles cannot be considered a workaholic ;Or it is not considered a person who is at a critical time for career promotion and wants to seize the opportunity to get promoted and raise wages and work hard; or it is not considered a miserable person who has a huge mortgage and cannot afford to pay off the mortgage without working overtime. Workaholic. No matter which one, they have objective factors outside of normal work that make them work hard and cannot be considered a workaholic.

The problem of workaholics may be more due to oneself, rather than the influence of external factors. In 2020, a paper in the journal Applied Psychology set a clear definition of workaholics. In terms of behavioral motivation, workaholics have an internal compulsive motivation to drive them to work; in terms of thinking, they will always have work things in their minds; in terms of emotion, they have a negative emotion about stopping work; in terms of behavior , they often set themselves more than they expected.

Of course, this description is still too vague. This paper also proposes a questionnaire, allowing you to determine whether you are the king of the paper in a more objective way. You can score yourself with 0 to 5 points. The higher the score, the closer your status is to the description of the problem. 0 points means “never”, and 5 points means “always”.

1. Do you have an inherent pressure to force you to work?

2. Do you want to keep working?

3. Do you spend your free time thinking about work?

4. Is most of your thoughts related to work?

5. Will you feel frustrated if you have to miss a day for whatever reason?

6. Will you feel irritated if something is blocking your work?

7. Is your work beyond your responsibilities?

8. Will you work when your colleagues are resting?

If you evaluate your total score more than 32 points, then you are likely to be a workaholic.

Don’t be secretly happy about your workaholic status, because as early as 2015, some research pointed out that there is no correlation between workaholic status and long-term work performance. This means that workaholics are not even more ahead of others in their work. What they get is only to work burnout and dissatisfaction with life.

The author of the study, Malissa Clark, an organizational psychologist at the University of Georgia at Athens, has conducted in-depth research on workaholics. She also found that working overtime may initially earn some short-term benefits, such as increased sales, more overtime pay, and more code output, but the probability of workaholics making mistakes at work will also increase simultaneously. For example, a nurse’s mistake during work may cause injuries to the patient or himself, and may also damage medical equipment. Statistics find that among all types of work mistakes, the possibility of workaholics making mistakes is higher, which smooths out the advantages brought by working hours. Moreover, Clark found in multiple interviews with workaholics that workaholics are often accompanied by unhealthy lifestyles, such as excessive drinking, lack of exercise and lack of sleep.

It is gradually flooding but has no cure

Workaholics are spread across a variety of people in all walks of life. Generally speaking, people with perfectionists, extroverts, and A-type personality (ambitional, aggressive, but impatient) are more likely to become workaholics. Apart from this, there seems to be no obvious correlation between workaholics in different fields. Although literature suggests that the probability of workaholics among women, older employees, and people with higher education levels is slightly higher, this correlation is often weaker and different studies may still conflict.

However, the impact of external factors on workaholics cannot be ignored. In 2016, a paper published on PLOS One pointed out that encouraging overtime and deliberately creating a competitive working environment makes it easier to develop workaholics. The study surveyed more than 16,400 people and found that managers, self-employed people, are much more likely to fall into workaholics than general employees. In addition, as remote work becomes more and more popular after the epidemic, it seems to make work easier. But in fact, this will cause more and more employees to fall into a state of “always online”, blurring the boundaries between life and work, and instead spawning more and more workaholics.

In some cases, workaholic status can also allow patients to grow rapidly – but this is usually in the student stage. In 2024, a paper published in the European Journal of Social Psychology pointed out that students who are trapped in workaholics tend to have better academic performance. Researchers pointed out that there is a clear difference between workaholics at the student stage and workaholics at the workplace stage. The main reason is that students have relatively clear short-term goals every semester, and between each semester, there are Fixed and adequate rest time.

But workaholics in the workplace usually do not count on summer vacation, and to this day, psychologists have not found any proven effective, single, and immediate way to heal the workaholic. Perhaps we can suggest that companies cut off all access to work materials outside of working hours—but this expectation is a bit too impractical. A workaholic with a relatively mild degree can even wake up from this state with the persuasion of relatives and friends, but a severe workaholic is almost helpless.

In other words, the king of volumes, or workaholics, has become a state that can be compared with obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety. And at present, this harmful state is beyond cure.