Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
Ten percent of the workforce is said to be workaholic. There are already self-help groups for this, such as for alcoholics. At the meetings, people then talk about how they can’t give up work, how workaholism is ruining their families and their health.
Of course, workaholism is a bit more complicated than alcoholism. If you drink an abnormal amount, you will be admired up to the age of 17 at most. For the morbid work but you get constant praise. If you have completely renounced alcohol and no longer drink a drop, then that is generally considered a great achievement. If you gave up your job addiction, you would be more likely to get your benefits cut.
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” states that farmers are a particularly affected group. Of these, 19 percent are addicted to work. The question, of course, is whether a job that requires you to be largely on your own, looking after the cattle every day and working 16 hours a day, doesn’t call for a workaholic.
Of course, it could also be the case that you have to become a workaholic to be a farmer. Or agriculture attracts workaholics.
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The work intoxication is described by those affected like the intoxication of a drunk person. That might sound very attractive. Get drunk and get paid for it. So far I’ve only been addicted to screens.
There are many screen addicts, according to a study by the Hamburg University Clinic UKE alone 4.1 percent of young people are addicted to computer games. I’ve read that this is because the brain constantly wants to experience something new. When you unlock your iPhone screen, you really don’t want to call anyone, you just want to be fed news.
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However, one does not automatically speak of an addiction if one does something very often, but rather if it is accompanied by a loss of control. The smartphone addict would like to stare at his cell phone less, but it’s not possible. You don’t have the smartphone between your fingers, but vice versa, the smartphone has you in your hand.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel any intoxication at all when I use the cell phone, only fatigue. Maybe I should switch to workaholism. However, that can also go wrong. A full 33 percent of those surveyed say they work excessively without being addicted to it. So you work yourself to pieces and don’t even feel anything. One can only hope for good country air.
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