Workaholism

T
he term 'workaholism' was coined in the 1960s to describe the condition of working too much and finding it difficult to stop... in other words - addiction to work.

Join Jackie and Kate as they hear from an ex-workaholic and find out how his health was affected by spending too many hours in the office.

This week's questions:

In the UK, how many hours are in the standard working week? Is it:

Listen to the programme
Workaholism

a)20
b)40
c)60

Find out what the correct answer is at the end of the programme!

Vocabulary from the programme
Show All | Hide All
workaholism
a condition where someone works all the time and finds it difficult to stop
work-life balance
the right combination of working and having a fulfilling personal life, spending time with friends and family etc.

a secondary issue
something that comes second in importance to something else

the 'norm'
standard or recognised behaviour
burn out
to experience of long-term physical and emotional exhaustion, usually work-related
productivity
the level of output that can be achieved within a certain time

BBC Learning English
6 Minute English
Workaholism




6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 1 of 5

Kate: Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 Minute English. Today I'm here with Jackie
and we’re talking about people who work too much.

Jackie: Hi Kate, yes most of us spend the majority of our lives at work and our
working patterns can vary widely. Some people 'clock-watch' all day, waiting
for the moment when they can leave and go home, while others voluntarily do
unpaid overtime spending many evenings and weekends at work. They find it
difficult to stop and can't help thinking about work even when they're supposed
to be relaxing at home. It's similar to an addiction and is sometimes called
workaholism.

Kate: Do you think you're in danger of becoming a workaholic?

Jackie: answers

Kate: Before we go any further, here's my question for this week.
In the UK, how many hours are in the standard working week?
a) 20
b) 40
c) 60

Jackie: Answers

Kate: OK – we'll check your answer later on.
We'd all like to have the right work-life balance. Can you tell me what this
means?


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 2 of 5

Jackie: Well, a work-life balance means to get the right combination of working and
enjoying our personal life, spending time with friends, relaxing, playing sport
etc. Technology plays a big part in disrupting many people's work-life balance
because when we have mobile phones and laptops, we are able to work all the
time, wherever we are.

Kate: Now we're going to hear from a former workaholic who worked as a lawyer in
the City of London and had no work-life balance. How many hours would he
sometimes be required to work a day, and what were the effects of doing this?

Clip 1
You may have a 2/3 month period where you're working 18-20 hours a day. You spend all of
your conscious hours in the office. One is physically tired as in that you're not getting enough
sleep. Generally in those periods, eating becomes a secondary issue as well.

Jackie: He said that sometimes he would be required to work up to 20 hours a day!
Unsurprisingly, his symptoms were tiredness and the physical effects which come
with not eating properly as he said eating becomes a secondary issue. This means
that it becomes less important than something else.

Kate: Now listen to what else he has to say. He uses the expression the norm. This
means that something is normal and we use it describe standard behaviour. What
does he say is the norm.

Clip 2
In that environment the vast majority of your colleagues are working as hard as you, so you're
just used to operating in that type of culture, it's seen as the norm. You start thinking that
late hours or having to work the weekends is standard practice, to be expected -
nothing special. Most large city institutions I think expect burn out.


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 3 of 5

Jackie: He said that as most of his colleagues were working as hard as he was, he
started to think that working in the evenings and at weekends were the norm
and to be expected. Doing that was nothing special.

Kate: He also uses the term burn out. What does this mean?

Jackie: To burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical
and emotional exhaustion, usually work-related. People in certain professions
are apparently more likely to experience burn out, such as lawyers, city
workers as well as soldiers and emergency service workers.

Kate: In this final clip, he mentions the emotional problems that come from
overwork. What does he say they are?

Clip 3
1) frustration – that you literally spend your entire life working 2) anxiety – when you're that
busy, it's very hard to switch off. And 3) terrible feelings about where you life is going and
whether there's more to life than this.

Jackie: He said the emotional burdens are frustration, when you worry you are
spending all your life working, anxiety, when hard to switch off and relax and
terrible feelings of wondering if there's more to life than that.

Kate: So it seems there are a lot of physical and emotional problems that come from
working too hard. Now we're going to hear from a psychologist called Oliver
James. You'll hear the word productivity – this means the level of output that
you can achieve within a certain time. For example, if you are a productive
person you manage to do a lot. He's going to talk about why there are good
reasons why we should stop people from working too hard. What are they?




6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 4 of 5

Clip 4
Workaholism definitely doesn't make for higher productivity and many studies have shown
that. All that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so they get very
tired, people become less creative, they become more obsessional, more bogged down.

Jackie: He said that workaholism doesn't actually make for higher productivity. He said
that all that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so
they get very tired, less creative and they become more obsessional, more bogged
down.

Kate: When are people most productive?

Clip 5
The most productive work is done when people don't work long hours, when they have
Holidays and when they take weekends and have evenings.

Jackie: He said the most productive work is done when people don't work long hours,
when they have holidays, take weekends and enjoy evenings.

Kate: So there we have it – it seems that working long hours isn't really worth it at all.
We're all much better off taking holidays, weekends, enjoying ourselves in the
evenings and have good work-life balance/ Let's have a look at the vocabulary
we've come across:

workaholism – a condition where someone works all the time and finds it difficult to stop
work-life balance - the right balance between working and our personal life, spending time
with friends etc
a secondary issue - this means that something comes second in importance to something else.
the norm - we use it describe standard behaviour
to burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical and emotional
exhaustion, usually work-related.
productivity – this means the rate at which a company or country makes goods. What are the

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 5 of 5

main reasons

Kate: So finally to the question I asked you earlier – how many hours are in the standard
working week.

Jackie: And I said 40.

Kate: You were correct. 40 hours evens out at 8 hours a day, leaving us time to enjoy
our evening and weekends….

That’s all we have time for today – until next time. Goodbye! BBC Learning English
6 Minute English
Workaholism




6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 1 of 5

Kate: Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 Minute English. Today I'm here with Jackie
and we’re talking about people who work too much.

Jackie: Hi Kate, yes most of us spend the majority of our lives at work and our
working patterns can vary widely. Some people 'clock-watch' all day, waiting
for the moment when they can leave and go home, while others voluntarily do
unpaid overtime spending many evenings and weekends at work. They find it
difficult to stop and can't help thinking about work even when they're supposed
to be relaxing at home. It's similar to an addiction and is sometimes called
workaholism.

Kate: Do you think you're in danger of becoming a workaholic?

Jackie: answers

Kate: Before we go any further, here's my question for this week.
In the UK, how many hours are in the standard working week?
a) 20
b) 40
c) 60

Jackie: Answers

Kate: OK – we'll check your answer later on.
We'd all like to have the right work-life balance. Can you tell me what this
means?


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 2 of 5

Jackie: Well, a work-life balance means to get the right combination of working and
enjoying our personal life, spending time with friends, relaxing, playing sport
etc. Technology plays a big part in disrupting many people's work-life balance
because when we have mobile phones and laptops, we are able to work all the
time, wherever we are.

Kate: Now we're going to hear from a former workaholic who worked as a lawyer in
the City of London and had no work-life balance. How many hours would he
sometimes be required to work a day, and what were the effects of doing this?

Clip 1
You may have a 2/3 month period where you're working 18-20 hours a day. You spend all of
your conscious hours in the office. One is physically tired as in that you're not getting enough
sleep. Generally in those periods, eating becomes a secondary issue as well.

Jackie: He said that sometimes he would be required to work up to 20 hours a day!
Unsurprisingly, his symptoms were tiredness and the physical effects which come
with not eating properly as he said eating becomes a secondary issue. This means
that it becomes less important than something else.

Kate: Now listen to what else he has to say. He uses the expression the norm. This
means that something is normal and we use it describe standard behaviour. What
does he say is the norm.

Clip 2
In that environment the vast majority of your colleagues are working as hard as you, so you're
just used to operating in that type of culture, it's seen as the norm. You start thinking that
late hours or having to work the weekends is standard practice, to be expected -
nothing special. Most large city institutions I think expect burn out.


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 3 of 5

Jackie: He said that as most of his colleagues were working as hard as he was, he
started to think that working in the evenings and at weekends were the norm
and to be expected. Doing that was nothing special.

Kate: He also uses the term burn out. What does this mean?

Jackie: To burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical
and emotional exhaustion, usually work-related. People in certain professions
are apparently more likely to experience burn out, such as lawyers, city
workers as well as soldiers and emergency service workers.

Kate: In this final clip, he mentions the emotional problems that come from
overwork. What does he say they are?

Clip 3
1) frustration – that you literally spend your entire life working 2) anxiety – when you're that
busy, it's very hard to switch off. And 3) terrible feelings about where you life is going and
whether there's more to life than this.

Jackie: He said the emotional burdens are frustration, when you worry you are
spending all your life working, anxiety, when hard to switch off and relax and
terrible feelings of wondering if there's more to life than that.

Kate: So it seems there are a lot of physical and emotional problems that come from
working too hard. Now we're going to hear from a psychologist called Oliver
James. You'll hear the word productivity – this means the level of output that
you can achieve within a certain time. For example, if you are a productive
person you manage to do a lot. He's going to talk about why there are good
reasons why we should stop people from working too hard. What are they?




6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 4 of 5

Clip 4
Workaholism definitely doesn't make for higher productivity and many studies have shown
that. All that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so they get very
tired, people become less creative, they become more obsessional, more bogged down.

Jackie: He said that workaholism doesn't actually make for higher productivity. He said
that all that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so
they get very tired, less creative and they become more obsessional, more bogged
down.

Kate: When are people most productive?

Clip 5
The most productive work is done when people don't work long hours, when they have
Holidays and when they take weekends and have evenings.

Jackie: He said the most productive work is done when people don't work long hours,
when they have holidays, take weekends and enjoy evenings.

Kate: So there we have it – it seems that working long hours isn't really worth it at all.
We're all much better off taking holidays, weekends, enjoying ourselves in the
evenings and have good work-life balance/ Let's have a look at the vocabulary
we've come across:

workaholism – a condition where someone works all the time and finds it difficult to stop
work-life balance - the right balance between working and our personal life, spending time
with friends etc
a secondary issue - this means that something comes second in importance to something else.
the norm - we use it describe standard behaviour
to burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical and emotional
exhaustion, usually work-related
productivity – the level of output that you can achieve within a certain time

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 5 of 5

main reasons

Kate: So finally to the question I asked you earlier – how many hours are in the standard
working week.

Jackie: And I said 40.

Kate: You were correct. 40 hours evens out at 8 hours a day, leaving us time to enjoy
our evening and weekends….

That’s all we have time for today – until next time. Goodbye!