In Praise of Workaholics

I googled the title of this post and read the first five results. They’re all linked below. The Atlantic article is paywalled, but you can register for free to read it.

All five posts vary. The first one is a full-blown praise of workaholism. It even goes as far to say that anyone “who is minimally productive, refusing to work more than part-time on a cushy job, devoting too much time to golf, cooking, or TV watching, or taking lots of classes without serious intention of using it to prepare for a career” should be called a lazyholic. That’s a bit of a stretch.

The next post takes the middle ground: be a workaholic for the right reasons and not the wrong ones. If you’re a workaholic because you love your work, love helping people, and aren’t using work to avoid issues outside of work, have at it. If you’re a workaholic because you want to avoid your home, your loved ones, or something else, then you should read the next three posts.

Those next three are as you’d expect: workaholism is a symptom of something else, ‘hustle culture’ is unhealthy, and workaholics are dealing with a deeper issue and should consider therapy.

Oh, boy.

I’ve been sitting on this draft for a few months for a few reasons. First, Carley tells me that she has to review it before it goes live, and I fear her rejection. Second, I don’t want to come off as praising ‘hustle culture,’ because I’m not. And third, I want to articulate that workaholism resulting from love of work, and not hate of something else, is a virtue that should be appreciated. Carley’s right to be worried, but I think I can thread the needle.

Two of my close friends are workaholics. I’ve known them both since I was 13. One of them is a doctor and the other works in the C-suite for a Fortune 1000 company. Though we don’t speak the same career language—I don’t like blood or guts or MBA-speak—something we all take pride in is that we’re good at what we do because we do it a lot. I know that sentence lacks humility (at least a bit) but give me a break. Whenever we text or talk, we ask each other as much as we can about what’s working in our careers (and what’s not). We have an obsession to be better.

It’s up to them to share how and why they pursue that obsession. They have their own reasons. Here are mine. And no, this isn’t a rationalization.

I started my career in the Great Financial Crisis. Every day for the first six months of that job, I thought I was going to be fired. Not because of the work I was doing, but because we were still in the midst of a financial crisis. I figured one bad move and I’d be canned.

One of my older colleagues noticed my constant worry. He took me aside one day and said, “If you’re worried about layoffs, just make sure you’re doing a better job than the two people on each side of you.” I took that advice and ran with it.

That job was in a call center (I still say I was “working on Bay Street,” though. Even though I was on Yonge). We were rated on how many calls we took a day and the quality of those calls. I made sure I took more calls than anyone else each day. And I made sure that when they audited my calls I was doing exactly what they asked us to do (no dead air, good rapport building, no incorrect information).

I didn’t want to get fired. But now that I’m my own boss, I’m not worried about being fired. I’m just worried about my business failing.

I love the competition. I was never a standout athlete. I just worked hard and did what I was told. And I loved it. By 2015 my body was too broken to keep playing, but my competitiveness didn’t care. I kept hurting myself over and over again. The final straw was, and I love saying this, breaking my face.

Without sport my competitiveness had no place to go. My rugby club had a few competitions involving the rowing machine or Assault Bike, so I decided I’d try to set every record I could. Once I did that, I didn’t know what else to do.

At the same time, my business was struggling. A colleague suggested I try a business coach. I thought, what do I have to lose? It took her more than a year to help me accept that I had to find something else to compete in.

She did a hell of a good job. I told her that I don’t like the competitiveness of wealth management. I find it abhorrent when people high five after “closing a new account.” That type of behaviour drives me insane. That’s a post for another time, though.

She asked me one question I’ll never forget: “Why don’t you just compete with what you think are the right standards in this profession, Vince?”

We spent another few sessions figuring out what the right standards in wealth management are. I’ve been competing with them ever since. And they’re a tough opponent.

The work is who I am. When I’m not working I’m usually working. I love this profession. It’s why everything I read, everything I listen to, and everything I see ultimately gets tied into how I work. I don't go a day without connecting something new to this work and I love that I can do that.

I work seven days a week because I want to. I start early but I don’t stay late, and I reply to emails on Saturday and Sundays because I want to be raring to go on Monday morning. When I respond to emails on the weekend the replies I receive usually include something like, “why are you answering me on the weekend?” Because I want to and because I can.

I always do it when Carley is busy with something else. She knows I’m doing it too. When I get thirty minutes or an hour to myself, I log into work and get my inbox to zero. I still get anxious when I open my email. Will there be something I missed? Will there be 100 emails? What’s coming next?

When I get my inbox down to zero I feel both a sense of accomplishment and relief. Those that get it will know.

Client service isn't where it needs to be in this profession. Maybe I'm naive, but if I can raise the standard a bit, I'll be happy.

I think the reason Carley told me she wanted to proofread this post is because she was worried that I’d come off as either holier-than-thou, lacking self awareness, or appreciating hustle culture.

The reason I mentioned my two close friends is because we work a lot because we love it, not because we’re trying to escape from something else. That, and we’re obsessed with being better.