Workin' for a Livin'

A new type of addict is coming to the forefront — the workaholic — and Michigan’s challenging economy may be contributing to the problem. To some, eight-hour days are considered mere half-days on the road to success

By Lisa Brody

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Photograph by Chip Simmons

The late ad executive Ron Stone used to stroll the halls of his agency in Troy each day at 5:30 or 6 p.m., commenting to anyone packing up, “Half day?” He was only half kidding.

John Boyd, a partner at Signature Associates, a large real-estate services company in Southfield, understands the message Stone was sending. “We have an organization with a strong work ethic,” he says. “It’s important for our brokers to see our culture, what we do, and for my partner, Steve Gordon, and [me], to set the standards for the office.”

Boyd rises each morning at 2:30 a.m. and is at his desk by 3. Training for Signature’s incoming recruits is on Wednesdays at 5:15 a.m. Overwhelming? Perhaps. But not to Boyd, who typically works a 15- or 16-hour day before returning home to his family for dinner by 6 or 7 each night.

“It’s not work to me,” he says. “It’s what I do. By coming in early, it allows me to make lists, prepare necessary proposals, and be organized for the day. All of that keeps me from feeling stressed out and overwhelmed.”

Boyd perceives himself as a success story made of hard work and a take-charge mentality. But is there a line of demarcation that indicates whether or not he’s a workaholic? Boyd’s heavy schedule certainly works for him, but others may allow steady, 80-hour weeks to consume them, especially in a country rooted in the Puritan ethic of working hard, keeping your nose to the grindstone, never complaining, and continuing the rise up the corporate ladder. The challenging economy, both here and across the nation, is also causing people to work longer hours to maintain a productive career, especially among salespeople whose income is tied to commissions.

“Work addiction is the only addiction society rewards,” says Robert Fulton, an expert in multidisorder treatments and CEO of The Meadows in Wickenburg, Ariz., an inpatient treatment facility specializing in drug addiction, anxiety and mood disorders, and compulsive behaviors such as eating, gambling, sex, and work addiction. “The byproduct of work is additional money, which is what some people will work for,” Fulton says. “For others, it’s a defense mechanism, a way of medicating or avoiding one’s feelings.”
Other busy executives may not know they have a problem. “I think successful people get focused on what they’re doing,” says Robert Sher, a certified business coach in Livonia. “Often they love what they’re doing, and they fall into the trap. They don’t see that they’re a workaholic. It makes them feel good, important, wanted, and needed. Until people are ready, you cannot get people to recognize it.”

Fulton says there are three key aspects that make work addiction like any other addiction: preoccupation, tolerance, and continuance. Workaholics, he says, are preoccupied by their work, which allows them to avoid their feelings. Eventually, they develop a tolerance to longer and longer days, so that a normal eight-hour day becomes too minimal for them, and they increase their work days to 10, 12, or 15 hours a day. “It’s never enough,” he says.

They also continue their work habits despite negative consequences, because their self-esteem is dependent on the work. “The pleasure center in the brain is activated by the work,” Fulton says, “and the byproduct of the work [is] having enough money to buy all of the toys [that allow] someone to feel omnipotent.”

Fulton says that the roots of work addiction may stem from an individual’s childhood, where a child’s self-esteem is determined by how well he or she achieves or performs. Gregory J. DeMars, a partner specializing in real estate and other commercial activities at Detroit-based Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, recognizes that his childhood is what drives him to work 80-hour weeks.

“I grew up poor, with my mother raising four kids alone working as a secretary,” says the 53-year-old attorney. “That’s a great motivator. I work seven days a week. I get to the office between 5:30 and 6:15 in the morning, and I leave between 6 and 8 at night. I have a lot of evening meetings, city council meetings, and I take phone calls all evening. ‘24/7’ is my motto. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a lifestyle of choice.”