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WORK IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

© Rev. Marie Jones

We don't have to drink or ingest something to get addicted to it, to worship it like it's our God. Careers come to mind. For many of us, our job defines us. Our vocation is our identity. Forget pride in our work, we ARE our work. We forget our work is really only a part of us.

Climbing the corporate ladder has now become clawing your way to the top. Problem is, that ladder only goes so far, and when you get laid off, demoted or some snot-nosed young punk tells you to take an early retirement, you feel like it's death.

It's just a job.

Workaholism is the most accepted, even admired, form of addiction there is, which in turn makes it the hardest to put a stop to. Just ask any workaholic why they do it and they will tell you, "Hey, I gotta feed my family, don't I?" Problem is, by the time the workaholic figures out he/she is in total denial of their enslavement to their job, they have no more family to work for.

For many married couples struggling to stay together, workaholism is a wonderful excuse to avoid the real connection and intimacy that is so desperately needed, yet so uncomfortable to deal with. And if your spouse accuses you of working too much, what better way to put them back in their place than to say, "Honey, I'm doing it all for you."

In a society that reveres corporate raiders and success climbers and profits and 60-hour work weeks, it's no wonder our children are so lost. Look at the wonderful examples we adults are giving them - unbalanced, frenetic, stress-filled lives of working our fingers to the bone. And most of the time, we don't even like the work we do.

That's one of the greatest ironies about any addiction, including workaholism. What may have started out to be something we actually got enjoyment from soon becomes something we feel obsessed and compelled to do. We feel like we're suddenly running from something, as if we're being chased by some unseen spectral bogeyman that just might catch us if we dare to slow down. Work becomes a drug that we need more and more of to numb the pain and confusion lying just below the surface, yet the more we do it, the sicker we get. It's a vicious circle that can only be resolved by turning our lives over to something bigger and stronger than we are.