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Workaholism and the french resistance
or the fight for reclamation
“Welcome to the French Resistance. There are 5 million workaholics in New York, and you’ve just met the only four who are in recovery.”
This is taken from an article on workaholism by HBR as it describes how the author decided to finally face his workaholism by joining a Workaholics Anonymous meeting.
The article sizes up this phenomenon quite well.
Workaholism might just be society’s most acceptable, even glorified, coping mechanism yet.
We’re numbing our feelings, sweeping them under the carpet and refusing to face our fears and debilitating thoughts by throwing ourselves into work.
And society’s giving us brownie points to do so by rewarding us with financial success and/or recognition if we turn ourselves into workhorses.
I was struck by the comparison with the French Resistance.
The Resistance was about groups fighting German occupation.
It seems like modern-day Occupation is now more about the societal constructs we unknowingly keep ourselves boxed into than physical enemies.
These constructs, which, for paltry rewards, are demanding of us that we hand over our our most precious assets : our health and well-being…
