All day and all of the night: The relative contribution of two dimensions of workaholism to well-being in self-employed workers

Abstract

This study examined the associations between workaholism and perceived health (exhaustion, physical complaints, and feelings of professional efficacy) in a sample of 477 Dutch self-employed workers. We defined workaholism as having two components: (1) spending many hours on one's work, and (2) the inability to detach from work. We expected that both workaholism components would be related to ill health. ANOVA and regression analyses revealed that this reasoning was confirmed for one component (inability to detach from work), whereas the other component (working long hours) was unrelated to the outcome variables. In order to increase understanding of these findings, we suggest that more theoretical work be conducted on the mechanisms linking workaholism to its presumed antecedents and consequences.