Work is something that adults engage in to earn a living and gain independence primarily. But for some, it becomes an addiction.

For the underprivileged, work becomes their life as they struggle to make ends meet to support their family. Longer hours are dedicated to either one or multiple natures of employment in a day to reel in more dough. Their drive to work hard and to work more is driven by survival. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, this covers the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, and clothing. For workaholics that are in this level, the challenge is not to only provide the essentials for himself, but for those that he support as well.

For the middle-class income generators, work is given priority as they set dreams to have more. Their motivation is to gain more power, climb higher, reach further. Though they have enough to cover their vital needs with some money to spare, they’re not completely in safety zone. If emergency strikes or they lose their good position in a company, they can slide back to survival mode. Their driving force is security, they want enough extra to protect their comfort zone.

There as some though who are just hungry for success, and aspire for bigger things in life. They devote their time to working to uplift their status completely in their desire to be in a better place, not just for security but for pride and prestige. With these types, stature is what feeds their work addiction. They want a taste of the power, the success, the good life.

Others already have the power and can already enjoy what they have, but they still choose to work some more. They are blinded by the sparkles of gold that they want more and more, while also busy making sure that their possessions are safely kept as well. The motivation for this kind of workaholic is greed. The goal is to keep increasing their gains, not setting a limit to their acquisitions.

For the ones who already have enough, their main purpose for working is self-actualization. Their ball game is different as they do not wish to compare with others in terms of quantity, nor are they driven by a need to survive. What matters most is their personal achievements and meeting self expectations. They are more conscious about the quality of the work they put in, not really giving much value to the monetary gains as they are more concerned about the fulfillment of completing the task.

As one turns into an adult, responsibilities are expected to be covered and work takes the prime spot in one’s day. But these duties are set to ensure that life goes on. Though it is ideal to love what one is tasked to do, a balance between work and personal life is still called for. It is still best to remember the main reason for working, which is to live. The problem with workaholics, work becomes the end goal and life takes second place in their list of priorities.