Are you a workaholic? New test sorts you out

Are you always working, checking your email or finding ways to “sneak” in a little extra work outside of the office? If you think you may be a workaholic, researchers in Norway and the UK have developed a new tool to measure your work obsession.

Are you always working, checking your email or finding ways to “sneak” in a little extra work outside of the office? If you think you may be a workaholic, researchers in Norway and the UK have developed a new tool to measure your work obsession.

Announced earlier this week, the new tool, dubbed the Bergen Work Addiction Scale, is reportedly a first-of-its-kind measuring stick based on seven basic criteria, all in an effort to help stressed-out workers control what could be a serious issue.

By testing themselves against the scale, employees can determine their degree of work addiction, such as non-addicted, mildly-addicted or workaholic, said lead researcher Cecilie Schou Andreassen from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Bergen Andreassen.

The test asks workers to reply to certain questions about work habits with “never”, “rarely”, “sometimes”, “often”, or “always”: “You think of how you can free up more time to work.” “You spend much more time working than initially intended.”

According to the study, scoring “often” or “always” on at least four of such questions puts you in the danger zone.