Why Being a Workaholic Is Counterproductive

Give yourself a break, says researcher, author and professor Leslie Perlow.

PhotoŠ Natalie Brasington

Sometimes self-destructive workaholic behavior can get so out of hand there's only one recourse left: an office intervention. Enter Leslie Perlow, a Harvard Business School professor of leadership armed with an eagle eye for counterproductive work styles.

"Most of us are ‘successaholics.' That's what we think is necessary for our organization to succeed," and a researcher whose experiments in corporate America have shaken up notions about productivity in the always-on workplace. "If you try to do things differently, you will find it incredibly valuable. It's rallying together to recognize that if we continue to work in this way, it's undermining our productivity, our sustainability, our creativity."