Work addiction: NSW woman so obsessed with her job, she was answering emails while in labour

Mum-of-two Amanda Rose has revealed the confronting moment she realised she had fallen for a brutal work trend impacting thousands of Aussies.

Amanda Rose is so addicted to work that she was answering emails when she was in labour with her second child.

The co-founder of vegan meal delivery business Herbidoor, with her husband, was well overdue and expected to go into hospital for an induction the next day.

But when things started to happen naturally she didn’t put down her phone.

“I was in active labour and started having regular contractions with short periods of time apart and … it was just normal to me,” she told news.com.au.

“I thought I have this time now I may as well get on top of things.”

The northern NSW resident said she doesn’t classify herself as a micromanager but feels the need to be on top of everything, admitting she is obsessed with her job.

“It means that I am constantly checking emails. I work 12 to 14 hours a day, it’s the first thing I do when I wake up and last thing I do before I go to bed,” she said.

“I’m checking emails and making sure no one needs responding to before I go to sleep.”

Amanda Rose is the co-founder of Herbidoor and admits she is addicted to work. Picture: Supplied

Add to that her time is also focused on making products better, posting to social media and researching how to improve their marketing strategy, she said.

Even on holidays the couple don’t switch off from their work after launching the business five years ago.

“Even if I’m having a day off I still check in with things,” she explained.

“Last year in July, we went on a 10-day holiday and it was the first major break we had since starting the business but we were still working every day at least one to two hours and checking in once in the morning and afternoon.

“I don’t switch off and feel like everything isn’t going to run without me.

“I feel anxious because it’s your baby. It was our baby just before we fell pregnant with our first, we birthed the business and put it out to the world and want it to succeed.”

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Amanda Rose is the co-founder of Herbidoor and admits she is addicted to work. Picture: Supplied

The 38-year-old said her husband is equally addicted to work and despite a rule against it they always end up talking about the business while on a date – but he has also gone to extremes to continue working.

“A commercial fridge fell on him and he had broken leg and arm and he had to cook in the kitchen – this was before we had any staff – and he just had to go back to work,” she added.

“It’s literally just what we have always done. We both feel anxiety when we aren’t working on our business and business growth.”

But she admits the anxiety does “eat them up” a bit and she has had to implement a few rules such as turning off notifications on her phone as she found them “triggering” as well as carving out time to go to the gym.

Currently, major research is being conducted around the world to learn more about the issue of work addiction, with the first global study of employees being undertaken from more than 60 countries.

Amanda Rose is the co-founder of Herbidoor and admits she is addicted to work. Picture: Supplied

Rachael Potter from the University of South Australia has been leading the research in Australia.

She said work addiction is defined as the “compulsion” to work where people feel they have “lost control” if they are not fully immersed in their job.

This generally has an impact on family and other areas of their life and can even go so far as to see people neglecting anything outside of work.

“It’s that compulsion to check emails and being unable to switch off or recover and feeling guilty or anxious when you can’t do work or access work,” she told news.com.au.

“From that people enter this cycle of becoming exhausted and not being able to recuperate and switch off and they get more and more stressed.

“And that can lead to burnout which is a serious psychological disorder that can take months to recover from and people need to get on top of their addictive behaviour before that happens.”

So far 1200 Australians have participated in the study and Dr Potter said work addiction can show up with symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, loss of control and feelings of guilt.

Dr Rachael Potter research fellow at UniSA Justice & Society. Picture: UniSA website

She said Australians already have quite long work hours compared to many other countries around the world, which was “a big concern” with those who have a highly demanding job, managers and small business owners particularly at risk.

“From the analysis we have done in Australia, quite a lot of the sample – 30 per cent were at risk of being addicted to work. We found females were more at risk and younger people were more at risk,” she said.

“In other previous studies its been a mixed bag with gender impacts, but we know when things like Covid happened it certainly hit women a lot harder.

“It goes back to demands at home and societal pressure making it more difficult.

“And with younger people there is a theory that there might be economic reasons to work hard and perform at really high levels to keep their jobs as we know job security has gone down – this generation doesn’t have job security.”

Women are at higher risk of work addiction, according to the research. Picture: iStock

A big red flag that someone is addicted to work includes using your free time on your job rather than detaching and allowing for recovery time and checking emails after hours, with Dr Potter noting that working from home has been incredible for flexibility but also made the blurring of boundaries harder.

“If they are addicted to work they going to withdraw from other areas of their life and this will impact their social relationships,” she added.

“They might feel anxious and guilty all the time, have that performance pressure and experience physical symptoms like high heart rates and won’t be engaging in self care and not eating or sleeping properly, that kind of thing.”

As a female Ms Rose is in the risk category but said she isn’t a fan of the word addiction when it comes to her obsession with work.

“I do cringe and there are people that are true addicts that struggle with real problems. I don’t see wanting to be the best at something and being obsessive about creating a wonderful business that is making changes as an addiction,” she explained.

“I see it as wanting to be great at something, whereas I feel it downplays it for those that have true addiction to kind of lump being a bit obsessive with work. It downplays their suffering and struggles they go through.”