Workaholicism

A number of years ago – I’m going to be deliberately vague and change details to prevent anyone from being identified – I attended a session of Workaholics Anonymous in London, with the intention of observing proceedings, and then mocking the idea of a counselling group for compulsive workers.

The very concept of Workaholics Anonymous, which was originally set up in 1983 in New York by a financial planner and a schoolteacher, seemed intrinsically comic to me. How would workaholics ever find time to attend meetings? And, once they joined, would they overprepare, and compete to make lengthy Powerpoint presentations? It was the kind of hilarious piece that was going to write itself.

But the piece never did write itself. And it has taken me some long time finally to get around to it. You see, there turned out to be nothing particularly hilarious about the meeting…

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