What other problems can overwork cause?

Letting work dominate your life means having less time and energy for the people who matter to you. Whether it’s your partner, children, family or friends, they will be getting less of you and a lower-quality version and, no matter what you tell yourself, your relationships will suffer. All relationships need time and energy or they wither, and that goes for everyone from the friend you meet occasionally to your most intimate companion. There’s no shortage of cases of parents realising too late that they worked so hard they never knew their children while they were growing up.

Working too hard won’t do much for your chances of finding a partner either. Making new friends and developing new networks is difficult when you’re absorbed by work. Arriving tired, stressed and late, talking about work and leaving early to ensure you make it to work on time is no way to impress on a date. Most people are interested in prospective partners with more than one side to their lives.

Your broader interests can suffer as much as your relationships. Remember all those things you used to enjoy doing, or wanted to do one day, but now you just don’t have the time? The chances are that you do have the time, but you’ve allowed work to take it all. All those other plans and projects and ambitions could become reality, if only you put work where it belongs.

Making work the all-powerful centre of your life can even have an impact on your own identity. Your sense of who you are can become completely bound up with your job. That might feel fine when things are going well at work, but when things go wrong or you lose your job, it can have a devastating impact, affecting you out of all proportion and leaving you feeling completely lost. You mustn’t let that happen. After all, it’s just a job.