In Lugano, does working without stopping prove engagement?
Within SHR — Swiss Human Resources' Psychosocial Risks programme, recognising engagement raises a prevention question. How can a manager reward useful work without encouraging an inability to stop?
What the literature establishes
Malissa A. Clark, Jesse S. Michel, Ludmila Zhdanova, Shuang-Yue Pui and Boris B. Baltes (2016, Journal of Management) synthesised research on workaholism, understood as a tendency to work excessively and compulsively. Their meta-analysis identifies associations with burnout, stress and work–family conflict. It does not support treating this tendency as a guarantee of better performance.
Two distinct forms of investment in work
Wilmar B. Schaufeli, Toon W. Taris and Willem van Rhenen (2008, Applied Psychology) empirically distinguish workaholism, burnout and work engagement. High levels of activity can therefore accompany energy and enthusiasm, but also an internal pressure to keep going. The visible amount of work alone is insufficient to identify the nature of that investment.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that all intense involvement should be discouraged. That would confuse a temporary effort, potentially undertaken by choice, with a persistent compulsive tendency. The managerial question is instead what gets rewarded: a useful result, or never appearing to have finished. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot diagnose
Much of the evidence synthesised relies on questionnaires and associations, limiting causal inference. These studies cannot diagnose an employee from their working hours or attribute their behaviour solely to their manager's practices. Conversely, treating all excessive investment as a personal trait risks leaving organisational expectations and recognition criteria unexamined.
A practical check in Lugano
In a bank, fashion business, trading company or Italian-speaking family SME in Lugano, an exercise within the Psychosocial Risks programme could examine how managers express recognition. For two weeks, record the reasons for work-related praise without names, then distinguish reasons describing a result or cooperation from those praising only prolonged presence or unlimited availability. Calculate the latter as a proportion of all recorded reasons, replace those formulations with explicit contribution criteria, then repeat the exercise. This measure checks a management practice; it measures neither the prevalence of workaholism nor a health effect. To go further: explore the Psychosocial Risks training in Lugano in the canton of Ticino, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Psychosocial Risks in Lugano
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