Patterns of workaholism among managers in a hybrid work format

Abstract

This article focuses on patterns of workaholism among managers in a hybrid work format, which combines office and remote work. The study involved 162 middle-level managers of industrial enterprises in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, with technical backgrounds. The following methods were used for data collection: a modified version of the unfinished sentences method for qualitative analysis of affective, cognitive, behavioral and motivational attitudes, the Workaholism Questionnaire by E. P. Ilyin, and the Subjective Work and Personal Life Balance Questionnaire by A. N. Mospan to quantify boundary violations. Correlation analysis was applied to identify significant relationships among the studied variables. Comprehensive data analysis revealed the systemic phenomenon of emotionally dependent workaholism among managers. It was found that work served as the main tool for regulating the psychological state and obtaining positive emotions, as half of the respondents associated involvement in work with ‘pleasure’, which naturally led to a negative impact on personal life, reflected in high values for this indicator. A key internal conflict was identified: respondents demonstrated a hedonistic attitude towards the work process, yet 67% reported a negative attitude towards the job itself. Correlation analysis showed a strong positive relationship (r = 0.563, p < 0.01) between perceiving work as a ‘source of strength’ and its ‘negative impact’ on personal life. Financial motivation (‘work as earnings’) acted as a protective factor (r = -0.281, p < 0.05), mitigating this effect. These findings indicate that workaholism among modern managers manifests as emotional dependence, reinforced by patterns of behavior that blur the boundaries between work and personal life in a hybrid format. The identified relationships highlight the urgent need for psychological interventions combating emotional involvement, training programs to develop emotional self-regulation skills, restoration of personal boundaries, and revision of motivational attitudes, which may help prevent professional burnout and preserve employees’ psychological well-being in remote work contexts.