Manifestations of Paranoid Personality in Workaholic Middle Managers

The problem of paranoid disorders is widespread and difficult to diagnose due to the many mental symptoms that a person often perceives as character traits. Passion for work, the so-called pathological workaholism, harms not only the suffering person but also all the people around them, affecting their quality of life and disrupting social and family ties. The purpose of study was to determine the level of pathological workaholism and its main symptoms. The objectives of the study included interviewing respondents and identifying the correlation between the level of workaholism and mental manifestations, and finding differences in the manifestations of workaholism in men and women. For this purpose, 78 people were examined, including 38 women and 40 men. All participants worked as middle managers in multinational companies. The aim was to identify people with pathological workaholism among the participants using the "Work Addiction Risk Test" questionnaire. Among managers, a high degree of predisposition to workaholism was diagnosed. We found that women have a strong tendency to be fixated on work, and as a result, they have increased rumination anxiety. Regardless of gender, managers who took part in the study showed a pronounced manifestation of paranoid and obsessive-phobic disorders, depression, and asthenic manifestations. Regarding the relationship between neurotic symptoms and a tendency to workaholism, a high correlation was observed ( p < 0.05). The results of this study may be useful for specialists to develop means of preventing and effectively treating paranoid workaholism, as a disease that is increasingly having a negative impact on society.