Every person has to make an effort every day. Some people work harder than others. Some people work for more hours than others. Some seem as though they never stop working. However, everyone has to do one work it another, whether it pays or not.
A person who works a lot can be given many names. One of the most popular names used for someone that works often is ‘Workaholic’.
What do you call someone who works a lot?
Workaholic is a common word for someone who works a lot. Another common word for someone who works hard and for long hours is ‘Industrious’.
Below are 15 English words for a person who works a lot.
- Workaholic
- Overzealous
- Perfectionist
- Ambitious
- Occupied
- Busy Bee (Busy Beaver)
- Industrious
- Striver
- Career-oriented
- Energetic
- Go-getter
- Overachiever
- Driven
- Tireless
- Engaged
Workaholic
Workaholic is a name given to a person who feels the need to work and is always busy. He is a person who feels forced by necessity to work excessively.
This is a word commonly used to refer to people who seem to work tirelessly.
A Workaholic may believe that he/she can’t get a certain achievement without working that much so he/she devotes virtually every time and energy that he/she has.
You can use this to refer to a person if he/she works excessively and abandons some other major parts of his/her life.
Example:
- I may seem like a Workaholic but I have time for leisure too.
Overzealous
Overzealous is an adjective for a person who expresses too much zeal for something. A hardworking person can be tagged as Zealous for putting in enough effort and focus in his/her work.
However, when he/she is putting in too much time or effort into work, especially needlessly, he/she can be called ‘Overzealous’.
While being Zealous can be considered a good trait, it can be excessive in a person. A zealous person is simply one who shows interest or passion for something.
This kind of person focuses on his/her interest, devoting time and effort. However, a person can be considered overzealous, if the devoted time and effort are excessive.
Example:
- I get overzealous at times. I can’t help it.
Perfectionist
A Perfectionist is a person who is obsessed with the idea of perfection and will not settle for anything that doesn’t meet extremely high standards.
A perfectionist can be strict in observing his/her work, as well as that of others. This makes him/her hard to please, even to himself or herself.
A person can be a workaholic due to his/her perfectionist nature. Being a perfectionist makes you want to have everything perfect.
The idea of perfection makes you continuously think of ways that anything and everything can be better. A perfectionist is also quick to find faults.
The desire for perfection can make a person work too hard and abandon other important things.
Example:
- I am a perfectionist so I tend to put in the extra time and effort.
Ambitious
Ambitious is an adjective for a person who desires to achieve power, fame, honor, wealth, etc.
An ambitious person is driven by what he desires to achieve and focuses on all activities that bring him/her closer to those goals.
A Workaholic who works for a reason can be called Ambitious. An ambitious person is also tagged as overzealous, as this characteristic is often considered excessive.
This feature makes a person invest too much attention into certain activities while abandoning other things that seem unrelated to his/her goal.
An ambitious person may also be considered desperate enough to do anything to achieve his/her goal.
Example:
- I know how ambitious you are but don’t let it get in the way of other things.
Occupied
The word, ‘Occupied’, is commonly used to refer to a person who is busy or unavailable at the moment. This can refer to someone who is engaging in a lot of things or something that requires his/her full focus.
When a person says he/she is occupied, it means that the person can’t pay attention to anything else while still engaged in a certain task. If you are referring to a person who seems to be exerting so much effort into something, you can call him/her ‘occupied’.
Example:
- I have known him for years and he’s always occupied.
Busy Bee (or Busy Beaver)
‘Busy Bee’ is an informal term for a person who works hard or is always busy. An alternative informal term is ‘Busy Beaver’ which has the same meaning as ‘Busy Bee’.
This is a nice name you can give to a workaholic. It can be given to a person who exerts too much effort into something or puts too much focus into an activity. It can also be given to a person who keeps working for long hours.
Example:
- My father is a busy bee so you better book an appointment.
Industrious
Industrious is a positive adjective for a person who works very hard. This can be attributed to a Workaholic but it doesn’t necessarily refer to excessive exertion.
A person can be called Industrious if he/she is hardworking and persistent. This is a major feature of a Workaholic.
A major difference is that a workaholic may do it excessively, in the sense that he/she can abandon other things just to focus on work. ‘Industrious’ simply refers to the hardworking characteristics of a workaholic and his/her persistence in it.
Also, the word ‘industrious’ emphasizes the usefulness of a person and how productive he/she is in a particular work.
Example:
- You are industrious and innovative. It would be the company’s pleasure to have you.
Striver
A striver is a person who tries hard and exerts effort in getting something. This refers to a person who is sacrificing time and strength to achieve a goal.
This can refer to the strenuous effort of a perfectionist to achieve perfection. It may also refer to the persistent effort of a workaholic to achieve whatever goal is driving him/her. A striver is simply a person who strives.
However, no one strives without having a goal in mind.
When a person tries his/her best, there is always an end result hoped for, whether it’s achieved or not. The aspired result serves as the motivation for the striver to keep striving.
Example:
- Since I joined the group, he has been the only striver.
Career-oriented
A Career-oriented person is one who focuses on how to advance in his/her career. This is a person who focuses on his/her job, how to get better, and how to get promoted.
This kind of person most likely puts his/her job first in virtually all situations. This is a person who enjoys moving further in his/her profession and has a goal for his/her career.
A Career-oriented person is motivated by his/her career goals and how much he/she is getting closer to achieving them.
Example:
- I am Career-oriented so you can expect me to give you my best.
Energetic
Energetic is the adjective for a person who possesses energy and is able to exert energy. An Energetic person is one who is vibrant or active while performing activities that may be strenuous.
This word doesn’t only refer to people doing heavy work. It is often used for people who are playing around, as long as they are doing so vibrantly, without showing any signs of stress. A Workaholic is often filled with energy.
Energetic is also often used to qualify people who are often vibrant, even if they are not being active at the moment. It refers to their ability to put their effort, energy, and focus into whatever they are doing.
Example:
- He is one of the most energetic employees we’ve ever had.
Go-getter
A go-getter is an active person who strives to achieve success or improvement. He/she exerts energy into his/her work, mainly for career or self-development.
This is a name for a Career-oriented person. A go-getter is a person who is energetic when it comes to work that has to do with his/her career goals or self-development. A go-getter works hard to achieve his/her goals.
This term refers to a person who focuses on his/her work and what he hopes to achieve. He/she lets the prospects of his/her work motivate his/her efforts.
Example:
- I am also a go-getter but I have time for my family.
Overachiever
An overachiever is a person who does more or better than is expected of him/her. This is a person who strives to go beyond targets or deliver a higher quality than is required.
A Workaholic can be an overachiever. A person can be a workaholic by striving to overachieve and an overachiever can be a workaholic to keep up with his/her high standards or even do better.
An overachiever is a person who is known to do better than expected. With time, the high standards delivered by an overachiever will be perceived as normal and he/she will want to do even better.
This makes an overachiever always strive harder to be better or faster at doing something.
Example:
- He is a valued member of the company and an overachiever. We can’t afford to lose him.
Driven
A driven person is one who is passionately motivated to achieve his/her goals. A driven person allows his/her goals to motivate him/her to work harder.
A driven person may also be motivated by something outside his/her career.
A driven person is simply one who puts passion into what he/she is doing and is persistent with it. A person can be driven by his/her goals. He/she may be driven by possible achievements.
He/she may also be driven by responsibilities that cannot be escaped. As long as they make him/her want to work harder, they are considered a drive.
Example:
- We need driven people like you to move the organization forward.
Tireless
A tireless person is one who isn’t allowing fatigue to set in or is refusing to rest. A tireless person may get tired but will refuse to let it weigh him/her down.
Most people get tireless when they are driven by something that they consider important. Being tireless implies that you are choosing to remain energetic or active while you are resting.
Example:
- My brother can be very tireless when he’s working at home.
Engaged
Engaged is an adjective for a person who is currently busy or actively doing something and cannot spare time for anything or anyone at the moment.
When a person is engaged, he/she has to be done before indulging in something else.
Engaged is another word for ‘Occupied’. It doesn’t refer to people who are always working tirelessly. Rather, it is meant to refer to a person who seems to be working very hard at a particular moment.
However, it can also be used contextually to refer to a person who is always working on something.
Example:
- I want to hang out with my boyfriend but he is always engaged.
‘Workaholic’ is the most common word for a person who works a lot. It refers to effort and long hours of work. Adjectives that qualify a Workaholic are ‘Industrious’, ‘Ambitious’, ‘Career-oriented’ etc.
Other words which may refer to a workaholic include ‘Perfectionist’, ‘Go-getter’, and many more.