If every time, one does an experiment and it fails, and then repeat it to meet the deadline. of course, the person is workaholic, but that does not mean that he/she is working extra, it only means, either they are sloppy or their luck is not helping them. 

But at the same time, if they are juggling with multiple experiments, and all are working fine, it is great to be workaholic then. They get multiple results within the normal time span, then it is fruitful.

At the same time, if by working during normal hours, with your smart working strategy and innovative approach, you get a great result. Then you are smart worker.

In today's world, innovative thinking and strategies count more than hard work. Smart research produces smarter results, than merely hard, time-consuming experiments.

As an afterthought, i want to add, i belong to the workaholic category, but not with lot of luck on my side :) it will be good, if people can categorize themselves while answering this question. I like the question.

Sir being a workoholic will definately help in the career.He wil finish his work before the dead line and up to date all the time.About the contribution they may be equal to normal workers it depends on their approach and strategy towards work will play a prominent role .Normal worker with innovative approach contribute more towards work than a normal workoholic person .

If every time, one does an experiment and it fails, and then repeat it to meet the deadline. of course, the person is workaholic, but that does not mean that he/she is working extra, it only means, either they are sloppy or their luck is not helping them. 

But at the same time, if they are juggling with multiple experiments, and all are working fine, it is great to be workaholic then. They get multiple results within the normal time span, then it is fruitful.

At the same time, if by working during normal hours, with your smart working strategy and innovative approach, you get a great result. Then you are smart worker.

In today's world, innovative thinking and strategies count more than hard work. Smart research produces smarter results, than merely hard, time-consuming experiments.

As an afterthought, i want to add, i belong to the workaholic category, but not with lot of luck on my side :) it will be good, if people can categorize themselves while answering this question. I like the question.

Workaholic means hard working. What really matters is quality of work and not the quantity and duration. Creative and innovative persons  need  to work hard in order to give shape to the ideas. In the conceptual era of today,  the innovators'  hard work will certainly result in bringing new concepts for benefits to the mankind. In that context, being workaholic may be advantageous. Smart working is effective working to achieve the result and is the essential characteristic of a manager, while hard working and perseverance are  the essential traits  of  an innovator.

Excellent, Gabriele,

It does happen in many cases: abuse turning into the term called Workaholic. 

For me, workaholic is always self-created phenomena.

I am not 'abused' to work, but yes, I am pleasantly 'addicted' to work. Given the choice to work on a problem of my choice or doing any other work, pursuing a hobby, etc., I prefer my work. 

It depends what you class as a 'workaholic', for one.

It also depends what type of person you are. I personally am someone who always prefers to be busy. I lead an active social life with a number of different hobbies. However, when I am not doing one of these, say one rainy winters evening or a weekend morning, I would happily sit down and do some work for a few hours instead of watching TV. I often find it more relaxing as my mind is occupied. 

From my personally experience people who ENJOY their work more and see research as more of a 'hobby' tend to be the most productive, but then again they generally do more work......

Like someone pointed out before, smart work is always great, but most of this is usually conducted out of a lab and involves the synthesis of ideas and careful planning. I find that part of research fun, so for me it is easy to spend a lot of time doing.

Certainly the term Workaholic seems to be undefined and seems to be used in a negative sense similar to alcoholics. I think an alcoholic is in real sense an alcoholic, when he/she wants to stop drinking but cannot do so and not in the initial cases where he/she loves drinking!!!

It is also difficult to say who is a smart worker and who is not.  In biology u may plan things and its not necessary that everything works as planned for everyone (there are lucky guys too!!!). If someone keeps the pipette down exactly at 5pm and says whatever happens, I am going home. I dont think they are smart workers and doing anything good to science or their careers.

If I plan an experiment starting at monday morning - ending on friday evening and monday if my cell culture did not grow, I have 2 choices- shift the last day plan to saturday or shift the entire experiment to next week (expecting everything to go OK, next monday). People here will certainly have different takes on such a situation and the guy who chooses the first alternative will be called as a workaholic by the second group.

Anyway, most of us who are discussing this topic in researchgate will be considered as workaholics by our fellows who spend their time in facebook or twitter !!!!!! Certainly it is relative.

If you are a postdoc and get lots of work done and then publish the work it can be to your disadvantage if you want to eventually leave the lab and start your own lab. When a PI sees a workaholic who is publishing lots of good work they "may" want the postdoc to stay for a long time and continue to do the same.

Gary,

In fact, those P.I.s. do not have much scientific sense who want get more done from post-doc labor. In fact, a good P.I. needs to set the goals and make career plan for the post-doc, 95% of P.I. do not do that. 

Very interestingly now a days when P.I. advertized for a post-doc, they never say that person should have interest in this area and want to follow career in this area, rather they ask, PHD should know flow, western, PCR, immunohisto, that sounds he is looking for a lobor.

 to be a workalholic is not good  certainly efficiency  comes down

Workaholic means they have difficulty prioritizing what’s important, therefore, everything is important in their mind.

They feel  insecure !!!, and try to fill any space in time with busy work because they feel insecure doing nothing,

They always look for External Validation for their work (From Bosses, Colleagues or Friends).

Be a Smart Worker than a Hard Worker.. 

workaholic and normal persons in research are two different categories. Normal or smart works are those how see the problem simpler and complete the work firstly. on the other hand workaholic people see the problem in different direction it will get delayed but how will have extended knowledge on the subject. actually speaking the workaholic person will enjoy more than the smart workers once they clear the problem and confident than those of smart workers. yes I agree that being workaholic is problem when it exceeds the limit.    

I believe that the problem is in the method of work and the relationships between the different people of the working group. Hard work of a person without a relationship is a disorder of the person who plays or who imposes the job. This type of work generally gratifies only one of the two actors. In a good relationship, in a working group that shares a special effort to reach a goal, the information out of the self-referential thought and may generate further knowledge.