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First, this study aimed to investigate the association of time perspective (TP) profiles with work engagement and workaholism. Second, it tested TP profiles as the moderator of perfectionism with work engagement and workaholism relationship.

The sample of this study comprised 148 Japanese employees, and snowball sampling was used for data collection. The authors found the TP profiles in the first step using cluster analysis with five TP dimensions. Next, the authors tested workaholism and work engagement in three clusters. The two dimensions of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns were extracted through the exploratory factor analysis of Sakurai and Ohtani's (1997) perfectionism measure. Further, their relationship with workaholism and work engagement was tested in the TP profiles using multiple group analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM).

Three TP profiles were found, which the authors named: Future (F), Hedonistic and Balanced. There was a significant difference between the three groups. Notably, working compulsively was significantly higher in the Future cluster in the three clusters. The moderator analysis results indicated that perfectionistic concerns positively affected workaholism in the Future cluster but not for the Balanced cluster.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between perspective profiles, workaholism and work engagement. The relationship between these factors can be a stepping stone for further research.

This paper examines how changes in macroeconomy environment and employment situation affected the workaholism trend among Japanese workers. Results of the analysis indicated that the driven component of workaholism remained high from the beginning of the 1990s when the bubble economy collapsed and throughout the 1990s. However, the enjoyment of work component has decreased for this period, causing the workaholic tendencies to be more serious in the worsening economic and employment circumstances. Moreover, the level of work overload actually increased for engineers and workers in their 30s and 40s in the middle of the economic depression. Based on these results, economic changes vs job demand interaction mechanism was presented and needed employee‐support policy directions were presented.