For WA members to recover, the Groups themselves must also adhere to spiritual principles. Meetings must provide a safe, stable, and supportive environment if they are to attract, assist, and retain members. The Twelve Traditions were adopted to ensure that WA Groups would thrive just as AA Groups have done. Similar to the Steps, the Traditions may be studied individually or in Tradition meetings. It is important that WA members grasp the importance of balancing their own immediate recovery needs with principles of cooperation and service in order to maintain a fellowship that provides all workaholics with the opportunity to successfully work the Steps.
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon W.A. unity.
- For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
- The only requirement for W.A. membership is a desire to stop working compulsively.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or W.A. as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the workaholic who still suffers.
- A Workaholics Anonymous group ought never endorse, finance or lend the W.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
- Every W.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Workaholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- W.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Workaholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the W.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
(Workaholics Anonymous Book of Recovery, 1st ed., 2005, p. 17; 2nd ed., 2015, pp. 26–27)
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous have been adapted by Workaholics Anonymous with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“A.A.W.S.”). Permission to adapt the Twelve Traditions does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only—use of A.A.’s Traditions or an adapted version in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or use in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.
The original A.A. Twelve Traditions are available at https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-traditions.