Why not being top of the team can be a good thing.
There’s an old saying that goes “never let perfect be the enemy of good” meaning sometimes being an absolute perfectionist can be actually counterproductive to your objectives.
Being Perfectly Imperfect
Everyone who loves their job wants to excel in it, be appreciated for their efforts, and generally be a positive influence in the workplace. But striving to be the perfect employee all day, every day is simply too much for one person to do.
But some people put far too weighty expectations on themselves, thinking (albeit well-intentioned) that they have to live up to that extraordinarily high standard at all times and anything less than that means they have somehow failed the team. Others do it with a more cold, hard ambitious outlook, thinking that perfection will equal promotion. Yet still, others may strive for perfection in their workplace performance simply because that’s who they are, genuine perfectionists who hold themselves to an extremely high standard and feel naturally driven to do so.
Isn’t Being A Perfect Employee a Good Thing?
For this article, we have consulted some career and employment experts and will list 5 reasons on why sometimes being a ‘perfect’ employee may not necessarily be in your own best interests, both professionally and personally.
So let’s do it…
1. Unrealistic Expectations
You may think striving to be that perfect employee will lead to enhanced appreciation for all your valiant efforts from your boss(es) and while that may be true in some cases it may also lead to another unfortunate side-effect.
Being the ‘perfect’ member of the team could also mean that team having increased and eventually unrealistic expectations of your contributions. Something needs to be done urgently? They’ll ask you. Someone needs to work late to finish an important task? Why not you? Someone needs to delegate a big task to achieve a looming deadline? Surely you can do it, after all, aren’t you the perfect team-member? Before you know it, you’re overworked, overburdened, and eventually overtired.
2. Priorities
That quest for perfection may be an admirable goal but it will also skew your priorities and have you chasing the wrong objectives for the wrong reasons. When wanting to be all things to everybody, things can get more than a little lopsided as not everyone’s priorities align, even in the workplace.
The perfect employee wants to do everything perfectly and please everyone but your duty of care is to your boss and your stated job responsibilities, not to anyone else! Do your best in your own sphere of tasks given to you and make them your sole priority not someone else’s agenda.
3. Instinct
Instinct is God’s way of telling us when something is wrong, that little feeling or inner ‘voice’ that you just can’t shake and is advising you for or against a certain course of action. It is this author’s observed opinion that everytime you go against that innermost counsel is when things go awry.
Similarly, in a workplace setting, your instinct will let you know how you’re doing and in striving to be that perfect employee, your instinct will invariably be telling you it’s an unrealistic goal and that it will ultimately affect your happiness and perhaps even health. Time and again when people suffer complete burnout, sometimes even nervous exhaustion, through overwork, they’ll say “I should have listened to my instinct and taken time off or slowed it down but…”. Don’t be that person.
4. Self-Expression
For many people who want to be, and be seen as, the perfect employee, that means effectively keeping their mouth shut when they see something not to their liking, not wishing to rock the boat (so to speak), make waves, potentially create dissent in the ranks.
This is not a good way to operate, every good business works best when all ideas are on the table, opinions are expressed, suggestions are put forward. By censoring yourself, you may not just be denying potentially golden opportunities to be a worthwhile contributor to how the workplace functions, but it will also lead personally to deep frustration and tension within yourself as communication is an in-built, deep-rooted part of who we are.
5. The Wrong Path
Another unfortunate and potential repercussion of staying quiet because you don’t want to be seen by colleagues as anything less than always agreeable and available is that you’ll end up going along with an idea or plan that you know is wrong but don’t want to speak up and be seen as a ‘troublemaker’
In a nutshell, this would be a disaster because if a wrong course of action is taken and a task does not live up to expectation, you will be seen as a co-conspirator and equally guilty in the resulting debacle and any aspirations of perfection on your part will be reduced to ash, all that effort expended for nothing. If you see something wrong or have a better alternative then speak up. If it’s not accepted and things go wrong, you’ll be vindicated, if the idea is accepted and proves successful, you’ll be seen as an indispensable team member… either way, you win!
