Perfectionist Employees in the Workplace

Perfectionism refers to a personality trait that involves striving for flawlessness. Perfectionists tend to set inflexible and excessively high standards for themselves and their performance. If they fail to meet these standards, they will feel as if they have failed completely. However, if perfectionists achieve these standards, they have a tendency to set even higher standards in the future. Given this, it is reasonable to assume that individuals who are perfectionists would be ideal employees given that they are highly driven and successful. However, recent research in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests perfectionism in the workplace may not be ideal. 

There are two dimensions of perfectionism: excellence-seeking perfectionism and failure-avoiding perfectionism. Excellence-seeking perfectionism is focused on the achievement of high standards. Those who are high in excellence-seeking perfectionism tend to set such standards for themselves and failure to meet such standards causes them to have lower self-worth. Failure-avoiding perfectionism refers to a strong aversion to failing. Those who have high in failure-avoiding perfectionism become preoccupied with the fear of failing to meet the high standards that they perceive are expected of them. 

Recent research in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that each dimension of perfectionism is related to different outcomes in the workplace. The researchers conducted a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between excellence-seeking and failure-avoiding perfectionism with other organization-relevant factors. The researchers found that failure-avoiding perfectionism was significantly related to poor well-being factors such as: burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression. However, excellence-seeking perfectionism was related to lower levels of conscientiousness and engagement. The researchers concluded that perfectionism is likely not constructive at work because the detrimental effects of perfectionism (i.e., poor well-being, lack of increased job performance) likely outweigh any benefits.