Workplace


MANAGEMENT


Nobody’s Perfect


You might think perfectionists make great hires, but the truth is perfectionism often hinders — not helps — the bottom line. Here’s what you need to know about fastidiousness and how to push past it


DARRIN AMBROSE says he noticed perfectionism creeping in during the early days of his career. As one of the youngest employees at the firm where he worked as a general accountant, he says the best way he knew to prove himself was to aim for perfection. “I was spending so much time and energy on things that didn’t matter. I wanted my work to reflect my top skills, making sure everything was perfect — deadlines, formatting, numbers.” While perfectionism is commonly


(yet incorrectly) used to refer to someone who simply has high standards (some call this “good perfectionism”), clinical perfectionism can be much more debilitating, and the affliction affects


18 | CPA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2017


more people than you might think, says Martin Antony, a psychology professor at Ryerson University in Toronto and author of When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough. At its core, perfectionism is, for some, the need to be painstakingly meticulous. It can also present in other ways. Mostly, perfectionists set extremely high standards — arbitrary “just right” standards — for themselves. They oſten experience fear of failure and judgment — an overestimation of what will go wrong if they fail to meet their set standards — and extreme anxiety about the uncertainty that comes along with everyday life. These folks typically perceive that nothing short of excellence is acceptable and that


catastrophe may ensue if everything isn’t faultless. “It’s something that’s on a continuum,” Antony says. “The amount of perfectionistic tendencies can vary, and so can the helpfulness of those tendencies. Some benefit from their tendencies; some are paralyzed by them.” According to experts at Anxiety BC,


perfectionism can make you anxious, frustrated, angry and depressed. Perfectionists are plagued by black- and-white thinking (for example, If I need help from others, I am weak), catastrophizing (If I make a mistake in front of my coworkers, I won’t survive the humiliation), probability overestimation (My boss will think I’m lazy if I take a couple of sick days), and what experts refer to as “should statements” (I should be able to predict problems before they occur). Folks who fit into this category are also big procrastinators — they have a tough time finishing their work and are overly cautious (it can take them hours to finish a task that should take 20 minutes,


Jeannie Phan


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