What happened to perfectionism, and how to adapt to the fast-paced world.
Have you ever worked with someone who spends lots of time on little, unimportant things rather than the main idea? Someone who obsesses over every detail, has unrealistic expectations, and makes you work 120 per cent? You know who I’m talking about – someone society would classify as a perfectionist. The truth is, they’re not all bad. The characteristics we all associate with perfectionists are really only applicable to one side to them, which is simply a reaction to the surrounding stress of the workplace. Perfectionists have a good side to them too, which is expressed in qualities such as integrity (they keep their word at all costs), honesty, fairness, and good quality work.
So why is it that perfectionists aren’t as wanted in the workplace now as they were before, if they’re such great workers? The answer is: limited time. Before the Industrial Revolution, perfectionism was prized in workers, because the goal of any craftsman, artist, writer, or anyone who worked was quality. If your shoes were damaged or broken 200 years ago, you would go to a shoe-maker to get them repaired, and you wouldn’t care if it took a day or a week to finish the job, as long as it was done well and you could wear those shoes for another 10 years. In other words, workers before the Industrial Revolution could set their own time-limits and due dates, and could give themselves enough time to make their product as perfect as they wanted. This was possible because both the manufacturer (the shoe-maker in this case) and the client (you) wanted quality. This also allowed perfectionists to show their good qualities as hard-workers, and allowed them to be satisfied with the quality of their work.
Likewise, artists like Michelangelo and Donatello from the Renaissance had the opportunity to spend several years working on a painting, because their clients wanted the superb quality of these great artists. This enormous amount of time allowed the artists to make the paintings as perfect as they wanted, giving them satisfaction in their work.
production changed, but perfectionist personalities didn’t…
Then came the Industrial Revolution, completely changing the world of manufacturing. The target moved from quality to quantity and productivity. Now, manufacturers could produce 1000 shoes rather than 10. This increased the margin of error, but this didn’t matter to manufacturers because of their mass production. For example, if you made 100 shoes, and one of them ripped in-store, that’s only 10 malfunctions out of 1000, and there’s still a huge profit.
So what’s the problem? Well, production changed, but perfectionist personalities didn’t. Now, because the goal became quantity, a time-limit appeared. Often, the time-limit would not be enough for the perfectionist to work on a product and be satisfied with the result. With the loss of time and satisfaction, perfectionists started to become depressed because they were not achieving their perceived standard of work. Over time, and with increasing stress, perfectionists started to display their negative characteristics, such as being overly controlling, being overly defensive when criticized, being unable to delegate assignments, having unrealistically high expectations, and procrastination. Now that sounds more familiar, right?
The reason we mostly know this negative side of perfectionists is that the limited time and increasing stress didn’t end with the Industrial Revolution; rather, it got bigger with the rise of consumerism and globalization. With more and more of the masses buying at a larger rate, the need for quantity increased even more. And because of globalization, manufacturing large quantities of virtually anything became very cheap. Now, not only are perfectionists hard to work with in groups, they also slow down any project process in trying to make it better than it has to be. In a world where time is money, perfectionists are no longer wanted.
That sounds bleak, but there is good news for perfectionists. Because of their positive qualities, perfectionists are the driving force of many projects, striving for the best, and pushing their colleagues and group members to do a good job. In other words, perfectionists keep the quality up even though time is limited, which is something that is still very much needed. In order to be more suited to the modern world though, perfectionists need to learn to do several things.
First, don’t worry about potential mistakes. Yes, everyone makes mistakes, and they are practically inevitable. If you embrace this fact, it will be easier to start a project, and procrastination will decrease. Second, know when good enough is good enough. For example, when managing finances, being perfect is great; however, your closet doesn’t have to be organized by colour and warmth. Basically, know when you don’t have to be perfect, and learn to let those things go. Third, focus on the most important stuff. If you get the most important idea right, and some details wrong, that’s better than getting all the little details right and getting the main idea wrong. Lastly: when you do make a mistake (once again, inevitable), don’t put yourself down. Instead, forgive yourself and see what you can do better for next time. The most important thing is to not lose your hardworking attitude.
Overall: if you are a perfectionist, don’t be daunted by the idea that employers don’t value perfectionism as much a they used to! Perfectionism is an awesome quality to have, and if you stick to your good side, any employer will be knocked off their feet.