How do you view being a perfectionist.

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I'll give some examples of when being a perfectionist can be good or bad in the workplace from my own working experience.

My first job was dish-washing & I was praised a bit because the dishes I washed were almost always perfectly cleaned. Whereas some other dish-washers were not quite as detailed(which is understandable, especially during rush-hour) & the servers & cooks had to send some dishes back to be rewashed. With me the severs & cooks knew everything would be washed fine so they didn't worry about double checking anything they knew I had washed.

My second & third job were custodial & the cleaning didn't need to be perfect. At my second job my department was very short-handed sometimes & we sometimes has to spot clean. Trying to be a perfectionist with what I was cleaning was not practical & made cleaning take longer. I had to rush clean other stuff after because I was short on time & the stuff I cleared later in my shift looked a bit dirtier than what I cleaned at the beginning. It helped figuring out how to prioritize & strategize based on what needed to be cleaner & what was OK a bit dirtier & when was the best time during my shift to focus on what areas.

A frustrating distraction.

There was a time in my life where I used perfectionism as an unhealthy coping mechanism. I think it’s a good idea to have some balance.

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

I have aided the perfect in ravaging the good enough so many times I'm surprised I can still recall the phrase.

Attribution of procrastination

a hinderance.

A standard that only those with excellent executive function can sustain.

To someone with crappy executive function, obviously it's toxic, very much likely born from developed emotional complexes.
Whether it's a compensation to their insecurities or an attempt to gain approval to whatever they're deprived of or your usual feel good ego.

But to someone who isn't; it's a challenge.


A challenge I couldn't take on right now.
Yet and yet, I've never actually been a perfectionist.

My then view of being a perfectionist also meant not having second to more chances, not having any allowance for anything else other than 'being perfect' and caring too much on perfectionism, along with the countless overwhelming crap I likely won't able ever to process -- and I don't want that kind of existence.

I practically survived in countless lucky leniencies, graces and mercies or even misunderstandings to let me get a pass on not-perfect -- something that most idea of a perfectionism cannot fathom agreeing to exist with.

I understand the want and insistence for rigidity, for the sake of accuracy and precision -- but I would know when and when not to no matter how much my neurology insist otherwise.

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In my science job, a requirement for upgrading was that you had "abnormal mental concentration for at least two thirds of the working day." Not exactly perfectionism, but it helps. And they also appreciated people who worked to high standards. Science is meticulous like that.