Perfect is the enemy of the good,” said French philosopher Voltaire. According to an article by Topresume, perfectionists are often bright and detail-oriented individuals at work. However, they have a hard time letting go of projects, delegating, and knowing when good enough is good enough.

A lot of things can be ruined by the phrase ‘I think it’s not good enough’ because everyone wants to be perfect in what they do. In their performance at work everyone falls in a trap of trying hard not to make mistakes. For many reasons, including fear of failure, not being good enough, and comparing ourselves to others, we want to be "perfect” and recognized as such.

Protais Niyigaba, manager at Nyungwe National Park says perfectionism can be a path to many challenges in the workplace but also it can advantageous.

"Perfectionism can often result in the absence of work-life balance, and in missing deadlines in some instances. However, there are also advantages related to valuing the quality of the work done. Moreover, perfectionists are morally rewarded with much confidence and satisfaction when they complete a job and they are sure about whatever they did with their maximum energy,” he says.

Alice Uwera who works in a cleaning company says that perfectionism misleads employees sometimes.

"Many employees believe that if everything is perfect they will be recognised as good employees who never make mistakes, and this often results in someone having anxiety, hard time letting off projects because they want them to be very perfect and they sometimes miss deadlines, and also the fear of failure which often causes stress,” she says.

Effects of overachieving at work

According to Emmanuel Mugabo who is doing psychology in university, perfectionists are rarely satisfied with the work they have done, and they often feel anything they have completed could have been completed better even if their boss told them that their work is amazing.

"Feeling like they want to overachieve everything can cause extreme stress and bring a toll on their emotions, always feeling anxious because their presentation is not perfect the way they want it to be and they find themselves stressing on how to improve it and yet the presentation is okay, the stress also affects their health, like losing a lot of weight and having problems with their mental health,” he explains.

In an article by CHRON a small blog, they shared some effects that result from perfectionism:

.Stress: The most direct effect perfectionism at work will have on an employee is stress. As an employee constantly feels the pressure of completing each project to an imagined level of perfection, he will often become stressed as the work he completes does not meet his standards or the expectations he perceives others have of him. 

.Procrastination: According to Work Stress Solutions, perfectionism is the leading cause of procrastination in the workplace. An employee can become so overwhelmed by the desire to complete a task or project perfectly that he is incapable of beginning the project in the first place.

.Coworker Relationships: Perfectionism can easily cause rifts between an employee and her coworkers. Coworkers may feel put off by the constant overachieving of a perfectionistic employee. 

How to overcome perfectionism

"I consider being a perfectionist or not as part of ones’ personality. When one discovers themselves as a perfectionist there are ways of minimizing the negative consequences while keeping the advantages, like planning ahead enough when possible to avail enough time for checking all the details, and improving skills in the profession so that you can do your work perfectly with minimal effort and stress,” Niyigaba shares.

Topresume in their article on perfectionism shares tips on moving through the challenges of perfectionism at work:

Practice self-awareness. It already takes some level of self-awareness to realize perfectionism is causing issues for you. As you continue to pay closer attention to your responses to day-to-day work tasks, expectations of others, you’ll be able to make different choices in how you respond to getting your work done and getting to a point that good enough is good enough.

Realize no one’s perfect. For perfectionists, it’s hard to truly grasp that they are not going to be perfect, or they’re too afraid of the outcome if they aren’t.  

Don’t compare yourself to others. When we compare ourselves to others, we’re only setting ourselves up for disappointment. We’re each on our own path and have the ability to choose different ways to do things.

Set realistic goals and reward yourself as you meet them. If you learn to set realistic goals for yourself, then as you reach them, you can reward yourself to help you appreciate that you are doing a good job and meeting the goals you set for yourself.