Does perfectionism actually lead to workplace burnout? Not exactly. The surprising connection.

Employees are reporting record levels of stress and burnout across a multitude of industries across the country. Based on a recent American Psychological Association Work and Well-being Survey, 79% of employees experienced work-related stress in addition to 32% reporting emotional exhaustion and 44% reporting physical fatigue. These numbers were significantly higher than when surveyed in 2019. The high numbers reporting emotional and physical exhaustion are particularly concerning as these are common symptoms related to workplace burnout.

What is Burnout?

The World Health Organization does define and classify burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and

• reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

Perfectionism

Perfectionism has long been associated with burnout with many earlier researchers suggesting that the more perfectionistic someone is the more likely they are to burnout. The earlier thinking was to simply reduce their standards or learn how to do things “less perfectly” which would help reduce the changes of burnout.

More recent literature has suggested the perfectionism should be viewed a multi-dimensional and multi-categorical construct. To learn more about the different types of perfectionists, check out this blog post. To quickly summarize, it is important to look at two underlying dimensions of perfectionism: Perfectionistic Strivings and Perfectionistic Concerns. Perfectionistic Strivings is defined as holding high standards for one’s own work and performance, while perfectionistic strivings looks at the fear of making mistakes and being super self-critical of one’s work and performance.

How is Perfectionism related to Burnout?

There have been a multitude of studies done that have explored how perfectionism is related to burnout. This includes several meta-analyses which is a research method that synthesizes the findings of multiple research studies to determine an “overall effect” of a variable. Overall, the findings are not what people commonly think.

Perfectionistic Strivings is not related to Burnout

When you look at the various meta-analyses and other studies, overall there is either no connection of even a negative connection to various burnout symptoms. What does this mean? Well, one possibility is that holding and aspiring for perfection in your work does not lead to burnout and could even lead to a small reduction in burnout. Given this research, counselors and employees should seriously consider NOT pushing their clients or employees to do a worse job (or lower their standards) as an intervention to reduce burnout. 

Perfectionistic Concerns is what causes Burnout

The story is very different with this other dimension of perfectionism. Perfectionistic Concerns, how fearful one is of making mistakes while being very negative about your performance and work, does show a significant positive relationship to burnout. What this suggests is that employees that have that very self-critical voice in their heads telling them they are not good enough is what is really leading them to burnout. This self-defeating cycle of negative self-talk simply makes someone feel inadequate in their work eventually leading to increasing levels of stress and self-doubt. As this negative loop continues, it simply leads to burnout.

Key Points

There are several key points that are important to keep in mind.

1.     Holding and attaining high standards in your work does NOT necessarily lead to burnout.

2.     That second dimension of perfectionism, the negative critical voice saying you’re not good enough, IS what leads to burnout.

3.     That self-critical voice in your head is manageable.

What to do about it?

This is always the biggest question to ask after you read everything. The biggest piece to consider is what you pay attention to in your life to change. Based on this research, the biggest culprit in workplace burnout is that nagging negative self-critical voice in your head NOT that you want to do perfect work. So take a deep breath and keep up that quality job you do (I know so many will appreciate it as you will).

How do you work on that self-critical voice? Stay tuned for future blog posts on that!

In the meantime, if you want more personalized support for how to better cope with perfectionism or burnout in your life, book your free consult with us. We are here to help.