Unhealthy perfectionism: short and long-term consequences

Before we help you to function in a less unhealthy perfectionistic way, it’s important that we inform you why you should change this behaviour.

• Perfectionist behaviour leads to feeling better in the short term (benefits): example 1: You are not so uncertain that others won’t like your work; example 2: You feel better about the quality of your work yourself.
• Perfectionism leads to exhaustion in the long term (disadvantages) by working too hard. Exhaustion occurs because there is no balance beween work and relaxation. Perfectionism thus contributes to the development of a burnout through exhaustion.
• Perfectionism contributes to the dysfunctioning (disadvantages) of the organisation, when you fall sick due to a burnout or when your work is carried out in a more detailed way than required, causing you to do less quantitative work.