Death By Perfection: Overwork Can Be Addicting When You Burn the Candle At Both Ends
Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008
by J. Louise Larson
http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/
Know how to drive a beaver crazy?
An experiment with the beaver species revealed this: after beavers spent painstaking weeks of building a dam and packing it with mud so it was a perfectly waterproof, all scientists had to do to get the beavers busy again was play the sound of running water. As long as they heard the sound of running water, the beavers continued their God-given mission to stamp out leaks.
So maybe the people who still hear the water, who hold themselves to excruciating standards, need to work in some job where such meticulous attention to detail is in demand, allowed time for, and rewarded.
Or maybe they just need to wear earplugs.
In days of tight budgets and dwindling job counts, employees who demonstrate a capacity to "save the day" get chosen and promoted. These same employers have a capacity to then require you to save the day every day, or every week, or every month. I've seen almost superhuman efforts put forth by employees whose staff and resources have been trimmed out from under them, with very little in the way of thanks, appreciation or reward. And even thanks, appreciation and reward can't compensate when you consistently burn the candle at both ends.
The staffer who goes for death by perfection may have an unwitting accomplice in her boss, delighted by what looks like good ol'-fashioned Puritan work ethic and inadvertently, slowly but surely killing the goose that lays the golden egg paycheck after paycheck-- killing the workhorse.
Still, the overworked among us sit like the proverbial frog experiment in a pan of water, watching them turn up the flame and not noticing things getting warmer and warmer and still sitting in the doggone water.
In the movie Pure Country, George Strait's character Dusty conjured up the image of a "dancing chicken" -- a pet chicken that would hop around on a hot griddle, providing endless sick amusement. He always wondered, Dusty said, why the chicken didn't just walk off?
I once was so busy getting back to work too early after a cesarean delivery out of sheer sense of duty that I didn't notice my new shoes didn't fit. For my lack of attention to myself, I gave me a matching pair of ingrown toenails on both feet at the same time. How's that for oblivious? My body was sending me a message, which I left unopened. Similarly, I have on occasion overworked my way into chronic illness.
Perhaps the beavers among us need noise-masking headphones, perhaps, so they don't always hear the water, and the frogs among us need to trust their inner thermometers.
-- J. Louise Larson http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Louise, Excellent article. Many of us miss the signals that our body is telling us. We keep pushing until we end up totally fatigued. Then people come see me. LOL ThanksJames, thanks for your note. There is such a balance to be achieved en route to "success." I appreciate your input! Best regards, J. Louise Larson
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