The Myths of Perfectionism

Abstract

It has often been an ‘in-joke’ that an interviewer asks a candidate ‘and can you tell me if you have any weaknesses’ and the interviewee states ‘well, only that I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but I’m working on it’. The point being that the interviewee mistakenly thinks that being a perfectionist is a positive trait. Actually, it has a cost to everyone the perfectionist comes into contact with. It’s not a help; it’s a hindrance, a dysfunction and an inhibitor.