All work and no play could hamper job success
By Penelope Trunk, Globe Correspondent, 12/25/05
For best results in the workplace, take some time away
Don't be the hardest worker. You shouldn't look lazy, but if you work the most hours, you risk looking the most desperate. After all, why do you need to work so much harder than the next person? Are you not as smart? Not as organized? Not as confident in your ability to navigate a nonwork world? In many cases all three are true for those who work the hardest.
The fact that the hardest worker is not necessarily the most successful rears its head before work even starts: A study conducted by Alan B. Krueger, professor of economics at Princeton University, shows that when it comes to workplace success, it doesn't matter if you get into an Ivy League school; rather, it matters that you apply.
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In this case, ambition and self-image, not necessarily the best grades or test scores, are what counts.
Nonstop work offers diminishing returns after graduation as well. Marita Barth is a student at MIT in biological engineering. She is at the top of her field, yet makes time to play ice hockey and volunteers to distribute gifts to children for Christmas. When she talks about taking breaks from her lab, Barth says, "I could not maintain focus and energy if I worked nonstop. I would completely lose perspective."
Don't tell yourself you work nonstop because you love your work: If you really loved your work, you'd take a break so you don't mess it up. People who work longer than the typical eight hours a day start to lose their effectiveness quickly.
"If you work all the time, you lose your edge," warns Diane Fassel, the chief executive of workplace survey firm Newmeasures and author of "Working Ourselves to Death." "Often these people are perfectionists, controlling, and not good team players. The hardest workers are "not the best producers in terms of efficiency and creativity."
Ironically, moments that elevate your level of success at work often require time away from work. For example, a grand idea that affects your company's bottom line probably won't come to you when your brain is entrenched in workplace minutia.
Anyone can work the hardest, but only special people can sit on a rock and come up with a brilliant idea. In fact, even daily trouble-shooting requires some mental space. "It takes a lot of thought to see what's going wrong and make another plan," Barth said. "And at some point, if I spend too much time in the lab without a break, I'm not efficient."
If you can't stop working, you might be in for some bad news: Workaholism. "For many people, workaholism is about perfectionism or avoidance," says Kevin Kulic, professor of psychology at New York's Mercy College.
The hardest workers have actually lost the self-confidence to stop working. They are either terrified of making a mistake or a misstep, or they are terrified of the world beyond work - for example crumbling personal relationships.
Kulic cites the Yerkes-Dodson law that says too much or too little stimulation is bad. We need a happy medium in order to perform best. And Fassel cites worker surveys that support this law - the happiest workers have a workload that falls in between very heavy and very light.
This rule for working less applies to a job hunt, too. "The amount of time you work beyond five hours a day has no impact on your ability to land a job," says David Perry, managing partner of the recruiting firm Perry-Martel International and coauthor of "Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters."
Perry says a job hunt is like training for the 50-yard dash: "Everything is aimed at getting the interview. And you need to be mentally prepared."
Perry is adamant the best jobs do not go to the smartest person or hardest worker but to the person who best reads his or her situation. So forget being the hardest worker because you need to be "bright eyed and bushy tailed." Get out from behind that computer each day, he says and "enjoy the rest of your life."
Penelope Trunk can be reached at penelope@penelopetrunk.com
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