Perfectionism

Articles written about job interviews frequently advise us, when answering the question about your weakness, not to tell the employer about a real weakness, but instead, to make up one which may be perceived as a work-based strength. For example, you may say that even when you are at home with your family, you cannot stop thinking about your work, so much so that your wife wants to divorce you. Or you might directly state, “I am a workaholic.” Or, “I am a perfectionist!” I am purposely over-exaggerating with my examples, of course, but you get the idea. However, is it really a good thing to be a perfectionist? Most people would think that it is a good trait to have because a perfectionist strives to improve whatever they are working on. In reality, however, that is not a good situation at all. According to WHO guidelines, perfectionism is a personality disorder. A person with such a disorder suffers from anxiety, often acute, in that whatever they do, it is not done perfectly, and thus, must be constantly redone. You may then be thinking that such a situation, while bad for that person, is good for that person’s employer, but unfortunately, it is bad for both.
It is bad for both because perfectionists can never complete their projects on time. As soon as they do finish a project, their anxiety increases as they feel as if some part of it could be better, and so, to decrease their anxiety, they start making changes to it again. Similarly, their level of anxiety might lead them to simply call in sick rather than be at work and not meet a deadline which, naturally, puts them further behind, increases their anxiety even more, and results in a vicious cycle of non-productivity and lost working hours.* Furthermore, perfectionist may even make changes that actually end up detracting from the project, rather than improving it as for them, it does not truly matter what kind of change happened, only that one is made in order to decrease their anxiety. Those changes create, within a perfectionist’s mind, an illusion that they are advancing the project, when, in fact, they may be delaying it. Therefore, the real reason perfectionists make continual changes to their projects is not solely to improve them, but instead, to decrease their anxiety level, and in that respect, we can all agree that is it is not a good thing to strive to be, or in fact, to be, a perfectionist. 

Good job! No major errors, but I did rewrite a few of your passages, as well as add one, to make your posting sound better to my “native” ears, “flow” better reading-wise, for contrast, and to provide you with a good example(*). I also added a concluding statement since, as originally written, your essay just ended somewhat abruptly. As to the English, pay attention to your subject/verb agreement, and it is okay to use “they” or “them” rather than “he and she” which detracts from easy reading (and writing!). I hope this helps you. J. (…and, after my 31^st draft correction of this, my anxiety has definitely lessened! But wait! I know that one sentence that can be improved upon…(^_*))

Perfectionism

Any changes created in by a perfectionist are an illusion that s/he they are is improving the project, even if s/he  they are destroying it.