Why I hate working with perfectionists
25 Aug
I’ve worked with a lot of people who claimed to perfectionists (I say claim because I don’t actually believe they exist) and I developed an unlikeness felling about working with them. They turn my work days into stressful days and projects into less profitable projects. And no, I don’t believe they end up with perfect projects… here are the reasons.
They are not productive
That button is 1 pixel to the left. I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m perferctionist.
I’ve struggled about writing this post but after reading the book Rework from the guys at 37 signals I was motivated to do it. On chapter 2 there’s a great quote that I just loved.
They claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they are wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.
I can’t agree more, perfectionists waste too much time on things that are simply not worthy! I see designers using rules and grids to find out a button is 1 pixel to the left. I ask myself how many users in the world will see that? Why not use that time to work on stuff the user will care about?
They can’t distinguish between taste and real issues
Change that button to blue. I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m perferctionist.
I like good communication, I’m not saying I’m the best communicator, but I just like good communication and changing the button to blue wont make the design perfect! It will satisfy your taste! I believe people can totally ask for changes because they like it, but that doesn’t mean we are addressing a issue, or it’s a bug fix to end up with a perfect project.
They don’t know how to handle criticism
Why should I change it? It’s perfect!
Go tell a perfectionist he needs to change something on the work he have done. Yes, you will end up having a 1 hour discussion and he will end up hurt, you know why? Because a small change on their work means they didn’t do a perfect work. And how that can be posible if they are perfectionists?
Bottom line
If someone proves to me it’s better to work with perfectionists and how they can create more profitable work I will definitely change my mind and find perfectionists to work with, or even try to become one. Can you become one or are you born this way?
Update: Paul Boag wrote a great post in response to this article: “Calling BS on perfectionism“.
Hi
I am too much of a perfectionist and I think you are right. I want to get rid of that attitude because indeed I am wasting too much time on things that are not important. Valuable time that could’ve been spent on more important things.
Keeping the slogan “It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.” in sight helps.
Greetings
Kenny
You have a great quote in there if I can just tweak it a bit:
Changing something in the design wont make the design perfect, it will satisfy your taste!
This really hit the nail on the head for me. I will be using this from now on with myself and my clients!
The one thing to note is that, like you said, no one is perfect and those trying to achieve it waste the valuable time of themselves as well as others.
are the typos in your post on purpose? now that would’ve been perfect.
Maybe yes or maybe my English is not that perfect. You can find out by reading some other posts in my blog ;).
The word “English” has a capital “E.” I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m perfectionist.
I’m just teasing, but I think there’s something to be said in defense of the “art of perfection.” I see what you’re saying, and certainly there are some perfectionists that take things too far. Of course it is impossible to be truly perfect in your work, but there is a threshold that you must work closely around, in order to maintain the perceived quality of your work.
Just fixed the typo just for you Zach, because I respect your issues as a perfectionist :).
As always is a matter of finding the perfect balance, but in my opinion we have to focus on the user more than in our desires to accomplish something one way.
Well done! Thanks Karl. And I agree wholeheartedly, it is a matter of finding the right balance. I considered making a spelling error just for you, but my inner perferctionist just wouldn’t allow it ;)
The thing about perfectionists is that they cannot distinguish great work from sloppy work. If you tell them it does not have to be absolute perfect they think you asked them to be sloppy and get offended.
They are people of extremes.
Usually, their perfectionism represents nothing but a fixation with their inclination to finding fault. Most likely, they are hard to live with as well – insufferable criticizing and boring creatures.
So, if you are one of them, you got a psychological problem. Frankly I cannot fix it.
If you want us to be ok with you, just remember that less than perfect is not sloppy, it’s just being awesome.
Wow Florin, and I thought I had some traumas from working with perfectionists but I think that I found some with more bad experiences :).
All is relative. We all are perfectionnists for somebody. Or the contrary.
The point is to choose the right graduation. Many times, people that just can’t do quality work, think other are too perfectionnist. And in fact all is dependant of the context.
I agree 100% with you Nicolas, it can be relative, but my real problem is with those who claim to be perfectionists…
He, he, here’s one just above us: Nicolas.
With this guy, you cannot pin down even a mere definition of a word. Dude, go get a shower.
This is why I love Django’s moto: The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.
I’ll have to check that out! Can you recommend a post or some material that I could have a good overview of Django?
did not bother to read your whole article because i’ve seen many of this lately. it seems to be a trend.
stop hiding behind the idea that a perfectionist wastes your time. it’s called attention to details. if that button has got to be blue because the standard in your company is that, then people like you will use this theme as an excuse to do a crappy job.
you’re not supposed to hate them, because, truth be told, they hate you slacking on the job, too. they just don’t mention it.
wanting to mention to them that some features are not critical for the client and others have higher priority… that’s another thing. you seem far from constructive criticism.
I’m sorry belun, don’t take it personal, read the whole post, it may change your mind.
I tried to be very careful with my words but it seems that I wasn’t sufficiently clear, I hate working with perfectionists, I don’t hate them! Not at all! I have friends who claim to be perfectionists and that small disagrement didn’t end our friendship.
About the blue button, if it’s part of the corporate colors we have to change it because it’s an issue, I’m talking about stuff that aren’t important. But still, if I had something more useful for the user to develop I would do that before changing that button to blue.
Do you see what I mean? If you ask these people to be a tiny bit less obsessive, they think you ask them to do a trashy job. I believe they have a mental issue. Take belum, he believes Karl stands for sub-par expectations.
I give my team objectives, expectations and a time frame. I might lose a contract, a customer might get angry if I let myself swayed by the the perfectionist type. If this type needs to to express his obsession, it’s not on my dime.
My business and my life is bigger than his pixels. My customer are always happy to discover I take care of them.
My sister was obsessed that everything in her home, family and life would be perfect. Her work place (dental office) was immaculate. She ended up with cancer at 42 on the background of stress.
We’re not talking here about people who want to excel and do great work. We’re talking about obsessive perfectionists.
You know them by their criticizing spirit. They are unable to settle with best. Stay away from them.
Comments too long, did not read but…
Those people the post is talking about are not perfectionnists ! They are just dumbass egocentrists.
Being perfectionnist means wanting something the closest to perfect it can be, not perfect, nor thinking it could ever be.
That being said, I consider myself being one of them, and I do work like this, but my work is productive, because I can listen what other people think, explain my opinion and find a compromise whenever it is needed.
The result of this is that I rarely have to come back on my work to improve it (being an IT engineer makes this really important). That is because I (at least tried to) find the best way to do things.
So thing might go a bit slower at the beginning, but then it saves a lot of time :)
People who work with me tend to appreciate this, as I do myself.
But hey, nevermind, keep your work sloppy, don’t try to improve yourself by working with people “doing it right”.
I’m syre you’ll understand what I am saying since you are not one of those crazy perfectionnists, thus you can handle criticism right ?
Doing things right doesn’t mean you are a perfectionist. What I’m trying to say is that usually perfectionists want things their way, which is ok depending on their position on the project, but the problem is when they say they want that way because they are perfectionists… that’s where I really can’t agree with them.
And again, when I say wasting time I’m talking about time used to develop or fix stuff that aren’t crucial for the project, at least not on that specific time.
Without taking sides, I believe my answer to this ‘problem’, if you can call it that, is to have a ‘keen eye for detail’ as you work through a project, for example, no one needs to moan about pixel misalignment if you calculated widths properly in the first place, or planned the production and colours etc, of the site before the project begins.
Complete opinion, but that’s my take on it.
My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!
Good to be going to, it has been months a couple of. Well an additional article which will function out simply fine. I necessity anything prefer it something I am hitting on, and mine has a similar matter as yours. I am relieved which I located it, excellent give.
Whole Control Advertising Review- Wonderful piece of particulars that you?ve acquired on this internet site write-up. Hope I could maybe get some a lot extra in the things on your own web internet site. I’ll arrive once more.
Nobody likes working with perfection anymore especially web developers haha. It’s why the world is falling apart. Perfectionists should be in charge, the rest of us should be their assistants. We benefit tremendously from their perfectionist ways. I work with perfectionists, I am NOT a perfectionist, but I absolutely love my work after it is touched by one. Profit? Look at Apple. Oh man, Steve was a perfectionist. Boeing? I bet there are some perfectionists there. Although I suppose that when you are sitting around in an office with the word “Bonzzay” on the door, shooting rubber bands at each other, then yes. Perfectionists are not welcome. They make you do real work and keep you up past your bedtime. :)
Javitzo, I don’t think the world is falling apart because of the lack of “perfectionists”, it’s because people don’t want to their jobs, sometimes their job is to satisfy the needs of a perfectionist, sometimes it’s to satisfy the needs of the user.
I don’t know if Steve Jobs claimed to be perfectionist, I know that he’s a genius and showed the world how much a good UX is worth. If you work for Apple you’ll have unlimited resources to achieve that, that’s not the case for most of the projects around the world. In the normal world you have to prioritize and think about the user, not the “perfectionist”.
Computers are perfectionists.