If you want to succeed in your career, you’re often told to give 110%. But does it really pay off?
This Redditor had been a loyal worker at his company, overperforming every single day for the past two years. One day, though, he was feeling a bit off and fell slightly short—by just one task. Not a big deal at all, right, considering everything he had done?
Wrong. That tiny slip landed him in serious trouble. And now, he’s made up his mind: no more going the extra mile.
Read the full story below.
The man spent every single day overperforming at his company for two years
Image credits: BGStock72 / envato (not the actual photo)
But the moment he slipped by just one task and got punished, he decided he was done
Image credits: DC_Studio / envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Scary_Expert1929
Giving your all at work doesn’t always get you ahead
Image credits: khwanchai14 / envato (not the actual photo)
As a society, we’ve started to move away from the old “grind until you drop” mindset.
There’s more encouragement for work-life balance, more conversations about preventing burnout, even company-covered therapy sessions and wellness budgets (if you’re lucky). But despite the progress, many people still feel pressured to push themselves to 100, 110, even 120 percent every single day.
Does it actually help? Not really. These days, many sports coaches and business leaders believe the secret to doing your best work isn’t pushing at full speed, it’s learning to pace yourself, as reported by Rachel Feintzeig in The Wall Street Journal. Constant overexertion, they say, can actually hurt your performance.
“There’s science behind it. A lot of this actually comes from athletics. This idea that when you tell people—athletes—to run at 100%, they actually run slower than if you tell them, ‘take it down, just a touch,’” Rachel Feintzeig told CBS News.
The approach works outside of sports too. Pushing for perfection eventually drains you. Instead, Feintzeig suggests aiming for about 85% effort: “Dial it back a little, aim for 85%. Again, this isn’t about totally slacking or phoning it in; it’s about going just a little bit less hard.”
At first, it might sound counterintuitive. How are you supposed to stand out without giving it your all? Isn’t loyalty supposed to pay off?
Well, consider this study by 4 Day Week Global. Researchers didn’t exactly set out to test how effort affects productivity, but they did look at what happens when employees switch to a four-day workweek, still working eight hours a day, while keeping their full salaries.
Unsurprisingly, across trials at more than 200 companies, workers reported better mental and physical health, higher life satisfaction, lower stress and burnout, and less conflict between work and home life.
Surprisingly, most business leaders loved the results too. They saw improvements in retention, easier recruitment, less sick leave, and even revenue gains. After a six-month pilot, companies gave the program an average rating of 9 out of 10.
Of course, not every workplace can or will offer a four-day week. Even without a dramatic change, though, you can still experiment with how you approach your workload. Try focusing your full energy where it actually matters, and ease up on the things that don’t.
It might not seem like much at first. But it could help protect you from burnout, resentment, and disappointment. And if you ever find yourself in a situation like the worker in this story, you’ll know: no job is worth running yourself into the ground for.
Instead, you’ll still have energy left for what really matters—time with your friends, your family, and yourself. And that’s something no job can replace.
Readers were shocked by how the man was treated and shared how they learned loyalty doesn’t always pay off
