SEAHO Report - Summer 2019 - 15

SEAHO Feature Articles
As we gathered for cluster time at RELI and discussed the work that we were doing, the connections they were
making, and where we wanted to go, those two words "Recovering Perfectionist" were introduced to us by their
faculty member, Shylan Scott. When it was said, the room grew silent for a second, heads turned, and all five
folks nodded because one of our nameless professional barriers had just been identified. In naming it, the cluster
could recognize the impacts perfectionism had on us personally, and then begin to visualize what it would look
like to embrace leaving perfection behind.
When your natural default is to strive for perfection, to do outstanding work with minimal flaws, there may
not be a way to fully reset. However, recognizing and owning the lasting effects of this, and finding a group
of supportive colleagues who share the same setting, may challenge you to make small changes that may
soon become long-lasting. It means embracing authenticity and humility to recognize that while you will not
consistently embrace perfectionism, you will still be able to do impactful and meaningful work while embracing
the journey of being a recovering perfectionist.
Perfectionism in the scholarly plane is highly specified and does not often account for the specific experience
of working in higher education. However narrow, the existing scope of research does allow the researcher to
have a look at the origins of perfectionism. Many scholars link perfectionist behaviors to childhood, often first
observed in gifted students. "Gifted students 'compare themselves with their preferred peers, who are often
older, and, consequently, set higher standards for themselves" (Mofield, Peters, Chkraborti-Ghosh, 2016). This
description both matched our shared experiences as entry-level professionals and gave a description to the goal
of perfectionism for employees. We see our model selves in other, higher-level professionals and we strive to
produce work at a standard that is ascribed for professionals in a higher position than our own. Although the
observations of Mofield, Peters, and Chakraborti-Ghosh are specified to the lens of gifted, adolescent students,
an evolved version of the same behaviors shows up in the professional space.
As professionals of residence life and housing, most practitioners are expected to navigate this field with the
expectation of long hours and an unyielding dedication to our students. This consistent dedication is strongly
linked to perfectionism and is titled workaholism by researchers Janet Spence and Ann Robbins (1992). Spence
and Robbins postulated that workaholism is fueled in part by the inner pressures that result from personalities
partial towards perfectionism. The most troublesome result of the expectations of residence life professionals
is the idea that our commitment to our work is directly tied to our ability to advance in our careers, though
entry-level professionals in student affairs are largely underwhelmed by their welcome to the profession and
often lack morale as a result (Belch, Wilson & Dunkel, 2009). Studies of burnout yield stories that, while not
exclusive to work in residence life and housing, do frequently have work requirements that mirror those of
housing jobs like after-hours reporting (Stark, 2015).
Perfectionism in our field has become an ideology of professionalism that we are often coerced to opt in to
as new professionals. The culture of our field and of our individual workplaces lends itself to supporting "a
disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable" (Merriam-Webster 2019). The challenge
remains that we are not naming the toxic practices that keep us locked in a cycle of striving for that which is
unattainable.
So what does a culture of perfectionism look like in Housing and Residence Life? It looks like always being
"on," and not just for the sake of student safety, but rather because we want to be involved in and have control
over every moment that affects our communities. It looks like taking work home, physically and emotionally.
It looks like not taking a break for lunch. It looks like being hypercritical of our shortcomings and eliminating
the projects that don't go well for us instead of revitalizing them and trying again. It looks like the modeled
expectations of our supervisors not matching spoken or agreed-upon expectations. It looks like a roll of the eyes
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SEAHO Report Summer 2019

SEAHO Report - Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Summer 2019