Science says it's a good thing to be a little selfish at work
Feb 6, 2017, 00:03 IST
If there's one good metaphor for the importance of self-care, it's the emergency instructions given on an airplane: Secure your own oxygen mask before helping anybody else with theirs.The logic behind this directive makes obvious sense - but it's not always so easy to put into practice. Attending to your own needs first - before attending to your family's or your coworkers' - feels selfish, and even shameful. But if recent research is any indication, it's worth sitting with that temporary discomfort. In the long run, giving at the expense of your own health and happiness can hurt your chances of success.In an article for The Harvard Business Review, Wharton professor Adam Grant and Wharton People Analytics researcher Reb Rebele describe a phenomenon they call "generosity burnout," which happens when we take a good thing too far: when we're overly burdened by helping others.The article stems from yet-unpublished research that Grant and Rebele have conducted, which found that selflessness at work can backfire. To illustrate this effect, the authors invite readers to answer a multiple-choice question they posed to hundreds of teachers in the US: Imagine that you're teaching a geometry class, and you've volunteered to stay after school one day a week to help one of your students, Alex, improve his understanding of geometry. He asks if you'll also help his friend Juan, who isn't in your class. What would you do?
- Schedule a separate after-school session to help Juan, so you can better understand his individual needs.
- Invite Juan to sit in on your geometry sessions with Alex.
- Tell Alex that it's nice that he wants to help Juan, but he really needs to focus on his own work in order to catch up.
- Tell Alex that Juan should ask his own teacher for help.