Does perfectionism help or harm a career?

It depends a lot on the chosen career. There is a conjunctural balance between effort and benefits.

We have some examples:

1) If you work in the financial / accounting department, then perfectionism is a quality, the numbers must be accurate.

2) If you work in the field of services, not everything has to be perfect, but there is a minimum of quality that must be achieved. That quality is your business card.

Q2: To what extent should people pursue perfection in their workplace and career?

To the extent that the job or service task requires it:

1) If a problem arises and the solution must be studied in detail in order not to repeat that problem, the emphasis must be on perfection.

2) If a problem arises, and the goal is to solve it without the need for a thorough investigation, then “perfection” should be pursued only to “good enough”

Example: In IT, if a productive server is going down, a thorough investigation is required to prevent the problem from recurring. If a test server is going down, detailed investigation is required only when the same event is repeated, and is not a “known issue”.

Q3: When is an acceptable goal “good enough”?