What is an insecure high-achiever?

Lots of us take pride in our work ethic. It’s a way to prove to bosses, colleagues, and clients that we are willing to go the extra mile to succeed.

Although this can lead to promotions and raises, it can also mean extra hours, heavy workloads, and added stress — particularly if work encroaches on your personal life.

Companies often seek out employees who are enthusiastic and prepared to put in overtime. In some cases, though, firms take advantage of overworked, stressed, and miserable workers, who may underestimate their self-worth and skills. Dubbed “insecure high-achievers,” these employees often fear being “let go” if they don’t push themselves to the limit.

“Insecure high-achiever doesn’t sound like a positive trait employers would include in their job spec — but surprisingly often in professional services like consultancy, banking, and law, it is a personality state that is highly-valued and sought-after,” according to Evelyn Cotter, founder of SEVEN Career Coaching.

Cotter said that being an insecure high-achiever isn’t a personality type, but rather a state of self-worth. Insecure high-achievers never feel like they are “enough,” so they will work longer, give more, and compromise themselves as much as their role and firm requires.

“They will not put their families or loved ones first, if they have any left after years of leaving people down, showing up late, or just ghosting plans because they’re too busy to notice,” she said. “They are married to the job and profit obsessed firms value this over having healthy, rounded human beings as employees who know that balance is necessary to be healthy and happy.

READ MORE: What questions should you ask if you're being interviewed for a job?

“They will put the company’s and client’s needs first every time. They are the friend who just disappeared after university for 10 years, because they were working 90-hour weeks, never took holiday, and when they did take time off, were probably so burnt out, they could but only recover.

“They’re the work addicts, the serious workaholics, who’s lack of self-worth finds it’s home in a ‘doing’ mode where they feel needed, wanted, loved, and valued, but at a huge cost. It’s a type of exploitation that is rampant in the corporate world.”

There is a high cost to being both a high-achiever and insecure, for both employees and companies. Working long hours, taking on too much work, and putting enormous pressure on yourself can lead to burnout, according to a recent Gallup poll, which found that two out of three employees experience chronic stress.

Three-quarters of adults in the UK have felt overwhelmed or unable to cope due to stress over the last year, according to a survey by the Mental Health Foundation. Of those surveyed, 32% said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress and 16% said they had self-harmed.

Last year, a study of more than 1,000 US workers found that many “highly engaged” employees were exhausted and ready to quit.

“I had a career coaching client who found herself being put forward for partner at a world-class international law firm, but was desperately unhappy, and sadly had a serious health condition due to the years of self-hatred and feeling trapped in a vicious cycle of 100-hour weeks, huge financial reward, and professional recognition, but internal loathing and misery,” Cotter said.

“Firms who look for insecure high-achievers and reward this type of behaviour are toxic, targeting vulnerable needy people desperate for external recognition.”

READ MORE: A coffee nap might be the ultimate way to re-energize

In addition, an insecure job market and the fear of losing a job — particularly when workers face high rents, bills, and have families to provide for — can lead to staying in an unsatisfying career or taking on extra work.

“We see a lot of young ambitious bright professionals who are in great jobs from the outside, but feel empty and worthless on the inside, hate their day-to-day life, but cannot find the strength to leave,” Cotter said.

“Recently we spoke to a young professional who left a director role from one of the Big Four [accounting firms], having been fast-tracked from the graduate programme and realised she wasn’t stimulated in the ways she wanted, and the balance she wanted around health and well-being was never going to be possible for her. For a 25-year-old, that is rare and commendable.”

It’s never easy to leave a job, particularly if you are tied down with financial responsibilities. But staying in the wrong position or career can have a seriously detrimental impact on health and wellbeing, as can working long hours, taking on huge amounts of work, and not allowing yourself to “switch off.”

“More people need to understand that success needs to be defined by themselves,” Cotter said. “Maybe status isn’t as important to you as you thought.

“It is each individual’s own work to figure out what personal satisfaction is for you, it’s ok that it’s not what your parents, your friends, your university, our society says it should be.”