The boss doesn't care whether you make an extra effort

An employee finishing a project early doesn't win any favours with the boss - but missing that deadline altogether could be disastrous.

New research from the US has found leaders are not overly impressed with overachievers, and completing work early doesn't earn employees any extra praise. So is there any point in making an extra effort in the office?

Well, according to a study by Dr Ayelet Gneezy from the University of California at San Diego, and Dr Nicholas Epley from the University of Chicago, the answer is no. You should simply do what you are told to do. 

The researchers looked into the evaluation of promises, and whether people are more affected by keeping promises, exceeding them or breaking them.

Through a set of experiments, the researchers set out to prove that while breaking a promise is perceived negatively, exceeding a promise won't necessarily elicit extra praise for doing something above and beyond what was promised.

"Promises can be hard to keep, and promise makers should spend their effort keeping them wisely," the report stated. "The results of our experiments suggest that it is wise to invest effort in keeping a promise because breaking it can be costly, but it may be unwise to invest additional effort to exceed one’s promises."

In one of four experiments, they tasked participants to solve 40 puzzles - each of which they would receive a monetary reward for once completed. Of these 40 puzzle, the "promise maker" of the pair was told to only help solve 10 of the puzzles.

They found that when the "promise maker" went beyond what was expected and helped solve 15 puzzles, the other person in the pair didn't really value their extra effort, and it was not recognised.

However, when they only helped to solve five puzzles, the "promise maker" was viewed much more negatively as a whole.

"When companies, friends, or coworkers put forth the effort to keep a promise, their effort is likely to be rewarded," the study noted. "But when they expend extra effort in order to exceed those promises, their effort appears likely to be overlooked."

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