Very often more reasonable better to leave than to be a hero.
For example, let’s say you think the work you’re about to do will take two hours. However, four hours later, you’re only a quarter of the way through. Your natural instinct tells you, “I can’t give up; I’ve already spent four hours on this!”
In other words, you switch into hero mode. You’ve decided to get the job done. You even kind of enjoy that the work is still unfinished. You clench your fists and shut yourself off from the outside world.
And sometimes, this approach leads to work overload. But is it worth it? Probably not. The task was worth spending two hours on, not sixteen. In those sixteen hours, you could have accomplished many other useful things. Moreover, you cut yourself off from feedback, which could have taken you even further down the wrong path. Even heroes sometimes need someone to take a fresh look at what’s happening — an outside observer can provide a realistic assessment of what they are doing.
I have also experienced similar issues. At that time, I decided that if something takes much longer than I planned, I would reach out to others to take a look at the problem. They don’t even need to get involved in solving it, but at the very least, they can take a look and offer their two cents. Sometimes the obvious solution is right in front of you, but you just can’t see it on your own.
Remember that such an obvious solution is likely to be leaving this job. People automatically associate quitting with failure, but sometimes itexactlyIt’s worth doing. If you’ve already spent too much time on something that wasn’t worth it, just set it aside. You can’t get that time back anyway. The worst thing you can do is waste even more time on it.