Are you punishing performance? When unplugging becomes a risk
Your commitment to excellence begins here
“She’s so committed - she even logged on during her honeymoon.”
This was said with admiration in a boardroom I observed last quarter. People nodded. Someone clapped. It wasn’t meant to be harmful. But the subtext was clear: we reward the always on. We romanticize the self-sacrificing. We admire the indispensable, even if it’s unsustainable.
Here’s the real question no one asks out loud:
Are you - as a leader - accidentally sending the message that rest is risky? And worse - that setting boundaries will cost your best people their brand, influence, or trajectory?
There’s a quiet pattern I’ve seen with many executive teams I work with - something they rarely say out loud but subtly reinforce in action:
The unspoken hero in the room is always the one who never says no.
The one replying to emails at midnight.
The one who never takes the full vacation they’re entitled to.
But here’s the question I’ve been asking leaders lately: are we unintentionally penalizing our best people… for unplugging?
A story from the field
In a recent session, a COO I mentor - let’s call her Anna - shared a moment of hesitation:
“I saw a message on Slack at 10:45 p.m. and hovered over the reply button. I had just finished meditating. I told myself, ‘If I don’t answer now, it might look like I’m less committed.’ And that’s not who I want to be seen as.”
She didn’t reply. But the anxiety lingered.
This is a signal conflict - when an organization’s spoken values (e.g., work-life harmony, trust, autonomy) contradict the rewarded behaviors (constant visibility, hyper-responsiveness, presenteeism).
And what gets rewarded, gets repeated.
The hidden costs of a culture that overvalues presence
According to the 2024 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends, over 67% of executives say well-being is a top priority. Yet only 33% report feeling well themselves.
Even more alarming:
72% of high performers fear that disconnecting may harm their reputation.
Leaders who skip rest are 23% more likely to make poor strategic decisions (Harvard Business Review, 2023).
Companies with cultures that encourage boundary-setting outperform those that don’t by 21% in engagement and retention (McKinsey, 2023).
This isn’t about work-life harmony. This is about trust, sustainability, and the integrity of your leadership culture.
Who are you actually rewarding?
Pause and reflect:
Who got the last promotion on your team?
Who gets informal influence?
Who’s seen as "leadership material"?
If the answer is consistently tied to “going the extra mile,” “being always available,” or “never dropping the ball” - you may be reinforcing dedication = exhaustion.
It’s time to ask: what does commitment look like in your culture?
And is that definition evolving?
