SCRIPT CHECK · 60 SECONDS
Five quick questions show how often it appears, how believable it feels, and what it makes you avoid. You’ll get one private next step.
This is not a diagnosis and there is no pass or fail. It measures the current frequency, credibility, and behavioral cost of “The company could disappear tomorrow so I have to squeeze every advantage now”, including the private rule underneath it: If I work hard enough and stay useful enough, the decision to keep me stops feeling arbitrary and becomes justified retroactively. Overwork is how I earn the outcome backward.
QUIET
“The company could disappear tomorrow so I have to squeeze every advantage now” appears, but it rarely gets the final say. Keep this line available for higher-pressure moments: “Overworking doesn't justify anything—it just delays the burnout that arrives in about 18 months.”
PRESENT
“The company could disappear tomorrow so I have to squeeze every advantage now” wins some small decisions before you catch it. Your useful interruption is: “Staying productive at all costs isn't processing what happened; it's avoiding it.”
ACTIVE
“The company could disappear tomorrow so I have to squeeze every advantage now” is shaping action often enough to deserve a deliberate counterexample. Start privately and concretely: For one workday, log each task and mark whether you chose it or assigned it to yourself for protection. Review the ratio at day's end without judgment.
DOMINANT
Right now, “The company could disappear tomorrow so I have to squeeze every advantage now” is steering many of the moments you measured. That is a pattern reading, not a diagnosis or character verdict. Begin with one reversible receipt: For one workday, log each task and mark whether you chose it or assigned it to yourself for protection. Review the ratio at day's end without judgment.