Types / Personality facets / Hard work

A facet inside Conscientiousness

Hard work

How strongly you push yourself to work hard and do more than expected.

What this facet measures

A squared woodpile stands beside a shed, with an axe in the chopping block and several uncut rounds on the ground.

Your usual effort, including whether you work beyond what is required. A lower score means you generally do what is needed without adding extra effort.

The two ends

This is one scale with two ends, not two camps. Most people land somewhere between them, and neither end is better. The labels describe different ways of answering the statements.

Does what’s needed

People toward this end usually aim to complete the assigned part of a job without adding extra hours or polish. This can preserve time for rest, family, or other priorities. It can also leave ambitious projects less developed when the first workable result is enough to move on.

Goes the extra mile

People toward this end often put additional energy into a task, refining details, solving one more problem, or helping after their own part is complete. This can raise the quality of shared work. The same drive can consume evenings and make a reasonable stopping point feel like unfinished business.

See where all 30 land

Answer 120 short statements for a reading across all 30 facets, with each scale explained in plain English.

Questions

Is a low score a bad score?

No. Each end comes with something that helps and something that gets in the way. Some scale names sound like faults in everyday English, but an end label describes what the statements asked about, not a grade.

What if this part disagrees with its trait?

It happens often, and it’s the reason these 30 facets exist. A broad score is an average of six parts, so one part can point the other way. Nothing is wrong when a facet and its broad trait don’t match perfectly.

Who is this score compared with?

A score is compared with 320,128 U.S. adults who answered the original statements online during the roughly 12 years before 2014. Their published average and spread provide a typical range for the facet, showing how the score compares with that group.