7

Chump Change

Overcoming the Doormat Effect

No good deed goes unpunished.

—attributed to Clare Boothe Luce, editor, playwright, and U.S. congresswoman

Lillian Bauer was a brilliant, hardworking manager at an elite consulting firm. She was recruited out
of Harvard, and after leaving the firm to complete her MBA, her consulting firm lured her back. She
was widely seen as a rising star, and she was on track to make partner far ahead of schedule, until
word began to spread that she was too generous. Her promotion to partner was delayed for six
months, and she received very direct feedback that she needed to say no more often to clients and
colleagues. After a full year, she still had not made it.
Bauer was passionate about making a difference. She devoted several years to a nonprofit
organization helping women launch and grow businesses. There, she introduced a microloan program,
opening doors for low-income women to start their own companies. In one case, a woman needed a
loan to open a salon, but was turned down by two banks. Bauer worked with her to strengthen her
business plan and financial statements, and both banks ended up offering her loans at highly
competitive rates. As a consultant, Bauer spent countless hours mentoring new employees, giving
career advice to associates, and even helping junior colleagues strengthen their applications to
business school. “I really want to help. If an hour of my time saves people ten hours or gives them an
opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have, it’s easy to make the tradeoff and give another hour of my
time.”
Bauer was extremely talented and driven, but she took giving so far that it was compromising her
reputation and her productivity. “She never said no to anything,” explained one consulting colleague.
“She was so generous and giving with her time that she fell into the trap of being more of a pushover.
It really delayed her promotion to partner.” In a performance review, Bauer was told that she needed