As I said, problem-solving has very few downsides, but it does have some, especially when it’s being overused: You don’t necessarily need to problem solve with your colleague to pick out a brand of printer paper to order. Problem-solving can be time consuming and inefficient – some problems just don’t matter that much. Some people get stuck with perfectionism in their decision-making, because they are trying to optimize every decision. Some decisions can be *satisfied* rather than *optimized*. That is, it's necessary to figure out when it’s okay to only give 70% instead of a 110%. You can rely too much on problem solving and waste time on decisions that should be decided more decisively and quickly.

Problem loving can also be problematic if it’s used to ignore people’s feelings about a problem. It can be misused in workplaces as a way to avoid emotionally laden topics: you shouldn’t be upset you should just problem solve your way out of this. True problem solving takes into account the emotional impacts and the emotional needs of the parties involved. If someone in your workplace has told you to problem solve in order to avoid emotions, feel free to tell them they’re doing problem solving wrong.