What You Can Do to Break Away From It.
When the constant grind becomes over-glorified, it can be tough to slip out of the rat race .
Many of us ( if you're not retire yet) have had those days when our “9-to-5” feels more like “rise then grind until we get the job done." For some of us, it isn’t just a day here and there but a constant hustle, logging over 40 hours a week to be seen as a "productive employee / executive."
Whichever your rhythm, there are countless ways we're being encouraged to keep it going. Many business moguls and celeb-preneurs would applaud you on for all those days of grit and sacrifice; some CEOs would reward that dedication with a raise or a promotion; and there are countless memes on Instagram to keep you “motivated” when things get tough.
After all as a very rich man (Elon Musk) once famously tweeted, “Nobody ever changed the world in 40 hours a week.”
In some circles it appears that always going the extra mile in your career — and even in other aspects of your life — is celebrated as walking a heroic path despite the drastic negative effects overworking can have on mental, physical and emotional health.
This is all a part of what experts call “hustle culture” and it’s so normalized that it can be tough to identify when you’re in it, and sometimes even tougher to break away.
What is hustle culture?
Fundamentally, hustle culture is about work dominating your time in such an unnatural way that we have no time to live our lives. 4-Work Day Week. Meaning: It’s a lifestyle where career has become such a priority in your life or the environment that you work in that other aspects of being human — such as hobbies, family-time and self-care — often take a back seat.
Today, this is very common since work seems to be taking up more and more people’s time across the globe. According to a 2021 survey published by the ADP Research Institute, 1 in 10 employees surveyed across 17 countries have said that they’ve been putting in more than 20 hours of free work per week, while workers on average are logging 9.2 hours of unpaid overtime weekly, compared to 7.3 hours in 2020. While many are putting in extra time at their full-time corporate jobs, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) claim that the increase of overworking is also likely due to the rise of the gig economy and teleworking with the boundaries between work and personal life being increasingly blurred.
Now, people log in long hours and take on side hustles for many reasons — one, unfortunately, is that many of us (particularly women) have to work more to earn the same amount of money as our grandparents.
But, what’s distinct about hustle culture is how taking on extra labor is viewed.
Hustle culture carries this overarching belief that the more you do, the more valuable you are. In other words, proponents of hustle culture will tell you that "busier always equals better,” and that constant busyness will always lead to more money, prestige, happiness and high self-esteem.
How can hustle culture show up at work and in everyday life?
In certain work spaces overworking is expected, applauded and sometimes incentivized with promotions or raises. The pressure can be so intense that experts have even found that many people will say that they’ve worked more hours than they actually logged to appear to be “the ideal employee” — which defines as being “fully devoted to and available for the job, with no personal responsibilities or interests that interfere with this commitment to work.”
For example, it is discovered at one global strategy consulting firm that some employees pretended to work 80 hours a week to be lauded as “stars” and “superheroes” by management. Meanwhile, men who openly asked to pull back from the heavy workloads were denied promotions and marginalized among their peers.
While hustle culture glorifies overworking as a badge of honor, it often sets up an environment of fear, guilt and shame, especially when you don’t feel like running at the same pace as everyone around you.
You become an outsider, so to speak. “You're not being a team player, or you're not caring — like everyone's doing more, so you should do more.”
As a result, as an employee you may…
•Feel obligated to say “yes” to taking on all the tasks, being on all the committees, and attending all of the meetings (even the ones that don’t really matter to your role) to avoid being judged or losing your job
•Feel hesitant to use sick or personal days or even take a full hour for lunch
•Answer calls, emails, and Slacks after hours or on weekends
•Force positivity and push yourself beyond your boundaries (i.e. to quote a meme: “Turn down your feelings and turn up your hustle.”)
It’s important to understand that this hustle mindset isn’t just isolated to corporate. For example, one can often sees it with many female entrepreneurs too.
Since women have historically been underestimated and have been told since they were born that they’re less valuable, we think we need to be spending most of our lives proving to others how much we can do [at work, at home, and in our extracurriculars] to show that we are lovable, important, and deserve to take up space on the planet, which, of course, is not true.
And yet, on TV we are constantly being fed celebratory stories of people who sacrifice parts of their lives to do a lot of things, she adds. Take the super mom archetype, for example, who can somehow cook, clean, raise the perfect family, train for the upcoming marathon, and manage a successful business without breaking much of a sweat. (Or so it seems.)
Social media can amplify this aspect of hustle culture since it encourages us to compare our lives to the seeming “perfection” of the lives of others.
It can make you feeling like ‘Maybe this life I'm creating isn’t enough because everyone else has so much going on.’”
You have also observed that, subconsciously, many people hustle, not just to keep up with the Jones’, but to avoid addressing difficult emotions or issues in their personal lives.
Sometimes the busyness keeps the thoughts away, or it becomes a way of avoiding the conflicts at home. But you're still going to have to deal with it, whatever it is, so is it worth it?
How can hustle culture affect our health?
One of the biggest fallouts of hustle culture is the burnout that comes with it.
Burnout is when you get to that mental and emotional exhaustion where it just feels like you can't add anything else to the plate and maybe don't have the motivation in the way that you did before.
With burnout you may:
•Take longer to do tasks
•Procrastinate or avoid work altogether
•Make more mistakes when doing tasks
•Lose interest in parts of your job you used to really enjoy
•Feel more anxious or depressed
•Feel less able to listen to or care for others
But sometimes people go on autopilot and don't even realize that they are burnt out. They just keep going.
Constantly staying busy can also have grave effects on your body as well. Studies have shown that working long hours can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and even stroke.
So many of our health problems are because of the way we approach work and the levels of stress in the office.
How to break away from hustle culture:
Since hustle culture is very much embedded in many offices, entrepreneur spaces, and even some family environments, it can be really challenging to slow down and create new habits for yourself. But thankfully, it is possible to set a new rhythm for yourself, even if it's just small changes here and there.
Suggestions that may point you in the right direction:
•Keep track of your energy levels. Since hustle culture is so normalized, sometimes we don’t even know when our life is out of balance; it encourages us to judge our days based upon how much we’ve done rather than how we truly feel. To get out of that headspace and become more in tune with your inner compass, she suggests journaling for at least three minutes at the end of the day. Reflect on how you felt mentally, physically, and emotionally. Jot down what went well that day, what didn’t go so hot, and what you learned from it all. After a week, notice if you see any patterns. “If I have several days in a row where the same [issue] keeps coming up, I know that I need to reallocate my time and energy,” .
•Schedule your rest days and hobby time. If you’re used to being constantly busy and you aren’t intentional about blocking out some space for self-care, you’re to-do list will continue to consume your time, admits that you also tends to have a lot on her plate. Read a non-work related book. Hang out with friends and family. Learn how to play the ukelele. Having some quiet time can also help you tap into your intuition and get clearer on what’s important to you, rather than just answering to everyone else’s needs or expectations.
•Look at which tasks you like doing and actually make the biggest impact in your life. This can help you narrow down on what really makes a difference at your job or with your business. “I really recommend doing an 80/20 analysis,”. “Take some time to ask yourself, ‘What 20% of my actions give 80% of my results?’ Once you know that, you can focus on giving 110% on those important things and then give less energy to the other tasks.” If, for example, you’re a social media manager growing your company’s follower count, and you find that the audience really engages with the video content (which you love making,) but doesn’t vibe with the infographics (which are important but feel like more of a time-suck for you), you may want to share that with your boss. Your boss may then agree to let you dial back on the tasks that are weighing you down and perhaps delegate to another person who prefers those tasks, allowing you and your team to be more efficient.
•Get clear on your boundaries. If you feel secure enough to do so, share your boundaries around work with your boss and your co-workers. For example, make it clear when you are available to answer emails or tell them that it's important for you to take breaks throughout the day. Setting the tone early can let your colleagues and managers know what to expect from you and minimize conflict.
•Define what “success” looks like to you. “What does success look like for you in your career, family life, and in other areas of your life?”. Basing your ideal lifestyle on what is truly aligned for you (rather than what you see on social media) may help to take the pressure off.
In the end, life can be so much more than just about work despite what hustle culture has to say. While hard work can certainly reap benefits, we can still make more room to appreciate the little things that have us feeling fulfilled. “I wish we could celebrate the more quiet moments in life,” . “That at the end of our day we can say ‘Wow I went to sleep today,’ or ‘I was really present with the people I love.’ That that was actually the good stuff. And maybe none of the rest of it was as important as I thought.”
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