In recent times, there is a surge of accounts on Instagram and Facebook committing to posting about hard workers, and how it always guarantees you success. Many times, you will have heard terms such as “Respect the hustle”, “The Grind never stops”. There are also Instagram pages and YouTube channels which will lure impressionable people with titles like, “Stop being lazy, and do xyz to become a millionaire”. The terms Hustle and Grind in this case refers to the idea of constantly working.
What is Hustle Culture?
Hustle Culture is the culture of when you believe that you have to put work above all your personal needs, and you have to keep working hard. This type of lifestyle is heavily intertwined with corporate culture, extreme workaholism, and it implies that overworking yourself is the only way to earn respect. This ideology perpetuates the belief that if you are not being productive 24/7, you are a waste of time, and you do not have the will to be successful. This belief also promotes that working overtime is something that should be doing to consider yourself dedicated. In many workplaces, this mindset is encouraged by praising people who work constantly despite having to be missing their meals, sleep, and other important events in their lives. Multiple popular people are also promoters of hustle culture. One example of this is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk. One well-known quote of his is “There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” This type of culture is pervasive, but it is not as great as everyone says it is because for the most part the people partaking in it are obsessed with striving, always extremely positive, lack humor, and once they get into it, they are not able to escape it.
Whom does it affect?
Hustle culture is mostly seen heavily talked about in circles of corporate culture as people associate CEO’s and corporate heads to be the type of people who would enforce such practices to make sure that their employees are constantly working. This being said, it does not only affect corporate workers, but university students and entrepreneurs are also some of the people affected due to this. Many students who enter university start to associate the idea of productivity with the number of hours they have studied. Some students also stay up all night on purpose to complete various tasks as they believed that more work equals to more efficiency. Such students said they filled in their schedule, and attended various curricular, and extra-curricular activities, so that they have something to show for putting in so much effort in their academic life. Entrepreneurs also end up being victims of the hustle culture mentality many times. Some of them state that they had to maintain a jam-packed work schedule for which they traded their mental health. They claim that not having a proper work-life balance really damaged their mental health. These people started piling themselves with even more work, so as to distract themselves from their psychological issues, and it was also a way for them to cope even if it was unhealthy.
Why is it harmful?
Burnout
Hustling is exhausting and can lead to burnout. Experiencing a burnout causes the employees to gain a pessimistic approach of their work. They will feel unmotivated, and will have low energy which would mean that their ability to work efficiently will go down.
Toxic Competition
Healthy competition is usually inevitable, and also encouraged in such environments, but there is always a limit. Hustling can often turn ugly, and people will develop rivalries with each other to bring themselves up. This will harm the overall productivity of the company.
Actually unproductive
Hustle culture prides itself on being productive, but on the contrary has an opposite effect. In reality, overwork causes people to have unstable mental health and increased anxiety which results in the output of work not being up to the mark because the people doing the work are not in a great condition.
Poor mental health
It is no secret that overwork leads to terrible mental health. Such high stress environments can easily cause mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety among many other illnesses. These illnesses are often very harmful for the well-being of a person.
Might lead to death
A 31-year-old woman who worked as a journalist in Japan overworked herself to death because she was so focused on attention to detail, and was heavily competitive. She passed away because she worked overtime for 159 hours. Other people have also died due to stress caused by overwork.
It is deceptive
Most people who propagate the idea of hustle culture are not hustlers themselves, and they are in fact the people who do not do major work. The people who promote hustle culture tend to be the owners and managers of the company who rely on most of their employees for a large amount of their work.
What to do if you are stuck in this?
Make yourself aware
If you become aware of the fact that you are stuck in the hustle culture, you will be able to bring about change in yourself. You will know that if you feel that you have been working too much, and do not have time for anything else.
Acknowledge important things
It is not always a bad thing to be ambitious, but write down your goals, and what do you want to achieve so that you do not over exert yourself.
Make a timetable
To make sure you do not stay working all day, make a timetable to include all your social activities so that you stay healthy and happy.
Allow your mind to wander
Take micro-breaks throughout your day so that your mind is well-rested. This will also make you feel balanced and reduce your chances of suffering from a burnout.
Keep rewarding yourself
The concept of hustle culture makes you feel that your hard work will eventually pay off, though this is not always the case. To keep yourself motivated, make boundaries in your timetable, and reward yourself with whatever you choose to make sure you do not get burnout.
Do not compromise on rest
Hustle culture makes people believe that rest is a luxury or commodity which must be earned. This is not true, and a person must always take rest so as to remain healthy. Keep a normal sleep schedule, and do not overwork yourself. Take care of your mental and physical health equally.
Takeaway Message
Working hard is actually a good thing and people should definitely be ambitious, but this should not be done at the cause of their physical and mental health. It is important to know that hustle culture may sound rewarding and inspiring, but it is very harmful if you let it consume your whole life.
References
headversity.com
dailystar.net
forbes.com
medium.com
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