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Hustle culture, also known as burnout culture and grind culture, in today’s standard, is a competitive lifestyle that makes a person work for almost 24/7 inside or outside an office, at home, or basically anywhere just to achieve some type of goal.
True enough, the term “hustle” is admirable as it correlates to success where if you keep your head in the game by working non-stop, you will eventually get to where you want to be. Even Elon Musk, one of the richest people on earth, vouch for this kind of culture.
But too much of anything is considered to be bad.
Sacrificing almost everything
This hustle culture encourages a person to work lengthily, which creates an imbalance in one’s life— prioritizing work over anything else. Nowadays, it is considered a flex if you do not have any days off. Working and having a lot of side hustles would require sacrificing lots of sleep, free weekends, and even eating meals on time.
More breakdowns than breakthroughs
The mentality required in hustle culture is that a person must work all day to achieve their goals. Working for long hours and making yourself as busy as you can can be exhausting and can lead to burnout. This causes a person to feel drained to the point that they lack energy to get things done. The endpoint here is that hustle culture is killing the greatness in you.
Toxic positivity
Social media plays a huge role in this culture. In the time of global pandemic, most people are on their phones— following, reading, and watching different influencers flex their far-fetched lives. Such contents like, “If you are not doing something productive with this lockdown like grinding or improving yourself, then you are nothing but lazy” is not inspirational nor motivating at all. It makes people feel guilty for using their time and energy the way they want. It makes them feel guilty for not following the trend.
Toxic positivity, along with the advertised hustle culture does not serve anyone but capitalism. After all, getting more sleep and taking a well-deserved break is more important than doing side hustles and being in the business non-stop.
Work smart rather than hard
Not all tasks demand a huge amount of strength like pulling an all-nighter just to get a task done. Instead of pushing yourself to exhaustion, try finding ways that will not drain you while achieving the same desired result. Working smart does not always mean that you do not have to work hard. Just imagine accomplishing a specific task within three hours instead of five?
To sum it all up, hustle culture can either make you or break you. It is definitely hard to take a break once you are done with a specific task, there is an adrenaline rush in your system that pushes you to do more. It is never easy to get away with the thoughts of not doing enough, especially as what social media advertised to be the way to success.
Related Reads:
Creating an Ergonomic Workspace at Home
Dealing With Work From Home Burnout
The Verafede Journey: From Designs to Experiences
Trishia Serrano
Trishia Serrano is a senior studying Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Major in Financial Management at Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Manila. She is a finance intern at Verafede Inc. She enjoys alone time staring at the sunset, she is into poetry and music, and she loves to read anything that could help my personal and career growth.