Written By: Danielle Chua
Published: July 19, 2022
If there is just a brief statement describing such a matter, it would be “work harder (100x) so we can be more” — oh, the typical workaholic’s statement. Hustle culture is all about taking much priority of work and often discarding the importance of life outside it.
At some point in our lives, it is certain that all of us have been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. To be a doctor, accountant, journalist, engineer, and whatnot — name it. We answer different careers; we also work hard in so many different ways possible. Who does not want to be more than who we are right now, anyway?
This all roots to the hustle we have been doing all along. But is the hustle culture worth the hype? Let us see.
If there is just a brief statement describing such a matter, it would be “work harder (100x) so we can be more” — oh, the typical workaholic’s statement. Hustle culture is all about taking much priority of work and often discarding the importance of life outside it. To support this, Adele Jackson-Gibson states in her article entitled ‘How to Identify Hustle Culture and What Can You Do to Break Away From It’ (2021) that this culture has personal lives (family, hobbies, and other social activities) behind the priority due to overworking.
It may look like overtime work, constant bragging upon being the “no-rest” person, lack of proper sleep, distorted belief of productivity, inability to eat efficiently, and so forth. Lorelie (2021) once articulated that hustle culture is “easy to believe that working a lot equates to high productivity, but it is not productive at all.”
Take note that we are not, in any way, going against those who really work hard for necessary survival and socioeconomic status improvements. It needs to be understood that there is a huge difference between working to improve ourselves and working to make ourselves as a sacrificial slave. What hustle culture means is that work has become the main center of our lives — making only minimal space for rest and productivity.
Due to the ever growing demands of both global and local aspects, the tough pill we had to swallow is that this toxic culture continues to be celebrated. This is primarily due to the fact that it is now viewed as “the busier, the better” mantra which dishearteningly distorts the essence of quality work and favorable impacts. It can be seen through promotions, constant productivity praises, and over glorification from people.
I. Mental and emotional health impacts
The more we unreasonably take into consideration the concept of hustle culture, the more our mindset gets fixed with hustling all the time; we tend to forget that we are mere humans with limitations. Working 24/7 or all the time possibly leads to our inability to properly take care of both our emotional and mental health. One concrete example is the sudden feeling of guilt whenever we give ourselves some break from work — constructing that we are not worthy human beings without such hustle.
It is highly frightening that hustle culture roots to our inability to savor life moments and feel positive emotions when we are not in front of our responsibilities. This is where we commonly experience contradictions in certain situations that we are expected to feel satisfied; instead, we feel blameworthy. According to Kendra Cherry of Verywell Mind, cognitive dissonance is a mental displeasure due to one’s contradicting behaviors.
II. Physical health impacts
In line with the study estimates conducted by World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization (2021), prolonged working time went straight to approximately 745,000 deaths (stroke and heart disease). If this would no longer make us feel alarmed, then we do not know what would. Hustle culture has been around for making individuals suffer from sickness and even worse — death. This is mainly because its toxic glorification of overworking is gradually becoming a ‘normal’ mindset in order for us to survive and provide our basic needs.
But the painful thing is: it already poses a notable threat and inability to listen to what our body needs — sleep, screen exposure break, hydration, exercise, and more. What makes it even more aggravating is that hustle culture becomes a ladder for harmful risks like “high blood pressure, excessive alcohol use, atrial fibrillation, cardiovascular disease, and depression” (Boynton, 2020).
III. Social health impacts
In line with Brady (2020), the sudden burst of good hormones makes us feel temporarily deserving after a long duration of work. Alarmingly, hustle culture leaves no space for the satisfaction we get from social interactions only because we already get it from overworking. It obviously weakens our work-life balance and even cuts off our quality time with friends, family, and loved ones. Such unhealthy attachment with work complicates how we interact and nourish our interpersonal relationships around us. What we have to take note is that it is valid to say ‘no’ to social gatherings due to prior work commitments; doing it and sacrificing our social life all the time is a big no.
Let us admit it: we all want to be successful. BUT what matters most is how we work better and more efficiently for ourselves. Forget the hustle culture and its unhealthy bustle; it is a genuine matter of balancing important aspects of life namely work and health.
References
Boynton, E. (2020, August 5). What is Hustle Culture and How Does it Impact Your Health? Right as Rain by UW Medicine. https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/work/hustle-culture
Brady, K. (2020, February 25). The Downside of Hustle Culture. Shondaland. https://www.shondaland.com/live/money/a31050746/downside-of-hustle-culture/
Cherry, K. (2022, February 8). Cognitive Dissonance and Ways to Resolve It. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-dissonance-2795012
Lorelie, C. (2021, December 24). Hustle Culture: Why Is Everyone Working Too Hard? - The Post-Grad Survival Guide. Medium. https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/hustle-culture-why-is-everyone-working-too-hard-69f9f5331ab5
Jackson-Gibson, A. (2021, December 13). How to Identify Hustle Culture and What You Can Do to Break Away From It. Good Housekeeping. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/a38416524/hustle-culture/
WHO Joint News Release. (2021, May 17). Long working hours increasing deaths from heart disease and stroke: WHO, ILO. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/17-05-2021-long-working-hours-increasing-deaths-from-heart-disease-and-stroke-who-ilo