The Toxicity of Hustle Culture

Repeller

It’s that time of the year when posts about how if this year didn’t bring out the “hustle” in you then you aren’t made for success. It is also time we address the toxicity behind modern hustle culture, capitalism, and the grind in relation to mental health. Before anything, purely making it through 2020 is something to be proud of. This year has been incredibly emotionally taxing for everyone. Whether that be due to the stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, election tension, racial trauma, unemployment, or even just trying to stay sane while seeing the world fall apart in front of you, simply making it through in one piece is enough. As most of the world has turned to work online and from home, it is not difficult to get sucked into constantly working, most of the time it’s even unconscious. It’s easy to get into the habit of endless workdays and late nights in front of the computer when for one, there’s no real routine, office sign in or commute when you are working/studying from home, but also when the world around you seems to romanticize and praise constant grinding, doing as many jobs as possible to get by creating what we know now as hustle culture. Hustle culture has been around for a while, some could even argue since mainstream and modern capitalism have come into the picture, but it has unarguably been heightened during this pandemic. I myself have fallen victim to this, working because I feel like that’s what I should be doing and feeling guilty when I don’t work because apparently that’s what I’m supposed to be doing, or else I apparently am not cut out for what I do in 2020.

Hustle culture is dangerous in the sense that it praises overworking and prioritizing work overall which results in shaming (both intentional and unintentional) people who don’t want to work all the time for monetary success. This new grind culture pressures people into relating their value and worth with how much they can work to make the most money. This is physically and psychologically unhealthy. It does not promote healthy work boundaries. Hustle culture does the complete opposite, it has promoted a negative obsession with productivity and pushes the idea that the amount of labor we can produce equates to our purpose as human beings.

Why are we taught by others around us that in order to survive and live a decent life we must push our bodies to the limit working as many jobs and hours as possible? People should not have to work themselves to dust for money nor should they be encouraged to do so. We should not be pressured into monetizing all aspects of our lives, running our hobbies and passions to the ground to become robotic soulless workers. There’s nothing wrong with finding purpose in work, but there is something wrong with expecting people to become their work and devote their entire lives to it. Hustle culture encourages outrageous hours and unrealistic expectations such as working just as efficiently during a global pandemic, constantly promoting entrepreneurship to people that are unable to or just simply do not want to do that type of work, working in free-time, not taking breaks, and shaming 9-5 jobs. It is toxic to expect everyone to be productive multi-skilled and multitasking individuals. Guilt-tripping people into thinking there is only one vision of success and a certain way to get to the top is destructive. Nobody should have to feel guilty about not partaking in hustle culture and not wanting to work 15-hour shifts just to go back home and run their small business. There’s nothing wrong with doing that if that is truly what an individual wants, the issue is in the pressure and shame in not being like that.

Instead of telling people to just work harder, wake up earlier start another side hustle, or just start a business, perhaps we need to turn the conversation and ask why in order to succeed we must work ourselves to death in a hyper capitalistic society? Despite what hustle culture tries to convince us of, getting adequate sleep is important, taking care of yourself is important, turning off your computer sometimes to take a break is important.