Hustle Culture: Are We All Just Hamsters Running on an Endless Wheel?

By Maddie Pivonka

Workin’ 9 to 5… is that the only way to make a living? 

The phrases “Grind,” “Don’t Stop,” “Just Do It,” and “Sleep When You’re Dead,” are thrown around like lighter fluid to keep our metaphorical fires burning. 

You either work or get thrown aside by the hundred other hopefuls capable of doing the same thing, right? The cut-throat environment we now find ourselves in is just one aspect of American hustle culture. 

This is a term most adult workers are familiar with, but there is much more conversation to be had on the effects this new norm is having on our mental and physical health. 

When I think of hustle culture and the surrounding topics, I wonder: 

  • How do I create work-life balance? 

  • What am I willing to sacrifice for a living? 

  • Why am I doing this work? 

Professionals from every field are trapped in an endless cycle of work, sleep, repeat, which leads to burnout. If we are to create our own culture and stop this cycle for the better of America, we’re going to need careful assistance not only from supervisors but also workers. Hustle culture and the approaches to reorganize are not one-size-fits-all, but there are steps we can take to have a more healthy and satisfactory work experience. 

As we dive into the creation, existence, and now disruption of hustle culture, I hope to shed light on key research points and spark hope for current and new generations of creatives in the workplace. 

What Is Hustle Culture?

The history of this narrative dates back to the creation of corporate desk jobs, amplifying over the years as remote work becomes the new norm. As labor moved from factories to offices and labor unions formed, we saw the day-to-day lives of American workers transform as well. Days began earlier and ended later for those who wanted to move up the ranks and make the most money possible. 

Over the years, with the modernization of our country and the need to adapt to the pandemic, we are finding new ways to make a profit outside of a normative office setting. We can now work from home, make money off social media, or simply work gig-to-gig. These new spaces evolved the culture of the labor industry as well as America as a whole. Through this change, specific shifts in communication, relationships, and expectations are present within the workplace. To pinpoint its unique characteristics and properly define hustle culture, we must consider all three of these factors among others. 

From my research, I created the following definition: 

Hustle culture is derived from expectations set by the supervisors and/or employees who believe the increase in commitment brings “rewards in the form of compensation, recognition, or tenure.” It is a chain reaction that occurs when one employee serts a higher or lower standard that others follow. These expectations can detach the worker from their “why” and lower their overall satisfaction with their experience.

Disconnect is a common theme I noticed between workers and their companies, leading to less efficient work and an expedited end from burnout. Burnout is a major concept we will touch on later. In order to further dissect this definition and understand how hustle culture infiltrates  our work-life balance, let’s consider the following traits that comprise it: 

  • Communication,

  • Expectations,

  • Sacrifice,

  • Performative Workaholism, and

  • Work Ethic.

Communication

Within communication there are two types. Open, which is associated with leadership, and closed, which feels like supervision. Open communication creates a comfortable space where the employee feels they can go to their supervisor with any questions or concerns. This creates a healthy relationship that foreshadows growth in their position within the company and on a personal level. Closed communication creates a hostile environment where the employee is scared to ask for help and may feel lost without proper direction from their supervisor. This leads to lower overall enjoyment and the employee is less likely to stay with the company. 

Open communication is created by understanding how each member of the company prefers to be communicated and interacted with and building culture accordingly. If you are familiar with love languages, they often parallel a person’s preferred communication style.

Expectations 

There are the expectations associated with a position or assignment and there are the expectations we have for ourselves, such as the quality of our work. When the expectations of a job are not properly defined, the company is less efficient overall because of wasted efforts. In this case, one-on-one communication is important so that qualified workers fill the positions and complete the necessary work. The more time we spend clarifying the job role, the more reasonably we can take on new tasks. 

In terms of our personal expectations, it is not bad to set them high but the perfectionist mindset can sometimes bring progress to a halt. In order to combat the fear of fault and failure and get ahead of others, most perfectionists over analyze every step and action.This leads them to drag on their work past what is expected. The unnecessary time spent on one task overworks us and creates unhealthy competition between employees. Instead, shift the focus to creating quality work with no comparison to that of others. Overall, I do not want to say we should all do the bare minimum, because it is good to progress, but setting our expectations too high can lead to overworking ourselves on a daily basis. 

Sacrifice

We all make sacrifices for what we love. It’s a part of the give and take relationship of life. We give a part of our time, energy, or mental space to get something we see valuable in return. The only problem with this equation is when we start to do more than we have the capacity for, plummeting our resources into the negatives. We give so much of ourselves to our work that we have nothing left to pour into other parts of our lives, such as our personal health. Skipping lunch break to continue working, pulling all nighters, and working way past scheduled hours are all big sacrifices that have been normalized in the race to achieve. 

The dangerous part about sacrifice is that most of the time it is not forced by a leader or boss, it is self-inflicted. We choose to prioritize work over our health, and we are the only ones who feel the direct impact. This could look like the need for 3 cups of coffee a day to stay awake or foregoing time with loved ones because of the endless to-do list waiting at home. Small sacrifices can creep into our daily routines and lead to burnout before we know it. 

All of this is in order to get ahead of the rest and be as available as possible. However, no one ever told us saying yes to everything was the best way to do that. Setting boundaries for what we need, both mentally and physically, can benefit the relationship we have with our work and help it sustain. The way I like to think about it is that saying no to one opportunity could be yes to another, and I know what you’re thinking that’s exactly what we're trying to avoid…someone getting ahead but hear me out. What’s the point of taking on more responsibilities if you truly aren't able to put your all into it? Both you and the people depending on you will suffer because you may not be able to handle it all. This means that sometimes we need to say no so that we can give more value to our “yes” and do work that won’t sacrifice our well being.

Performative Workaholism 

“Performative workaholism” is the unhealthy addiction to one’s work, which leads them to mental or physical detriments. This was a specifically interesting topic to learn more about because of the studies done focused on those with the highest weekly hours, such as doctors. Funny enough, they were the ones who did not view hustle culture or their work with a negative connotation but, “rather as merely doing their jobs because of the explicit communicated role expectations and limitations from the beginning of employment.” This points back to communication and why it is so important for creating a business’s foundation, but especially highlights how perception can be a key factor in hustle culture. 

Viewing how many hours we work as an equivalent to our worth versus working the hours necessary to complete our tasks are two different things. Those who have a tangible goal when they begin work may be more efficient in their time, whereas someone chasing a feeling of validation from an outside source may never be satisfied. Circling back to the “why” of our work can lead us to make more sound decisions and separate our work from how much we value ourselves.  

Work Ethic 

It’s usually a positive thing  when someone tells you that you have a great work ethic, but like the other aspects of hustle culture, it can become a measure of our worth. Nowadays, we tend to perceive free time as a waste of time and energy. If we’re not doing something, we’re asking ourselves what we can be doing. Anxiety takes the place of peace and the endless cycle continues, leaving us to find no work-life balance. Working can become less of a means and more of an end when we overdo our efforts. As we do with most things in our lives, we then begin to adapt, setting the baseline higher than before for our workload. 

So, how can we combat this exponential graph for work ethic? Well, one way is to introduce “micro culture” into the corporate environment. What this means is delegating and giving opportunities to those who are newer to step in and take the weight off of their coworkers shoulders. 

One way to do this is by implementing “B-players” who can help with specialized work that may not need to be done by someone with a heavier workload. This helps create more balance in the work environment and makes each worker feel valued. Sounds like a win-win situation to me! 

Work-life Fusion 

A common occurrence in the arts field is the blurring line between passion and work and how to intertwine the two while resisting the temptation to monetize. 

Creative Generation’s own Jeff M. Poulin shared an interesting experience during a presentation I made to the collective on this topic.  Offered an exciting new opportunity, Jeff was asked to meet to discuss it later on in the day. However, the client asked for a chunk of time he marked for relaxation and personal work. He now had to decide whether to respect the boundaries he set for his mental health or begin working on something that excited him and related to his passion for the arts. It is hard, as members of a community that utilizes the arts in every aspect of our lives, to not turn the arts into work and sacrifice the space we leave for our other interests. Whether Jeff was to postpone the meeting or take it on, he would find enjoyment. In this case his “work” would fulfill him equally, or maybe more, than taking the break. These are the situations that make combating hustle culture so individualized, because every person has a varying degree of motivation, personal needs, and view of their work. 

Contrasting to those involved in the arts, there are many other workers in job sectors that involve 60 + hour work weeks who do not feel a part of hustle culture. They consider their work both manageable and satisfactory, no matter the hours. This could be due to how intensive their labor is, how long they have been in their field, how much they are paid, and many other factors. Either way, it is just another example of the varying experiences with hustle culture that make it so hard to definitively give it a negative connotation. 

Burnout 

One important topic to touch on is burnout, which is described as, “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” There are actually three dimensions to burnout: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one's job, and/or opinions of negativism or cynicism related to one's position that reduces professional efficacy. I’m sure we have all felt these at some point in our lives, and there has been much more conversation on burnout in the last few years as gig employment is on the rise (when someone works paycheck to paycheck, job to job, leading them to consistent stress).

There are many other factors that lead to burnout such as “unreasonable time pressures, lack of role clarity, lack of communication and support from management, and unfair treatment at work, which relate back to many of the topics touched on earlier. Burnout is common among workers nowadays, which is scary due to the effects it can have on our careers. Burnout cannot just be acknowledged and moved past, most people require long breaks or complete detachment from work to properly heal. However, when they return to work the cycle begins again, and so often we burn the candle at both ends. 

The way to avoid burnout is different for everyone but an essential part in creating a sustainable work routine is communication. Some are scared to communicate the fact they are tired or need to work less hours, because they may be perceived as weak or fear retaliation from an employer. But if we look at it in the long run, smaller, more periodic breaks have less of an impact on our career compared to huge breaks less often. This is because it allows for more consistent enjoyment of our work and better work-life fusion.

So, although burnout will most likely remain common, advocating for our needs may benefit our mental and physical health in the long run.

How to Move Forward

Now that we have examined hustle culture in more detail, we must ask ourselves: What now? Simply acknowledging its existence is neither progressive nor relatable for those struggling to create a healthy relationship with their work. 

The first step is to implement boundaries. This can be by limiting your work hours, dedicating more hours to creative activities, checking emails only between certain times, or separating your personal and work relationships. However and whenever you wish to communicate these are up to you but they can create non-negotiable periods in which you don’t need to apologize for taking time for yourself. 

Secondly, we can increase productivity through increased communication of expectations. Before we begin a task or take on a new role, there should be an in depth conversation on what is expected of us. Some may feel nervous about asking too many questions, but it will increase our efficiency if we set off on the right path from the beginning. Another idea is to incorporate small wellness practices into our everyday routines. Have 10 extra minutes on your lunch break? Go sit outside. Just finished a big project? Treat yourself to something you love. Been sitting, staring at a computer for what feels like forever? Stand up, roll your shoulders, relax your jaw, and take a deep breath. It’s the little things that snap us out of our hustle culture mindset that can tip the scales of stress closer to normal. 

Lastly, let’s recognize that no matter what your job is, we can all diagnose where we feel a lack of work-life fusion and implement small tactics to make life more enjoyable while still accomplishing our goals. 

So, yes. You can do both. Achieve your dreams and enjoy your work. It is possible, and the more we speak on hustle culture the more we can empower each person to advocate for themselves and what makes their work enjoyable. How will you do so?