Hustle Mania

If I had a dollar for every time I heard “If you love what you do, it shouldn’t feel like work!” and “There is no better time than quarantine to achieve your goals!” I would be quite rich, but Jeff Bezos would still be richer, and that realization would remind me to get back to work.

I am an immigrant student raised in a hardworking household that has toiled for years to make it big in a foreign land, live a comfortable and independent lifestyle, and provide all that I could ever ask for, and I have inadvertently raised my own expectations of myself to constantly imitate the work ethic of those I live with.

I am also a Gen-Z student that logs onto LinkedIn and Instagram every day, and watches my feed flood with vibrant updates of startups and other initiatives, gleaming brands and logos, and bold entrepreneurial statements and missions, broadcasted by organized and focused “hustlers”; people, often peers like myself, that “rise and grind” at maximum capacity to achieve their colossal, shiny goals, and reap their rewards in the form of twinkling trophies and certificates, media recognition and attention, and best of all, pride and appreciation from their loved ones.

Consequently, there looms a pressure to achieve the most I can in my “prime years,” which are supposedly my late teens and twenties, so I can attain lifelong success. I give in to this pressure and force myself to strive at lightning speed to keep up with the digital world I surround myself by and build my ambitions using.

I am a prey of hustle culture.

What is hustle culture? It is a collective, frantic urge to be constantly busy and productive, and slave away to deadlines, leaving self-care as an afterthought. This culture, popularized by social media, is relentlessly positive, glamorized and performative; it has become a mainstream “brand- wagon” to hop onto, with efforts to, ironically enough, stand out. It almost feels criminal to put yourself before your work, because there are constant reminders out there that you are just not doing enough.

Why do we succumb to this burnout culture? I believe our generation has been pawned into the myth that academic and extracurricular brilliance in school always translates to high-paying, fulfilling corporate jobs in our adult lives, especially if we maintain the same work ethic and passion. In this yearning sense of hope, we romanticize meaningless, seemingly incessant tasks as “stepping stones” to eventual success, and hop on to the hustle culture as a couch of comfort and support, leading people to think that they are wrong to not love and enjoy struggle.

According to David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, a software company, “The vast majority of people beating the drums of hustle-mania are not the people doing the actual work. They’re the managers, financiers and owners.” While overworking does not improve our individual productivity and creativity, it helps “justify the extreme wealth and convenience created for a small group of elite techies.”

Furthermore, hustle culture creates a toxic sense of competition between you and your peers and co-workers. You may negatively compare yourself to a heavily filtered version of someone else’s career, which can be debilitating to your mental health and self-esteem. This radically unhealthy trend can lead to an obsessive need to “out-hustle” others, which is exhausting, stressful and, most importantly, unnecessary.

Working hard is extremely important, and not all of us are handed a silver platter of opportunities without striving for them. However, you should question how much of your work is genuinely productive, and how much of it is an addiction to being busy and feeling like you are doing enough. Gauge the return on your time and investment. Is this task or commitment you have undertaken going to benefit you somehow in the long run, if not right now? Is it worth consistently sacrificing lunch or bathroom breaks for, or jumping onto first thing in the morning before your eyes fully open? Is it worth glamorizing and advertising to others if it is deteriorating your own mental and physical health? Are you forcing yourself to believe that you enjoy doing this task or commitment all the time, simply because everyone else says that you must?

Not all work is fun. Respect your limits and allow yourself to hate Mondays.