In my last blog post, I discussed the idea of productivity and what tools we might all use to get a little more out of our working hours. Not just busy work, but real, meaningful and purposeful results. The goal, of course, always being more. More productivity means more work getting done, means more success which will lead to more opportunities for even more work.
We are living in a world gone remote. A world where, for many, the morning commute has been replaced by a short shuffle to a desk or home office. Where meetings can end at the click of a button, and work can happen virtually anywhere (double meaning intended). It would seem to follow, then, that this new style of work would give us more free time. More opportunities to connect with our families and friends, and more time spent doing the thing we enjoy.
That is hardly the case. Rather, more flexibility in our working conditions has meant we have more time to spend working. An article published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in December 2020 found that “nearly 70 percent of professionals who transitioned to remote work because of the pandemic say they now work weekends, and 45 percent say they regularly work more hours during the week than they did before.”
To accommodate the shift to remote work, managers have increased the number of meetings employees must attend. They’ve added new channels for communication and set the bar even higher for outcomes. Meanwhile, employees are feeling the pressure to rise to the challenge and take on more work. Many find it difficult to log off.
Drawing clear boundaries between time on the clock and off is a skill set that many struggled with before the pandemic. Now that work happens entirely in our own homes, that boundary can be almost indecipherable. “On the one hand, the flexibility to choose one’s working hours to accommodate household demands may empower employees by affording them some freedom over their own schedule. On the other hand, the change in work schedule may be a consequence of a blurred distinction between work and personal life in which it becomes easy to overwork.”
While part of this mentality may be a natural side effect of living through a global pandemic, a way for individuals to organize their day and maintain control over whatever might be within their reach, there is also another force at play: hustle culture.
It may be easy to read such a statement and see the holes in this philosophy. To rationally know that life cannot be all work and no play. Yet, hustle culture has become so pervasive, it has started to shape our internal dialogue almost without notice.
I know I’ve felt it. The feeling that any moment not spent on my clients or my business is a moment misspent. That somehow, successful people attain their success by giving their all, all the time. If I have too much free time, then I must be doing something wrong. I must be failing.
I am relieved to know that I am not alone. Celinne Da Costa, writer, speaker, and brand storytelling coach felt much the same. As she wrote in an article for Forbes, “it seems that everywhere I go, people are suffering from the ‘hustle culture’ pandemic…the collective urge we currently seem to feel as a society to work harder, stronger, faster.”
She goes on to reflect, “when everyone around me is busy building sales funnels, creating courses, posting in Facebook groups, and doing, doing, doing. I can’t help but wonder–am I wrong for not wanting to feed into this manic hustle?”
Indeed, hustle culture is everywhere. One Google search for “hustle” will bring you endless articles about making your side hustle work and working hard for the life you want, or even ways to become a millionaire and retire early. And let us not forget about those FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) followers.
An article in The Indian Express took a step back to examine the hustle culture and its impact on young adults. As Namita, a 23-year-old freelance illustrator, explained “every time I accomplish something on my list and expect to feel good, I don’t…after I finish anything, I feel like it was insignificant. That I could’ve done it earlier. Better. More. That it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
That sort of thinking isn’t sustainable. “At the end of the day,” Da Costa writes, “we are human, which means we need to eat, pee, sleep, connect, and find fulfillment and meaning in our life. We can’t do that if we are filling every pocket of time with a task so we can build our empire faster.”
Perhaps that is why the article found Namita and many more young people rejecting the mentality “work hard, play hard” in favor of the mantra of “work well, sleep well.” Taking stock of what they have, and enjoying time with family and friends. These young people aren’t shying away from hard work, but instead maintain a dedicated focus on work for as long as it needs to be the priority, then readjust to prioritize family and friends whenever work can and should take a back seat. They are mindfully seeking that work life balance.
As a counterbalance to hustle culture, we have also seen a new emphasis on the subject of self-care. The value and importance of putting yourself first, and meeting your own needs. Whether it is a 5-minute meditation exercise, a morning workout, or a trip to the salon, self-care comes in many forms and they are all valuable.
The harder we hustle, the more stress we endure, the more important it is for us to recognize our own needs. As The Couples Center writes, “countless studies have shown that wearing down the body, overworking the brain, not sleeping enough and remaining in a constant state of stress is entirely counterproductive to our mental health, as well as our physical health.”
In this sense, self-care is not just some fad for millennials. It is a requirement for all of us.
Self-care is so critical to our overall health, that the World Health Organization has deemed June 24 – July 24 to be Self-Care Month. The WHO indicates that “self-care interventions are a necessary addition and component of high quality and human rights based primary health care, delivered within the broader healthcare system.”
Self-care becomes even more important when you take into consideration one more toxic, sometimes tragic, byproduct of our current hustle culture–compassion fatigue.
Breezy Consulting works primarily with clients from the world of animal rescue. While compassion fatigue plagues many industries, one that is often overlooked are those who care for some of the most vulnerable creatures.
Animal rescue is built around the ideal of saving animal lives. It endeavors to end animal suffering and find happy outcomes for as many animals as possible. Animal rescue work attracts some of the most compassionate and empathetic individuals who have the best of intentions. But the unfortunate reality is that even in the best of circumstances, in the best of animal shelters with all the right resources, you just can’t save them all.
For this and so many other reasons, animal work can be exhausting, both physically and emotionally. And it is nonstop. It is never a 9-5 job. Animals don’t care about holidays or weekends or vacations. They need help around the clock. The people called to this profession often feel it is their duty to help however and whenever they can. They are selfless in their compassion and willingly ignore their own needs in favor of what the animals might need instead. But that can only last so long.
Reflecting on her tenure working in an animal shelter, Jessica Dolce writes in a post titled “Self-Care is Not Optional: How Burnout ended My Career at the Shelter,” “I felt like no matter how many hours were in a day, I could never give the dogs at the shelter the level of care I knew they deserved and needed. I worked so hard. But it never felt like enough. No matter how much I did in a day, I rarely felt like I had succeeded. It wore me down.”
Compassion fatigue affects so many throughout the animal rescue community that leading humane organizations like The Humane Society of the United States and Best Friends Animal Society have created numerous resources for caregivers and rescue workers.
Compassion fatigue is just that. You care so much, you give so much for so long that you become fatigued. Drained of all emotion. But you can’t pour from an empty cup. And in fact, you shouldn’t. The animals–the work, whatever it may be–needs you at your best.
“If you think that being a good caretaker means caring until you collapse you are wrong,” Dolce writes. “In order to be a good caretaker, you must take care of yourself so that you can care for others properly. Otherwise, you have the potential to harm those that you are caring for.”
So what is the takeaway? For me, it is that hustle culture is toxic. Yes, we should all work toward our goals. There is nothing inherently wrong about setting goals and taking meaningful steps toward them. But be wary. Each of us will have our own preference for work and the way we get it done. And each of us will have our limits.
For the sake of our mental health and all-around happiness, we should embrace our free time and lean into it with all that we have. We can’t waste energy, criticizing ourselves for time spent away from work. If anything, we should congratulate ourselves for finding something of a work life balance. Because in the end, that free time, those small acts of self-care we seek, will rejuvenate our minds and replenish our spirits.
As we head back into the office, or trudge back to our computers, remember the value of time spent both on and off the clock. Maybe you add a little hustle to your work day. Maybe you give yourself those stretch goals and SMART goals, and even add a bit of what we learned about productivity into your routine. But at the end of the day, remember that you can and should shut it all down and embrace your free time yet again. Guilt free.