All this mentality permeates the professional social media platform LinkedIn, as well. People tend to lose touch with reality and promote putting work before relationships, hobbies, and well-being. And that’s where the community LinkedIn Lunatics comes in. They shed light on the absurdity of “virtue signaling” and “cringe-worthy titles” its users like to use so much. To know more about the negative effects of hustle culture, Bored Panda reached out to Phoebe Gavin, a career and leadership coach. She helps ambitious professionals build successful, fulfilling careers without sacrificing work-life balance using a research-backed, multidisciplinary approach. We asked Gavin more about what exactly hustle culture is, how it’s related to privilege, and how people can balance their work and personal lives better. Read our entire conversation with her below! More info: Phoebe Gavin | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter) | The Workplace Guide to Time Management Some of you might think: “What’s wrong with wanting to focus on your career? Professional success is a very important aspect of a happy life.” Well, too much of this hustle mentality can have negative effects on our well-being. Phoebe Gavin says that the negative effect of hustle culture is that it comes with a high cost. “If you are pouring everything that you have into your professional life, whether that is your job or your company, then everything else has to give to make room for your professional efforts. It takes up all of your time, and [it] takes time and effort and energy away from your relationships,” Gavin explains. “It can sometimes have a negative impact on your mental or physical health. It can disconnect you from your community. It can disconnect you from causes that you may care about or be invested in. And sometimes, it can be very misaligned with your personal values.” “The cognitive dissonance that builds up over time can start to cause some identity harm,” Gavin tells Bored Panda. She says you might feel as if you are living the wrong life or living a life that’s not right for you. “And that cost can be really challenging to pay,” Gavin warns. The career coach thinks that hustle culture negatively affects those who work, not because they enjoy it but because they feel they have to do it. “They feel as if that is the only way that they can achieve their goals,” Gavin explains. “And in those situations, they give up a lot of other aspects of their lives to make that happen. And that can be really toxic.” In response, actress and activist Jameela Jamil made a poignant observation on X (Twitter). “I think if you grew up in Beverly Hills with super successful parents in what was simply a smaller mansion… nobody needs to hear your thoughts on success/work ethic.” Phoebe Gavin agrees that participating in hustle culture is a privilege. She says there are three conditions necessary for those who want to take part in hustle culture. The first is to have the time and energy to do that. This is especially true in the context of families. “Systematically, that is more likely to be an arrangement between a man who is hustling and a woman who is making up for all of the other gaps in his life so that he can dump everything into his career,” Gavin observes. “There are some folks who choose that dynamic. There are some folks who end up in that dynamic by accident. There are some folks who end up in that dynamic and one or more of the individuals involved are not happy about it.” If they have neither a stable financial background nor support from a partner, then they “just feel the harms of hustle culture without really being able to enjoy as much of the benefits,” the career coach observes. Those who come from working-class backgrounds have fewer chances to experience the positive effects of hustle culture, as well. “Hustling just by itself is not necessarily going to be the thing that makes you successful,” Gavin observes.
On the one end of the spectrum are those who want to separate work and personal life completely. On the other – people who want those things integrated. These people might want to come in and out of work throughout the day, but they don’t separate their ‘work friends’ from their ‘real-life friends.’ They’re not against people at work knowing details about their personal life. If you’re struggling to determine what arrangement is best for you, Gavin has some advice. “Plot out a perfect day or a perfect week where everything goes right.” Don’t try to achieve that perfect day or week because that’s probably unachievable. But it will show you what your priorities are and how you would prefer to organize your time and your energy. “You’re not going to be able to accomplish everything in one day. You’re not going to be able to accomplish everything in one week. But if your priorities are clear, then you know what to work toward. And if you’re flexible, both with yourself and with the people around you about how those are organized from a day to day/week to week basis, then it’s going to be a lot easier for you to achieve that balance.” “We have many decades of work in front of us. Most of us are going to work for 30, 40, maybe even 50 years. And so we want to make sure that when we get to the end of that period, we feel good about how we spent the time, not just professionally but also personally.” “If you look at interviews of people at the end of their lives, often you find that people regret working too much. Very, very frequently, you find that people wish they had spent less time working and more time on other aspects of their lives. And the only way to avoid that is to be conscious and intentional about how much of your life you give to work,” Gavin concludes. Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
