Is Hustle Culture a Cop-out?
By: Jess Thoms
Tags: Work, Self, Productivity, Success, Hustle

Is Hustle Culture a Cop-out?

How the trope ignores privilege, and the rest of our lives.

Photo by Milo Bauman on Unsplash

If the goal of hustle culture is to exploit every hour of one’s day to be economically viable, where is the space for health, rest, and pleasure?

Hustle culture strives to be the great equaliser. As Sarah Kessler outlines for her story on the king of hustle Gary Vaynerchuk, it’s the “idea that anyone who applies enough talent, grit, and passion can start a multibillion-dollar business — or achieve whatever their dream is — if they hunker down in their proverbial garage and put in the work”. The notion that no matter where you came from, it’s your responsibility to achieve your dream, and not complain.

But is it really worth the hustle, when you’re just sacrificing the rest of your life?

Even the internet’s favourite filmmaker Casey Neistat admitted the vlog schedule which propelled his fame sent his marriage to the brink of divorce. After 534 straight days of uploading, the pursuit of astronomical output was a direct burden on his family life. For his compounded career gain, there was a sacrifice. As there always is.

The theory of constant busyness doesn’t even stand up scientifically. Hustle culture made an enemy of being ‘idle’, but that has been entirely confused with the notion of laziness. Doing nothing for a period of time might produce the best results of all. Moreover, slowing down actually increases accuracy. Careful planning of work avoids disaster. All strategies that hustle culture has condemned.

Not to mention, not everyone should be an entrepreneur. So why the recruitment style marketing to non-founders to become one themselves?

“Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” — Elon Musk

The hustler trope is inherently tied to the self-made, rarely that of an intrapreneur. Success seemingly only praised if you fought for it, kicking and screaming. You hustled for it. Who doesn’t want to relish a self-created dynasty? It is increasingly the only socially acceptable path to celebrate. The self made hustlers radically own their behaviour and productivity, claiming everything achieved as the result of hard work. If you build it yourself, it almost becomes a weapon. A badge of honour. Especially online.

Becoming a founder is now a trend, a label, a brand, a community. Hating work became uncool. Online we live performative lives, always reworking a story to tell, an image to portray. By advertising the ‘hustle’ you buy into a narrative that provides immediate worth and respect from that community.

Hustle culture sees serial founders praised, presents failure as a good thing, the effort to start over is celebrated. But it is a privilege to access this cycle of destruction. If you can’t afford to fail, buying into hustle culture is dangerous.

Especially now, it can be tempting to throw yourself into any ‘opportunity’ this world event provides. But we have no idea what is going to happen this month, next week, or even tomorrow. The changes we’ve seen happen hourly, and they involve life, death, livelihoods, and stretch the entire world. Like everyone else, I’m sick of seeing the word ‘unprecedented’.

It presents a conundrum for most of us, who want to glide quietly through this time in history to shield our mental and physical health from duress. Yet with hustle culture perpetuating that ‘taking a break’ is seen as weak, unmotivated, or lazy — it can be easy to spend the time at home in an incessant pursuit of productivity to counterbalance.

Of course, it is a privilege to not have to hustle during the pandemic. Essential workers on the frontlines have no choice in the matter.

Anecdotally, it appears the rest of us at home are actually spending longer hours working. It can be easy to fall into the trap of a constant grind, with no physical line drawn between work and home life. Not to mention those with children managing home learning alongside a career conducted amongst 300 million Zoom calls.

Conversely, the hustle may become an alluring skill for the future. Without physical offices, and restrictions on gatherings, the employee who stays home and consistently produces tangible output is more valuable than those with soft skills.

“If your main job skill is networking, you might want to learn the art of actually working.” — Olga Khazan, The Atlantic

Tangible output should of course never come at the expense of your mental, physical, or emotional health. And it is entirely possible on 40 hours a week. It has to be. We can’t all be founders.

It’s also important to note alongside his hustle culture content, Gary Vaynerchuk advocates that we should do what we love.

Perhaps, that should be the advice most heeded.