Episode 10: The Trouble With Hustle Culture

Today’s episode is entitled The Trouble With Hustle Culture.

The idea that our productivity is the most valuable thing about us. Or that if you work harder and faster and more that somehow your value increases.

The reality is that lessons on the dangers of hustle culture and quotes like these are often learned by burnout. These messages also lack so much nuance, context and real life grounding around peoples differing responsibilities, accessibility, of mental health needs, of time constraints, of financial obstacles, of physical abilities. And when we hold this culture up as the one that is the pinnacle and fob all of that contextual stuff off as ‘excuses’ then the damage is absolutely real.

So today I want to talk through four ways that I see hustle culture seeping into how we are expected to work today, why it’s a troubling message and what the alternative is.

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Well, hello there. Welcome back lovely friends to courage is calling. I had a little hiatus of podcast break for a few weeks, but I am buzzing to get back to chatting to you through these little pep talks. Um, there are a lot of things that I want to cover. Few months around, you know, making brave decisions and building a business as a woman and all of that good stuff, but I would really, really love to hear from you. So in the show notes, and in the description of this episode, you will find a form that you can click through to where you can send me any topic or issue that you'd love to hear more about on courage is calling it's anonymous.

So you can ask me anything at all and know that I'm not going to know who it is that's asking. So if you have a burning question or a delay, To do with building courage or womanhood or being a business owner and head over there and send them my way. Thank you. So today's episode is entitled the trouble with hustle culture, and I'm going to say hustle culture a lot in this episode, just to warn you.

And I might even mix up my words and call it custle hulture. So just be prepared for that. Okay. So what I thought I would do is. Address this today, because I have seen that this is something that has, um, I'm becoming increasingly aware of and online kind of entrepreneurial spaces. So this is hustle culture is this idea that our productivity is something that we can measure and give value to, right.

Or the idea that if you work harder and faster and more, that somehow your value increases. It's a message that if we just keep pushing, push through the hard stuff, then you know, you'll get to the other side and you'll find success. And we see these quotes on Instagram that encourage us to rise and grind, or, you know, don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done. And I'm like, oh, smack in my head. I'm like, please don't do that. Um, so I want to talk about it today. And the, you know, the reality is. The lessons on the dangers of hustle culture and buying in to all of that and quotes like those are really only learned by burning out from it. Right. And these messages, which are often found in the entrepreneurial world, mostly that is dominated by masculine voices.

The problem is it lacks so much nuance and so much context and so much real life grinding. So we hear these sweeping and pressurized ideas of what it means to go after our dreams. And they are swept over the lives of real people. That have a huge spectrum of differing responsibilities in their lives of ability to access things in their lives have mental health needs of time constraints. Of financial obstacles of physical abilities. And when we hold this culture up as the one that is the pinnacle and then fob all of that contextual stuff off as, oh, those are just excuses. Then the damage is so rail and it leaves people questioning their worth. That leaves them questioning the value of what they have to offer. Um, and their abilities, their competency, and it quashes their passion and their desires and their motivations, this hustle culture. It does have a temporary dopamine head of motivation. So you kind of, you know, you fail that like, oh yeah, let's go for it. But it's actually, it's like, You know, it's, it's dressed up, but it's not a sustainable way to work and it's a toxic message to pedal.

So today I want to talk three, four ways that I can see hustle culture seeping into how we are expected to work today. Um, and why it's a troubling message, especially for those of us who run our own businesses and what the alternative is. Right. So the first thing I want to raise about hustle culture is the idea that if you are someone who's building a business, a community or creating something to put out there and offer, then hustle culture makes you fail.

Like you need to be always on and always available. And that's because hustle culture is actually not really interested in boundaries. It talks a lot about high. You know, you can't miss any opportunity. You got to seize the opportunities as they come, no matter what and offer the very best, most responsive output to your clients, to your customers, to your community, and the generous, this idea that human beings.

Um, actually have this capacity to always be responsive and we know that that's not true and it's dangerous. And it's actually a really quick way to send your nervous system into high alert, which is super harmful to the state of our bodies. It's super harmful for our bodies to be in a state of high alert consistently.

Because we're not bots, we're humans and we don't owe our Instagram followers or inboxes quick responses. And to think that we need to reply to every single question, every response or request that comes our way less, we miss something is scarcity mentality dressed up as being attentive. Or good customer service. Um, and this scarcity mentality is actually rife it's rife and hustle culture, but it's often disguised as you know, not letting opportunities go by, but behind this is the reality that often we believe that if we don't make ourselves available at all times, if we don't respond to every single DM or reply to every question from potential customers or clients, then they'll all go.

And there'll be nothing left for us and that's just simply not true. They may go elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that there's less for you. And I don't know about you, but I do want to build a business where my clients know and appreciate and respect my boundaries by my availability to respond to them. I want them to see me as a whole human, with complex responsibilities outside of my work, and a lot of my own learning around this has been about trusting that my work stands up. That my work stands up, even when I step away from it or take breaks from it. And it's about trust in that the value that I have to offer is not connected to how available I am to be all things to all people. So I wonder what shift and around you might need today in your head or in practice, maybe to reroute the idea that you shouldn't be expected to be on and available in your business all of the time. And the next message. Hustle culture that I want to address is the practice that we see of people using guilt and shame to attract customers and clients.

And this is if I was really fancy, I would have the talk a song. Oh no, no, no. Oh no, no, no, no. I would have that here, but you've just got me singing, but basically, no, I have seen this so much in the online business world. The language that's put out through copy and sales pages, and Instagram is all about focusing on the dissatisfaction and the pain and the struggle of the potential customer or client.

And it's a technique that works, right? Like it actually does work for sure. I'm not saying it doesn't work. Um, But she am is never a sustainable motivator and using tactics to rush people into buying from you or alluding that there's something wrong with them in order to sell your stuff, is manipulative at best and ethically wrong at first.

And it isn't actually creating a culture of business that is based on honesty and integrity. And this kind of marketing, just preys on people's vulnerabilities as a quick way to get conversions or close the sale. And again, it traits people like commodities to accumulate from it's. Again, scarcity driven, not authenticity driven and how this is communicated comes in all of these different forms, but it's usually packed up with some sort of urgency. Often arbitrary time for him and arbitrary pricing. And it also plays on language that would have you believe that with this thing, you will be less, you will be stuck or you will be left out. And what we need is more business owners communicating a bite, their businesses from a place of trust and honesty.

Highlighting the value of what they do, speaking to what their product or service offers and allowing people to not be patronized, but give them space to make up their minds rather than hustling them into things as a statement that connects to their struggle. That's gross. Let's not do that. The next thing I want to talk about is that hustle culture.

Is absolutely all about assigning worth or value to our output. And that is, um, that's dangerous. It's really dangerous. So to preface this, I want to say there is definitely something satisfying, right? Of like giving your best to a project or to an idea. So that's a great feeling. Okay. Knowing that you've committed yourself to something, you've seen it three on your pride of your work and what you've created, but the thing with hustle culture looming around.

Yeah. The thing we have to be careful with is that we don't conflate to working hard with hustling, uh, because in hustle culture, it's actually more a bite, um, proofing and showing that you're working hard glorifying busy-ness glorifying your output and your ability to grind more than it is about talking about the quality of your work, your dedication to do in a good job and preserving your capacity limits. You know, you see people posting on social media, by how busy they are, how hard they're working. I flat out they are, you know, and often it feels like a humble brag to not to hide money. Work they're doing. Um, and it also just reinforces this idea that if you're not struggling, if you're not Brecht, you're probably not working hard enough. And we know that that's bullshit. And when we assign value to someone's ability to push their mental and physical capacity to the limits, We're starting to bend into some really serious capitalist playbook territory that would really have us think that the only thing that matters is accumulation and productivity to increase the bottom line. Right. And it just makes me so sad because we need to remember that humans are made for more than just working. We're not mad just to be little working base. We were made for community. We were made to experience pleasure to enjoy rest, to care for one another. For curiosity for innovation, not to grind away as some sort of weird badge of honor, to the detriment of all of these amazing, beautiful things.

And for those of us who have grown up with messages about our productivity, being a measure of how good we are, it really does take a lot of unpacking. Um, and I think it's hard for our systems to go from. Being used to filling up empty space with stuff to do for, you know, to go from always feeling like we need to improve or strive, um, and to go from all of that, to relaxing into the margins of life or being at pace with our efforts and the different seasons of life.

It's tough and it takes some practicing really to be able to slow things, dine, to be okay with not always doing, to be okay with setting limitations to our workdays and what we do and what we take on the hustle culture creates addictions to doing, and it elevates it as the most important part of the human experience. The dominant part of the human experience. And the reality is that if we love what we do, and I hope that you do, I know I do. If we love what we do. And we want to have energy to sustain it, or even regenerate ourselves and our work. We have to practice knowing what is enough for us to take on and do so we can be fully present, fully attentive and aligned within our work.

And finally another fallout of hustle culture is the idea that there is some sort of fast track path or some sort of quick hack for growth or success and hustle culture will try to whisper to you that there are insider ways that you can access the next level and you can do it with spade. So I think it's with that, that we break down exactly what it is. This message wants us to hustle towards like, what are we hustling towards if that's what this message wants us to do. So what's the end game of hustle culture and its promise of success. So what does that mean? What is at the end of that? Is it loads of money?

Is it thousands of followers? Maybe it's not even something that we've thought about, right. Maybe the end goal. Isn't something that feels very clear, but just, we feel like we're on some sort of like slippery slope, water park ride that we feel we should go die. And if we want to. What we're doing is worth something. You know, once I crack 10 K followers, everyone will take me seriously. I got to figure out how you get to 10 K followers so that I can really, you know, be a serious business or really start making good money or really start promoting what I do properly. Or, you know, once I have sold out all the launches.

You know, this product, I'll be known for what I do. Um, and we go looking for these hacks, right. To kind of get there and these illusions of fast tracks to growth or success. However you wanted to find out are a fool's errand. They really are. And they're often Laden with risky or unfunded business advice that have big promises, but no real substance.

I'm actually, if we're talking about fools errands, the real fool's errand quality of these fast track hack type things is that it robs us of the joy and the pain of being a beginner of being a learner. Of growing with your community or your customers or your clients of, you know, try and things out on your own terms of factoring in your own very nuanced life of actually building steady foundations to your business or your work that feel honest and reflect what you want to build.

And ultimately we forgotten that there's nothing to win here. You know, I think also culture promotes the idea that there's a winner, but let me tell you, no one is going to be crying and fastest business winner of all time, 20, 21. Like it's not even a thing. And it's not even that, you know, as you, you know, advance in your career or your business, that the goalpost will keep moving it's that the goalposts don't even exist.

The goalposts are a construct that keeps us feeling inadequate and competitive. So there's no hack to grow in your business. There's only you, there's only you and your aligned, trustworthy way of showing up for yourself, showing up for your work, doing your best and letting people know how they can connect with it. Ultimately hustle culture leads us down the path of always having to prove ourselves to prove that we're gait to prove that we're hardworking to prove that we're worth paying attention to. And I'll tell you this hustle culture is snaky mofo. It sneaks up on those of us who are ambitious and believe we have something to offer that's valuable.

And then what it robs of us as the ability to be present and grateful for what we have, because it will always insist there's more to gain and so happy. Becomes a threat to our sense of achievement, because contentment has been sold to us by hustle culture as laziness. I'm going to say that again. What it robs of us is the ability to be ability to be present and grateful for what we have, because it will always insist there's more to gain and happiness becomes a threat to our sense of achievement, because contentment has been sold to us by hustle culture as laziness or dropping the ball.

So don't fall for it. My friends take the longer, take the study or take the more honest path do not give up on your ideas on your beautiful work. Honor. It. Honor it by putting scaffolding or rind, it, that will hold it up. That will offer you spaciousness to stay creative and, and your integrity and know that I I'm absolutely right along with you trying to do the same.

Thanks again for listening. Make sure if you haven't already. Describe to courage is calling on your favorite podcast platform. Give us a rate, give us a little review. If you're feeling fancy, make sure to share this episode with a friend and you can always connect over with me over on Instagram, @melwiggins, or if you want to see how we can work together, you can check out my website, Mel wiggins.com until next time.