By McKenzie Parish
There is a toxic ideology spreading across subsets of the internet. This ideology has been dubbed by many as hustle culture. The influencers behind this movement are spreading concerning viewpoints, mainly to young men, surrounding things like work, relationships, family, and more.
Some of the main pillars of hustle culture are working longer hours and working harder at your job. Now, working hard may not be a bad thing, but it is concerning how many men are putting aside other aspects of their life to prioritize work. Often the influencers behind this movement promote the idea of sacrificing platonic, familial, and romantic relationships to prioritize working more and harder. This can certainly cause harm to the people subscribing to such ideologies, as they will have little social and emotional fulfillment in their lives.
This belief system has also spread to corporations, with many businesses telling employees to work harder or put in extra hours to be considered for raises and promotions. This often only benefits the company and not the employee as it is a promise that is not required to be kept. Employees work harder expecting compensation for their extra dedication, and the company reaps the reward without having to follow through on their promises of advancement. If the employees partaking in longer hours are salaried, then they will also not be compensated for their extra time at the office, and instead will be lucky if they get a “Good job!” from their boss.
It is easy to fall into hustle culture when they often spread the idea that if you work hard, you will be rewarded. This is something we all want to believe, but not every workplace will care to reward you for extra effort. One should also not invest so much of their worth in what one can provide or produce for others. If all our confidence is derived from our results, we will often be left feeling unsuccessful when our hard work goes unrewarded. Instead, we should focus on our effort in the workplace. Yes, results are great, and it is nice when you can see progress because of your hard work, but that will not always be the case, so we should not spend all our time trying to achieve results that most likely will not benefit us.
Rather than trying to work the hardest or the best, we should be trying to cultivate the most fulfilling relationships with those around us and have the most enjoyable life experiences we can have. Of course, we all must go to work to fulfill certain aspects of our lifestyles, but work should not be our lifestyle. On average we are only together on this planet for 77 years, which may seem like a long time, but it will fly by if you spend all that time working rather than living. There is nothing wrong with working hard; just remember to live your life too.
