How the “Hustle Culture” is Bringing Us Down

And what we can do about it

I’ve been seeing more posts and stories lately on the “hustle culture”. It seems to be the ‘it’ buzzword of 2019. It’s the modern day term for workaholic.

The hustle culture consists of people who compulsively work. From the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep — if they even sleep — they are hustling: checking their phones, rushing to the office, never taking lunch breaks, working late into the night and throughout the weekends with their coffee, scones, and spreadsheets. They glamorize being “busy”. The busier they say they are, the more street cred they believe they’ll receive.

We’re glamorizing the ‘hustle’. We’ve even created the “side hustle” so you can hustle even more and in addition to your regular hustle.

Then there’s a new “sales hustle”. It is practiced by people who connect with you on social media and immediately send you a private message pitching their business and services. Their messages typically include open-ended question so they can pounce on you like an animal of prey and give you their canned spiel of how they’re the solution to whatever problem you may have. They pretend to be your buddy by giving you some free advice, which is really their lead magnet, link to their webinar, or consult calendar.