Hustle Culture Is Leading to Increased Burnout
Hustle culture is killing us, both literally and figuratively. This is a product of societal norms imposed on us by a system that values numbers over people. If we aren’t constantly raising the bar at all times then we are expendable. Companies and organizations use people until they burn out. Then they replace them with someone who has yet to burn out. Good for the numbers, terrible for the culture.
Sure, some countries and companies have figured out that taking care of their people leads to greater productivity, not less. That unfortunately, is not the case for most of us. So we have to do what we can to make sure we are taking care of ourselves to avoid burnout.
…But We Aren’t Helping Ourselves Out Either
Hustle culture isn’t the only catalyst for burnout. We have to look in the mirror because many of the problems leading to burnout are self inflicted. It’s a combination of societal norms and our own actions combining to accelerate our way off of the productivity cliff.
Remember the old adage; Put on your oxygen mask first before assisting others? If we can’t breath, then we can’t do what we need to do to move forward. With that in mind, here are 7 things I am routinely saying no to right now in order to keep my sanity.
Unnecessary Meetings and Webinars
Meetings and webinars have become a way to validate work. When you work in a large organization, you can fill your entire calendar with productivity bombs. The assumption is you need meetings to be productive, but the reality is most meetings aren’t needed.
In order to determine if I should take a meeting, there are a couple things I look for.
- Is there a clear agenda and objective to the meeting? If not, I’m running for the exits as fast as I can.
- Am I directly involved in the outcome of the objective of this meeting or is this for informational purposes only. If not, I can get the slides or the recording later and deduce the conclusions much quicker on my own.
Webinars fall into this category. While information gathering is necessary, it’s the volume of these that is a problem. Is the webinar relevant to something you are working on now? If so, take it. It’s probably a good use of your time. If not, it can also be revisited later on.
If you have any influence over the scheduling of these meetings, keep them out of your green zone for productivity. I work best in the mornings. When I start my day, I want to work on the tasks I had set ahead of time to do for that day. After lunch, when I’m falling into a food coma, I can take these meetings and webinars when I’m less likely to be useful anyway. Try to time block these activities directly into your red zone if you have to participate.
RELATED ARTICLE: Identify Your Time Sinks to Increase Your Productivity
Work Chats
Work chats might be the most distracting feature of the modern office, bar none. You are sitting there deep in thought, in the flow of your own activity and *bing!*, a chat yanks you like an overzealous dog on a leash straight into the workflow of someone else’s problem. Using the knowledge of the crowd is great, but not when it takes you out of your rhythm.
Sometimes chats aren’t even to help someone else with their problem, but instead an invitation to jump in on the latest organizational gossip or a therapy session on what’s wrong with the world.
A couple ways to mitigate the instant distraction.
- Turn those notifications off unless it’s absolutely necessary! Currently in my work setting, there are no less than 40 chat groups set up and I have turned notifications off on all but the ones that involve direct operational consequences. The rest I may scan or visit once a day or even once a week, but otherwise I’m cutting off instant access to my time as much as possible.
- I also do a monthly inventory of my chat groups. If it’s no longer relevant or defunct, remove yourself from the group.
Email Chasing
Almost as bad as chats are distractive emails, but this one we largely do to ourselves. If we are using email as a basis for our productivity center, we have to be really careful about how we do that. For example, I have an email system where I star or flag relevant tasks and that flagged email list becomes a feeder for my action items, calendar, and my goals for the day. It works well for me until I get distracted by a new email.
If we keep our email open constantly we have a tendency to chase the latest shiny object. I think it comes from the need to feel valuable to others. That email comes in and our brain swoons at the prospect of somebody needing us! We put on our cape, pull our underwear on over our pants, and fly to the rescue! All at the expense of what we were supposed to be working on.
In order to not be diagnosed with Superman Syndrome, I try to plan my day and my calendar off of my flagged email list and then disengage with email until it’s time to triage the incoming messages. This is something I put off till later in the day because its another mindless task I can do it that red zone time in the afternoon when I’m ready to set up my next day.
People will survive if you don’t address their problem immediately. In fact, they have probably sent you an email to get it off of their plate so they can focus on what they were supposed to be doing. Don’t fall for that trap! Pro tip: Those work chats are sometimes embedded in the email system. Shutting off one, shuts off the other.
People Pleasing
One unintended consequence of being someone who is approachable and a great steward of servant leadership and the Human Constant is that you will be approached! A lot!
You see, when you make others feel good through your interactions, relationship development, and trust building, the result is that they want to work with you! That’s a great thing! It means opportunities will flow your way and there will never be any shortage of things to work on, but it also means we need to filter the projects we work on and say no to many others.
When approached by someone asking to work on a project with them I have a couple of rules to follow before I say yes.
- First, do I want to work with this person? If given the option, nobody wants to work with the asshole of the office. If this person hasn’t invested in me to this point, than I am not wasting my time on something that will be purely transactional to them and is going to drain my positive energy.
- Next, how much bandwidth do I currently have to take on this project? How long of a time investment is it and how many of my own resources will go into it. If I don’t have space or it’s maxing out my remaining space, the answer is going to be a no.
- Is this a project I am enthusiastic about? Do I believe in it? If it is not a resounding, “hell yes!” then I’m probably letting it go. Saying no is hard for people pleasers in particular but if you do it in a respectful way, acknowledging the value in their project but recognizing the limitations you have on your own bandwidth, it can still be a positive interaction.
Apology Culture
Often times we apologize at work for something that isn’t our fault at all. The workplace is going through a big change? We apologize and try to lighten the load on others by hand holding those resistant to the change more than necessary.
Working on a big project and need to delegate tasks to our team members? If we are met with resistance, we can have a tendency to apologize and take on more than we should.
The reality is if what we are asking of our teams is in line with the mission of the organization and moves it forward, we have to stop apologizing for that. We can’t internalize the struggles of the organization or the struggles of our coworkers to the point it hurts our own ability to move forward. We are one person, and there is only so much we can do.
Multi-tasking
Cal Newport’s concept of ‘Deep Work” is the anti-thesis for the modern workplace epidemic of multi-tasking. Unless your brain is focused completely on one task, it cannot maximize the quality of work needed to really create something ground breaking or inventive. All of the distractions that we have talked about to this point inhibit our ability to do deep work.
This has especially been true in my creative writing process. In order to produce a quality article for this website, I need an uninterrupted block of about two hours of deep work. If I don’t have that, the writing is usually of inferior prose.
The 200% Model
Yes, to avoid burnout, I’m saying no to burnout. No kidding!
To make my point, I will nicely return us to the hustle culture we started the article with. Often times we put in 200% of ourselves as the standard to keep up with the “inflation” of what is expected of us. When we do that, our burnout probability begins to increase exponentially to the point where it is out of control before even recognizing it. This is when the physical symptoms of anxiety begin to manifest for me.
If you are reading this, you are already a successful person who routinely goes above and beyond and you are looking for more ways to do that. The counterintuitive thing to remember is that your 110% or 125% is already much better than most of those around you who are producing much less on a daily basis. Reducing ourselves to a more sustainable number lengthens out our burnout curve so we don’t crash out and reduce ourselves to zero.
When you are away from work, be away from work! Don’t be afraid to completely disconnect. You don’t have to stay connected at all times. In fact, it’s best practice if you don’t.
Remember, put your oxygen mask on first so that you can take care of others later. You can still be a servant leader and say no. By emphatically saying no to these 7 things, you will be more productive, more respected, and better able to handle the modern workplace.
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