Brianna Tsang

This writing sample was written as a blog post published on the Online Learning Community website.

Read the full article at: olc.sfu.ca/blog/what-hustle-culture

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What is Hustle Culture?

Hustle culture has been on the rise in exposure and popularity recently; but what exactly is it? Generally, hustle culture promotes working hard to achieve your professional goals. The concept is to dedicate as much of your time working towards these goals as possible. It can be another way to say “work hard” but with a spin to: work the hardest you can. This culture puts work at the center of your life; where working long hours over your normal ones is an expectation. Though the message means well, oftentimes, the actual participation of this lifestyle glorifies overworking and constantly being busy. 

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The concept of dedicating a significant amount of time to working has been around for quite some time. People leading this sort of lifestyle are sometimes called workaholics. This sort of work culture can be dated back to the 1970s, when there was a boom in the development of multiple industries that needed workers to keep up with the increased amount of work. Nowadays, this lifestyle can be seen as many things such as: to stay updated with modern technological advancements, to keep up with the current work environment you may be in, or a means to provide greater opportunities for yourself in the future, typically as a possible means for one to remain useful or productive in society. Usefulness and productivity are nice words to use when talking about this topic; because it feels like that may describe the nature of where hustle culture may come from or how it continues to boom today. 

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Success is a large part of hustle culture, but a more important thing to consider is how we feel when we participate in it. Feeling productive makes you feel useful. And feeling useful feels rewarding. When breaking down a potential reason why a person might feel the need to overwork themselves, there's an aspect of praise that could greatly contribute to its popularity. Showing others that you are going above and beyond what is expected is usually met with praise or amazement and it should be. Working hard is a praiseworthy action. However, hustle culture has taken this and set it as an expectation. Now, if you’re not doing more, then you’re not doing enough; you’re defined as lazy which has a very negative connotation to it. So, to break out of this label, the overcompensation of work takes away the chance of being called as such. Social media platforms have only amplified this sort of mentality through its ease of sharing content and information. A lot of people online, though not everyone, post primarily positive content about their work. Success stories are more likely posted and promoted by a user and can act as an inspiration of what to do when you want to achieve a certain amount of success in your professional life.

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