There used to be a time when “working hard” meant showing up, doing your job well, and leaving work at work. Now, it means being online at all hours, replying to messages instantly, skipping meals, and wearing burnout like a badge of honour. Somewhere along the way, we confused commitment with constant availability.
Over the past decade, hustle culture has quietly rewritten the definition of ambition. We’ve been told that sleep is for the weak, that if you’re not “grinding,” someone else is, and that success demands sacrifice – mostly of your time, peace, and health. The internet calls it dedication; in reality, it’s exhaustion rebranded as motivation.
The glorification of hustle
Social media feeds are full of morning routines, productivity hacks, and motivational quotes that subtly shame rest. Taking a weekend off feels like falling behind. The world claps for people who “never stop,” even though stopping is what keeps us sane. We live in an era where rest has to be justified, and “I needed to recharge” sounds like an apology, not a right.
For young professionals, this culture is especially dangerous. They enter the workforce eager to learn, hungry to prove themselves, and are often told that overworking is just “part of the process.” Phrases like “this is your time to gain experience” or “we all went through this” are used to normalise unpaid overtime, blurred boundaries, and guilt for saying no. But there’s a very thin line between experience and exploitation, between learning and being used.
The startup myth
Nowhere is this line thinner than in startups. Open any job listing, and you’ll find it written right there – “We’re a fast-paced startup, looking for self-driven individuals willing to wear multiple hats. Hours are flexible!” Sounds exciting, right? Except “flexible hours” often means all hours.
To be fair, startups are built on hustle – small teams, big dreams, limited resources. But the problem begins when “everyone does everything” becomes code for “no one gets to rest.” The culture of overcommitment is sold as passion, and burnout is brushed off as the cost of ambition. But building something great shouldn’t require breaking yourself in the process.
Because yes, your twenties are for learning. But they’re also for living. And no amount of “experience” is worth losing your health, mental or physical, over.
Blurred boundaries
Workplaces today are full of blurred lines. Between passion and pressure. Between teamwork and exploitation. Between being proactive and being always available. Corporations love to talk about “family culture,” but unlike families, they measure your worth in deliverables, not well-being.
This constant overlap of work and life has made it hard to know where one ends and the other begins. Emails come at midnight. “Quick calls” spill into dinner time. The phrase “just this one task” stretches into hours. The hustle doesn’t stop; it just changes shape.
The shift and the pushback
But there’s hope. Because Gen Z – the generation stepping into the workforce now is quietly rewriting the rules. They’re setting boundaries. They’re refusing to answer emails after hours. They’re saying no to unpaid internships and unrealistic workloads. They’re not afraid to prioritise mental health over hierarchy.
Older managers often call it “entitlement.” But it’s actually awareness. Gen Z has seen what burnout did to millennials: the anxiety, the overwork, the performative busyness, and they’ve decided they want something different.
They don’t want to glorify exhaustion. They want to do good work and have a life outside it. They want ambition with balance, not achievement with anxiety.
And maybe that’s what this generation will be remembered for not for hustling the hardest, but for finally saying that rest isn’t the opposite of hard work. It’s part of it.
Because working hard is admirable.
But working always? That’s a trap.