The jury is in: excessively long hours and an 'always on' mindset leads to poor outcomes for both humans and their workplaces. Jess Stuart outlines the growth of the four-day week and other healthy alternatives to what we once called "hustle culture".
When we ask someone how their day is going, how often do they respond with “busy” or some such descriptor? Try it today and see.
We often wear busyness like a badge of honour. It’s been glorified in our culture. The always-on, pulling-late-nights, working-all-hours, emails at 10:30pm. Yet the glorification of overwork, long hours, and constant productivity is taking its toll.
In an age of burnout and mental health crises we’re seeing a shift in values. Once seen as the key to success, these norms are being challenged.
This century it was defined as “hustle culture” and it’s based on the theory that more is always better and you can sleep when you’re dead – it also pushes us closer to that ever-lasting sleep being the reality! It doesn’t just diminish our health and wellbeing but our productivity too. We’re not at our best or performing well when we’re exhausted, unwell and distracted.
I learned this the hard way when my corporate career ended in burn out. Back-to-back meetings, emails late at night and a constant hustle to do more and prove myself led to my undoing. It took me in the opposite direction of the peak performance I was chasing. It was a recipe I saw play out everywhere around me and these days I take a very different approach, as a result.
I’ve noticed a wider shift at play here too, we’re slowly starting to realise it’s not about the hours we work but the value and impact we create inside those hours that really matters and makes us successful.
So if hustle culture is dying, what’s replacing it and what’s driving this change?
The fall of hustle culture
Many forward-thinking businesses are recognising that performance isn’t about hours worked but about sustainable efficiency. This is backed up by studies showing overwork leads to lower productivity and poor health.
Our systems and environments are starting to change but so are we. The pandemic forced a global rethink of work-life balance. It gave us perspective and a chance to ask the important questions, like what matters? And how do I want to be spending my time? Add to this the rise of remote work, flexibility and AI automation which have also reshaped our approach.
Younger generations, especially Gen Z, are rejecting the “always on” mindset and seeking new ways of working. To them the hustle culture doesn’t make sense. And even those who do work hard, do so differently, with 8.30am-to-5pm in an office a foreign concept. Instead they embrace the gig economy, with its short-term contracts and freelance work, and make values-led choices.
For so long, we’ve talked about this quest for the elusive work–life balance, but that very term assumes these are separate things, that life starts once work stops. Yet in reality work is part of life (often a big part), it’s all life and that’s why balance is so important.
We’re seeing a shift towards work-life integration now with people seeking jobs that align with personal values and lifestyles. Flexibility is no longer a perk but an expectation and money isn’t the only motivator.
The emergence of the four-day week
Taking this one step further is the shift toward a four-day week. In some places this is happening at a company level, but sometimes it’s an individual choice. Some dip their toes in the water with a nine-day fortnight, taking every other Friday off for alternate long weekends.
Emma, a Waikato-based, small business owner admits she used to believe success meant being available 24/7. If an email came in, she answered it, no matter the time. Eventually the pace became exhausting. She now runs her business over four focused days a week and has clear boundaries around her time. The surprising part? Her business hasn’t suffered at all, but her energy and creativity have returned.
However it’s achieved, there’s growing momentum for shorter, more productive weeks that give us better work-life integration and therefore better performance too.
Mindful Productivity
At work we’re seeing two trends contribute to this space and add to the demise of the hustle culture, Mindful productivity being one.
Consult any number of human productivity and performance experts and you’ll get a recurrence of these themes: focus on deep work, take regular, intentional breaks, and practice quality over quantity.
We’re also seeing a rise in “wellness first” workplaces. This is companies prioritising mental health, flexible schedules, and wellbeing perks, and it’s now an expectation rather than a perk for top talent in the recruitment space.
The final nail in the hustle culture coffin is our move as humans to choose purpose over pay checks. To desire a feeling of value and impact in what we do each day, not to just work for money without any meaning.
For so long we’ve believed the road to success is hard work and more of it. That’s now proven not to be true. In many cases it’s proven to be harmful to our health, wellbeing and our performance.
What we now know is that we can be effective rather than busy, that we can have work and life and that coexist in balance, that we can slow down in order to speed up and that productivity is about quality not quantity. Work can bring purpose not just a paycheck and our wellness can (and should) be part of the conversation.
The future of work is about working smarter, not harder.
With a background in HR, Jess Stuart is now a Waiheke-based career coach and the author of several books including: Burnout to Brilliance and I Love Mondays.
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