Hustle Culture Is Dying and I Hope It Stays Dead

This isn’t lazy. This is necessary. Photo: Unsplash

I used to wear burnout like a badge of honor. “Oh I’m SO busy” was my answer to everything. I worked 60-hour weeks. I took my laptop on vacation. I felt guilty for sleeping in on weekends. I was grinding, hustling, killing it — and then I literally had to quit my job because I couldn’t function anymore.

That was 2023. I was 30 years old and so exhausted I couldn’t remember what it felt like to not be tired.

Two years later, I’m freelancing, setting my own boundaries, and finally understanding that productivity is not personality. And apparently I’m not the only one who’s had this revelation.

According to McKinsey’s wellness research, younger generations are more burnt out than ever, but they’re also more aware of it and more determined to do something about it. The hustle culture that millennials were sold as the path to success is being actively rejected by the people coming up behind us.

And honestly? Good. That whole era of “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” and “rise and grind” was toxic nonsense that benefited employers way more than it ever benefited workers.

What Burnout Actually Costs

Burnout isn’t just being tired. It’s a complete depletion of your mental, emotional, and physical resources. It affects your ability to think clearly, make decisions, and connect with other people. It can trigger depression and anxiety. It literally changes your brain.

And it’s everywhere. The Global Wellness Institute now lists burnout recovery programs as a major trend in lifestyle medicine. Healthcare organizations are implementing specific programs for physician burnout because the problem is so severe in that industry. Companies are (slowly) starting to realize that burning out their employees is actually bad for business.

Maya’s Take:

The Rest Revolution

Something is shifting. I see it in the wellness trends, I see it in the workplace research, and I see it in the conversations I have with friends. Rest is becoming respectable.

Wellness experts are calling 2025 the year of prioritizing rest — and not just sleep, but actual quality rest. Gentle exercise instead of punishing yourself at the gym. Slow living instead of constant optimization. Mental health days as a legitimate workplace benefit.

“I truly used to have the mentality that ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead’ but now I truly live in the space where I know in order to do meaningful work, I have to prioritize rest.”

That’s from a wellness blogger who sounds like she went through the same journey I did. And she’s right — you can’t do good work when you’re depleted. You can’t be creative or thoughtful or present for other people when you’ve given everything to your job.

Signs of Progress:

The Tricky Part

Here’s the thing though — rejecting hustle culture is a lot easier when you have financial security. A lot of people can’t afford to work less, set boundaries, or prioritize rest because they’re barely making ends meet with the hours they’re already working.

The conversation about burnout often centers upper-middle-class knowledge workers who chose to overwork. But what about people working multiple jobs to pay rent? People in industries where saying no means losing income? The discourse around “just take more breaks” can feel pretty out of touch when breaks aren’t actually an option.

Maya’s Take:

What Actually Helps

For those who do have some control over their work, here’s what the research and my own experience suggest:

Boundaries are not optional. I had to learn to actually close my laptop and stop checking email after a certain time. This felt impossible at first — like I was being irresponsible — but nothing terrible happened. The emails were still there in the morning.

Rest is active, not passive. Real rest isn’t just not-working. It’s doing things that genuinely replenish you — spending time with people you like, doing hobbies you enjoy, being outside, moving your body in ways that feel good.

Your worth is not your output. This is the hardest one to internalize, especially for those of us raised on the idea that we are what we achieve. But it’s also the most important. You matter regardless of what you produce.

Therapy helps. Seriously. Burnout is often tangled up with deeper stuff — perfectionism, people-pleasing, anxiety, fear of failure. Working through that with a professional is more effective than any productivity hack.

What I Do Now

My work life looks completely different than it did two years ago. I take actual weekends — like, completely off, not “just checking a few things.” I don’t work past 6pm most days. I go for walks in the middle of the day. I take naps sometimes without feeling guilty about it.

I also make less money than I did in my corporate job. That’s a trade-off I’m lucky to be able to make. But I’m healthier, happier, and actually producing better work because I’m not running on empty all the time.

Hustle culture sold us the idea that more hours = more success. But it turns out sustainable effort over time beats sprinting until you collapse. Who knew.

Biscuit is extremely supportive of the anti-hustle lifestyle. He takes approximately 47 naps a day and seems very content with his productivity levels. I aspire to his energy (or lack thereof).