I was in the hospital, held my mother’s wheelchair with one hand and gently stroked her back with the other and hoped that it would alleviate some of her incessant pain. Hospital files were hidden under my arm when my phone rang. I ignored it and pressed the quiet button, but the phone rang again. I softly answer the evaluating eyes of co -accompaniment and I am reluctantly answered that I disrupted the patients around me. It was a colleague of work and called to clarify something even though I was on vacation. The expectation that I am also available at this moment of deep personal crisis and grief was overwhelming.
At that moment there was a deeper struggle that I had confronted: balancing grief and mental well -being within the relentless requirements of hectic culture.
Unpacking the hectic culture
Hustle culture glorifies relentless productivity, ambition and success and often leaves no room for calm or self-care. The story is simple: If you work harder, you can reach more and you will get ahead faster. It is an ideology that is deeply rooted in capitalist systems in which individuals are rewarded due to production and efficiency, not well -being or balance. The toxic productivity, an offshoot of the hectic culture, is driven by the idea that you have to constantly revise others to secure their place.
The toxic productivity, an offshoot of the hectic culture, is driven by the idea that you have to constantly revise others to secure their place.
However, this determined focus on work supplies strong costs. After World Health Organization (WHO), Around 15% of adults in employable age live with anxiety disorders worldwide, and 12 billion working days are lost every year of fear and depression and cost the global economy over $ 1 billion in lost productivity. In India, the effects of this culture are obvious: the World Happiness Report 2024 India places the least happy nations in the world, with older people report greater happiness than youth.
Source: Fii
As someone who was deeply rooted in this culture, I always had appointments, projects and professional dreams, often at the expense of my own health. However, the grief of losing a parent paralyzed me. It was such a profound pain that it was forced me to stop, breathe and rethink life through which I had driven.
Sitting grief in the hectic culture
In a capitalist system that primarily appreciates production and efficiency, grief feels like a disorder. The same system that stimulates working with maximum efficiency overlook exactly the factors that enable efficiency: mental and physical health, a supporting environment and time for recovery. When these human needs are ignored, the system begins, exactly the workers on which it depends.
When I mourned my mother’s loss, a wave of debt capitalism exposed me. Social -Media platforms like LinkedIn constantly reminded me that I had “enough” and it was time to return to work so that I couldn’t fell back. Every day I dealt with the question: How would I justify this break? Was the industry friendly enough to accommodate a worker in mourning, especially one like me who had to prioritize mental health before productivity?
Was the industry friendly enough to accommodate a worker in mourning, especially one like me who had to prioritize mental health before productivity?
The pressure was immense. Every call of a concerned friend or family member seemed to concentrate on when I would work again, as if my value was connected exclusively to my productivity potential.
The privilege and politics of grief
I recognize that I had the privilege of mourning my own conditions. The privilege of withdrawing from work without taking a break without the immediate danger of financial uncertainty cannot everyone claim. Many employees in informal sectors or precarious work situations are forced to return to work immediately after a loss, with their employers carry out little or no support in their mourning.
Source: Fii
This reality is particularly strong in India, where there is often a lack of or is inadequate. The ability to mourn is bound by privileges, and without structural changes, many will continue to be trapped in a cycle in which their intellectual well -being for economic survival is sacrificed.
Cancel hectic culture: a call to action
The overwhelming pressure on “hustle and bustle” even in moments of deep personal loss speaks for the broader question of how capitalism appreciates employees. There is little space for emotional vulnerability in a system that is worth the output. However, this system is not sustainable. The mental well -being cannot be pushed aside for an indefinite period, and employers must recognize the long -term consequences of burnout, fear and depression on both individual and organizational level.
It is time that we rethink the Hustle culture, not as a badge of honor, but as a warning sign. Companies have to begin to implement guidelines that enable employees the time and space to navigate personal crises and grief without fear of falling back. Mental Health Days, flexible work plans and processes of the funeral work must be standard practices and no exceptions.
As for me, the grief of losing a parent forced me my own relationship with work. It was no longer just about productivity; It was about survival – my emotional and mental survival. To step back, mourn me and rethink my priorities was not easy, but it was necessary.
Source: Fii
Hustle culture can promise success, but it often has a price that is too high to wear-the loss of intellectual well-being, the human connection and the ability to fully process grief. My experience taught me that stopping is the only way forward.
My experience taught me that stopping is the only way forward.
It is time that we remove ourselves from the glorification of constant work and evaluate the well -being of the people from whom the workforce consists. Let us create a culture that enables space for grief, self-care and mental health-ultimately a healthier workforce is more productive.
