Women Need To Kick The Hustle Habit — Their Success Depends On It

• More than 50% of women plan to quit their jobs in the next two years — citing workplace stress as a main factor, according to Deloitte.  
• The idolization of workaholism and the mindset that you should always be working and being productive has adverse mental and physical health effects.  
• Jennie Blumenthal, founder of Corporate Rehab, told Allwork.Space that working women are overburdened, and need to find a way to recuperate.  

Studies show that more than 50% of the U.S. workforce is currently “quiet-quitting,” which is often a sign of burnout.  

While both men and women have been found to experience burnout pretty equally — mainly due to overworking, a lack of childcare support, and more — women are typically more pressured to balance work and home responsibilities.

As of 2022, 50% of executive women and 70% of all female employees report feeling extreme burnout, largely due to imbalances in housework, caregiving, and office work. 

Given these rates of burnout, it’s not surprising that more than 50% of women plan to quit their jobs in the next two years — citing workplace stress as a main factor, according to Deloitte.  

“The number of women reporting increased stress and burnout is of significant concern, and employers are struggling to address it, as seen by the fact that burnout is the top driver for those women currently looking for new employment,” according to Deloitte Global Inclusion Leader Emma Codd.

Jennie Blumenthal, founder of Corporate Rehab and author of “Corporate Rehab: Ditch The Hustle Culture and Thrive Again,” told Allwork.Space that working women are overburdened, and need to find a way to recuperate.  

“We may think of it as work addiction; the executive who can’t slow down or is aimless in retirement,” Blumenthal said. “But the real substance running in our veins, keeping us hooked on a steady diet of more hours and coming back for one more hit of activity? It’s the hustle culture, and women are especially susceptible.” 

Blumenthal believes that women are at higher risk for burnout because of their caregiver status, limiting beliefs, and structural faults in the workplace. Blumenthal says hustle culture becomes a tempting way to meet all the needs of so many who depend on women, while finding self-worth in your performance.     

“In my research of 300 female executives, I heard stories of workplaces that weren’t flexible, bosses who were toxic, and women who were raised to believe they could do anything, so they tried to do…everything,” Blumenthal said. “The reality is that the hustle culture is often running the show — from the way we lead ourselves to the way we lead our teams, and it’s keeping women trapped in survival mode. But there’s a way to break your addiction, and shift from surviving to thriving.” 

According to Blumenthal, to break the hustle addiction and complete your own corporate rehab you must:  

1. Recognize your life story and context for your values
2. Evaluate your patterns and relationships
3. Heal across mind, body and spirit
4. Arise and grow into new skills and play
5. Build new dimensions of your life and work

“When we do this work as leaders and as companies, we give our teams a chance to lead with both head and heart; to model and build humane cultures. The kind of cultures that reflect the humans in the organizations they lead. Cultures that reward both productivity and respect, balance both masculine and feminine leadership styles, and champion creativity and collaboration as much as they do revenue,” she said.  

According to Blumenthal, “The future of work must shift out of the bygone output-focused era of productivity borne of the Industrial Revolution, and step boldly into the future of the Knowledge Economy where impact, empathy, and collaboration will be the differentiators, and hard skills will be table stakes. When we each do our own Corporate Rehab, we shift the mindsets and behaviors that keep us trapped in the hustle culture, and will unleash the innovation, growth, and power we’re truly capable of. Not as workers, but as humans.”

Hustle culture is toxic to workers

Working long, hard hours in order to be successful has been widely celebrated, but this tendency might be turning toxic and actually hindering productivity, and damaging the health of professionals — men and women alike.  

As workers become more in tune with work-life balance, the idea of working long hours has become scrutinized. The idolization of workaholism and the mindset that you should always be working and being productive has adverse mental and physical health effects.   

And when you’re not working, this culture expects you to always be learning something new, adopting a new habit/skill, or working out in the gym. 

Research has shown that increased stress levels lead to reduced professional productivity. To produce quality work, employees need to achieve personal satisfaction rather than just increase their workload.   

In order to keep a balanced work-life, work should not overrule your downtime and homelife. There needs to be a separation of when you work and when you relax.

If you want to put yourself through a “corporate rehab,” you’ll need to give up hustle culture first and find a way to detox from work, or the stress that your work brings.