Hi, and welcome back to another episode of the Awfully Quiet Podcast. I am so excited for you to tune in. This is a conversation that I've thought about for years and years now, and I'm really eager to put this on the map on the podcast. It has been in one of my working files of topics to discuss on the podcast for quite some time.

And I always look for a way to frame it. And I always look for the right time to bring this topic to you. And I feel like now at the beginning of the year might be the right time to have this conversation with you, SubtleSquad, just because. I know where you're at in the moment when it comes to, you know, just kind of starting back into the year, setting your goals, setting some ambitions for the year.

What do you want to do better? How do you become your best self this year? What do you want to do differently at work in order to achieve your goals? And I'm sure that. Some of the things on your plan for the year and some of the things you have in mind to improve is exactly what we're going to talk about today.

Today is all about hustle culture and whether to hustle or not to hustle. And I've been thinking about this, like I said, for a really long time because I'm conflicted. There is this dilemma, this big elephant in the room of the whole sentiment these days is Hustle culture is bad and you shouldn't be working too hard.

You should set some boundaries. You should say no more often. And that seems to be the overall advice when it comes to how to approach your career is essentially working less, hustling less, being more mindful. But at the same time, if I'm being honest in my career to date, what has brought me where I am today, to a certain extent with hard work.

To a certain extent was putting in extra effort, giving it my all, going all the extra miles and putting in the work and being known for someone who does put in the work, who is resilient. Who will not say no. And I feel like that's universal. I often feel like people are being praised for their hard work.

People are being praised for handling a high workload. We often put people on a pedestal for, for extra effort, for their tireless work towards something. And we never put people on a pedestal for saying no, for putting in boundaries.

And that's a dilemma, isn't it? It's right there. So what I want to do today is. I want to share my personal opinion on where I've, where I've got to with hustle culture and whether or not to hustle. And then I want to give some advice on how you can check in with yourself, where you are in your career right now and whether you should be hustling or leaning back.

And what does it mean to lean back? What does it mean to work smarter? And I want to give you some strategies on how you might be able to, to fuel that transition. So personal opinion first, I'm going to give it to you straight. I am not opposed to hard work. I feel like to a certain extent. Hard work is necessary to get to a place in your career.

I feel like there is definitely a time and a place for hard work. And I have often been someone who, who is fueled by, who feels fulfilled by hard work. And I feel like it's something that is not often talked about. It's not a popular opinion. But to me, my, my career is important to me. It's an important aspect of my life.

And while I don't want to just define myself, It's Based on my work output, based on the job title I have, based on the results I bring, I do feel like I'm always going to be somebody with ambitious career goals. I will always be the person who is looking to provide value, who is looking to be part of a bigger picture, who is going to be part of a group of people who work towards something.

That feels like My definition of career success, like knowing what I'm good at, being able to help with that and being a part of a team, part of a group who is trying to move the needle in some way. Now, I know that this is not everyone. I know that not everyone places such high value on their career, but to put this into perspective for you, I often feel like what people miss.

Is that your career is not just a couple of years following your graduation. It's not just the 10 years in your 20s. Most of our careers will be 40 plus years. It's a big chunk of our life. It's a really long time. And for most of us, that'll be an eight hour day, give or take. So it's a hell of a lot of time.

Me personally, I want to make sure I spend that time and feel fulfilled. I want to be motivated by what I do on a day to day basis. I want to achieve a career that feels fulfilling to a certain extent. I know that will not be every day of every week. I know that there will be setbacks. I know that there will be times in my career where I feel better.

There will be times where I feel worse, but at the end of the day. I want to put my strengths to work and I want to make sure that what I have to give is going to help move the needle to some in some way. Now that requires. Me to put in the work that requires me to put in the work now, and I feel now is definitely the time for me to be doing that at the same time, I know that you can't be working hard all your life every day.

It's just not feasible. It is physically not possible, and it doesn't make sense. There is a time and a place for hard work for hustle culture. There are times when it really makes sense. To go all in to give it your best. And there are times when you physically can't, when there are other focus areas in your life when work must take a step back when it just can't get all the attention.

And there are also times in your career when hard work and working harder, harder, harder. Um, is actually going to hinder your career growth is going to harm you. And so what I want to touch on today is. The different seasons in your career and when you should be putting in the work, when you should be allowing yourself to work hard, to hustle, whatever you want to name it, and when is the time in your career when you shouldn't be doing that.

So let's look into that. Let's unpack that a little bit now. I feel like early on in your career, those first couple of years. You should be going all in, like, I honestly feel like that's the time where it absolutely makes sense to work hard and to establish yourself, to prove yourself to a certain extent, you're new.

There's a lot of things to learn and there's a lot of things to find out about yourself. So you want to gain a certain kind of breath. You want to try out different things. It's not necessarily when you, when you want to say no to things, because. That's not when you find your niche, that's not where you find your area of expertise.

You find your area of expertise by trying a lot of different things. Now for me in my career, I did HR, I did sales, I did marketing, I did, um, online merchandising and I've done all of these different things because I was like, no way, I'm just going to do one thing in my career. I want to make sure that whatever I end up doing for the majority of my professional career is the thing I really want to do, is aligned with what I do really well, is aligned with my strength.

So I did all of these different things and I worked freaking hard to do that. I worked freaking hard to be a person that's recognized for their work, that People trust can make a pivot from HR into sales, into marketing. And I would always put that first to a certain extent. I want to be honest in that.

I worked really hard. To be that person, I rarely said no, and I was often somebody who would be praised for managing a high workload for handling a lot of work at the same time for, um, yeah, being the person who brings that resilience to their day to day work has, that's the mindset and I feel like that helped me.

For a really long time, it's brought me to where I am today. I was able to do, to cover a lot of different functions, to pivot, to get promoted, and I've had a, I've had a hell of a ride if I'm honest. So I wouldn't go back and say, you know, I should be, I should be working less. There was a good reason for me to do that.

And so I feel. Like that just got to be said, I feel like that should be okay to a certain extent. Now, I'm slowly starting to feel that working harder and working more and continuing to handle that high workload and continuing to say yes to everything starts to harm me. And my career progression starts to take away from myself leadership and from my ability to delegate, from my ability to discern between the things that I should be working on and the things that I should not be working on and the tasks that I should not be taking on myself anymore.

And I'm starting to realize that the perception from the outside, the expectation starts to shift. The expectation for somebody like me is not any more to do it all and to handle a high workload. Now, I'm being measured by other things. I'm slowly starting to be measured by my ability to really look towards what is the priority?

What, where do I put my, my effort, my focus, my ability to place most of my resources behind the big needle movers and to also make decisions. and delegate some of the work to be okay with bringing in other people, bringing in other functions and potentially training somebody else to do a task that I used to do.

And slowly, but surely showing up with that level of self management. And starting to be seen as somebody who is able to lead others, who is able to be a role model, a good example for others and going to those higher level positions into those, you know, from middle management. Into higher level management roles, into deeper expert roles, being seen as an expert on something and not only as the person who does it all.

Now, how do you find out whether you are in that place too in your career? Are you in that transition period? Are you currently in a place where you should put in more work, where you should look to prove yourself? Or are you in a, in a very similar transition than me? Should you be slowly starting to work smarter and not harder?

Now, here's how I want to help you discern whether you are either one or the other. Now, a time in your career where you should definitely look to put in the work, to work hard, to hustle, if you want to call it that, is if you're early in your career, if you are new to your function or your job, and you are in a position where you still need to learn the basics, you're still acquiring the, you know, key skills.

Um, the foundations, the functional capabilities in that new environment. You are somebody who people don't really know yet. You have not proven yourself yet. People don't really know yet whether they can trust you, whether you put in good work, whether you are consistent in putting in great work, whether you are willing to show up, whether you are motivated and continue to be motivated.

You may not have that reputation yet. You may not have proven yourself yet, and you may not be on the map yet. You may not be in people's minds when it comes to promotions, when it comes to, backfilling higher level roles. And you may not be on that map yet. Call it the talent list, whatever it is.

But, I always describe it as you want to be in people's minds. You want to be remembered as the person who, Oh, this person does really great work. We should really consider him or her for that next level. That's what you want to achieve. You want to be that person who is in other people's minds and who, to a certain extent, has shown capability, the right mindset, a can do attitude, motivation, continuously.

That's when you want to put in work. That's when you want to focus on staying consistent. You want to focus on maintaining that quality and on being the person who. Is willing to put in that work now, on the other hand, if you are at a point in your career where you have done what you're currently doing for a long time, you have established yourself, you have mastered all the core and foundational skills in order to do your job really, really well, you may be at that point where you're slowly figuring out.

What you like to do versus what you don't really like to do, where you find a little bit of a niche, where you find out what it is that you would really, really like to do, what you would love to do more of, where you want to be in the next couple of years. You have already proven yourself, you have a reputation in the organization.

People know that you are trustworthy, that you are resilient, that you put in the work and you're already on the map. And senior leadership might already consider you for early leadership roles, middle management roles, you're already there. Now, at that moment, you might be tempted to put in that, that sprint at the end of the marathon.

You might be getting ready, gearing up to put in more work, to make it to the finish line, to finally be recognized, finally get to that next level in your career. And that's what you shouldn't be doing. Now is not the time for you to work harder. Now is not the time for you to buckle up and hustle up and give it a little bit more work.

Now is the time for you. So start doing things slightly differently than you've done before. It's not the time to sprint. In fact, it's the opposite. Now is the time to pause. Now is the time to assess where you are in your career.

Where is it that you currently are? Are you happy in the function that you're in? Do you feel like this is the right place for you? Why does you, the work that you currently do make sense for you? How is it fulfilling to you? What's the bigger picture that you're currently in? What's the, call it the purpose that you're in.

What's the mission that you're on? What's the why that drives you? And then you want to think about. Where do you want to go next? What is your ambition? What do the next couple of years look like from your point of view? Where do you see yourself? And I'm not talking about the position that you see yourself in, the car that you drive, the office that you're in.

I'm really talking about what's the kind of work that you envision yourself doing on a day to day basis. Who are you surrounded by? How does the coffee taste like? On, on any given day in the work that you do, I want you to, to draw and paint a real picture of what you envision your career to be like, that's the kind of, you know, self reflection that you want to do at that point.

And then you want to think about, um, what are the strengths and the skills that you have already demonstrated that you have already built that are going to help you get there. And what are the skills that you still need to develop to get there. That you still need to strengthen to get there. And now that becomes the compass that you want to run things through prior to taking them on.

Whenever you get a new task, you want to run it through that question of, is this going to bring me closer towards my ambition? Is this going to help build the skills that I need? Is this going to help me demonstrate the skills, the mindset, the experience that I need? To be considered for the kind of position that I want, for the kind of direction I want to take in my career, is this going to move me closer?

And if it doesn't move you closer, then you want to think about, does it really have to be done by me? Do I need to continue taking on these tasks? Or is there somebody else who might be better placed to do it? Is there somebody else who I could delegate to? Is there somebody else I could train to do this?

And then you want to minimize the amount of work. That you do, that is not really in line with the skills you want to build, the experience you're looking for, the position you're trying to put, you're trying to, um, be considered for, and you want to maximize the work into anything that's going to help you build that muscle that's going to help you develop those skills, strengthen your strength, and put you on the map for those positions.

Always think about minimize and maximize, because if we're honest. There will always be a certain extent of tasks and responsibilities that you just can't shake, that you can't delegate, that you just have to do, but always think of it from a perspective of how can I minimize this? How can I do less of the things that are not really helping me develop and grow?

And how can I do more of the things that are aligned with my longer term ambition and with where I want to go in my career? What does that do? Now, from an outside perspective. It's going to change the way people see you. It's going from being the person who does it all and from being the person who can handle a high workload, who, you know, you've, you've proven yourself.

You've done all that, but you're not the person anymore who says yes to everything. You're not the person anymore who just takes everything on. You're not the one anymore who does it all. Now you're the one who is intentional. Now you're the one who has a clear vision for where they want to go. What they want to do based on their experience, based on their strength profile, based on their personality.

Now you've got intention. You've got somewhere to be in the next couple of years. And that shows that's what, what's going to help you say no here and there in a way that's not going to be perceived. Like you just don't want to do the work. It's a no because you're not best placed to do this task anymore.

And because you focus all your time and energy and headspace into where you want to be into the big needle movers. You think of it from a self leadership perspective and from a people leadership perspective. That's how people leaders think they make damn sure to spend their time and energy where it matters most.

And that's, what's going to be visible from the outside for you. And that's exactly the transition that I want you to make this year. If you're in this, in this space, if you're in this place of I'm ready to take it to the next level, I want to be perceived as someone who is ready, who can discern between, you know, daily tasks that just need to be done very quickly.

And the things that really matter and the things that move the needle. Now, let me assure you, I am right there with you. I am right in that messy middle of, I've always had that tap on the shoulder for doing work that I didn't necessarily need to do anymore. For doing it all, for saying yes all the time, for accommodating and for being a good girl at work and in the workplace.

Now it has brought me here. I can be grateful for that. I am grateful for that. I know I always have that muscle of being able to work hard, of putting in the work of hustling. In fact, in my, in my business and my podcasting era, that's exactly where I am. I'm not working smart yet. I'm hustling. Let me tell you that.

But in my corporate job, that's got to change now. I know I have that muscle. I know I can pull it whenever I need it. But right now. I'm focused on stepping back, looking at where do I want to go? How do I position myself? What's the kind of work that I want to be focusing on this year in order to make that happen?

I hope today's conversation has brought some clarity into, you know, hustle culture and how you feel about hustling. I hope that for some of you, you will have had like a bit of an aha moment. In terms of like, yes, it is okay to work hard at the right time in your career when it matters. And it is okay to take a step back and to look at where you're at if it's time to work a little differently, to be more intentional and to take that into the new year and look where it takes you.

Now, I definitely want to hear from you if you are in that transition right now, if you want to learn more about how to make it happen and Yeah, I feel like we're in this together. So, um, thank you for tuning in today. And as always, I'm here for you. My DMS are open. I would love to hear what you would want to hear more of in the podcast.

If you have guest recommendations, give it to me and I'll see you next time.