The Siren Song of the Hustle and Why We’re All Exhausted
Let’s be honest for a second. How many times this week have you checked email after dinner? How many times have you ‘just quickly jumped on a call’ when you were supposed to be reading a bedtime story?
I see it everywhere I go—in the eyes of executives, in the glazed look of mid-level managers, and definitely in my own home life when I try to juggle client demands with homework help. We’ve glorified the ‘always on’ mentality. We treat burnout not as a warning sign, but as a badge of honor, proof that we care enough about our work or our mission.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve learned after years of watching companies succeed and then mysteriously stall: Unchecked availability kills innovation, creativity, and frankly, decent human relationships.
The Boundary is Not a Barrier—It’s the Foundation
When I talk about boundaries in a corporate culture context, people often stiffen up. They hear ‘boundaries’ and they picture someone clocking out at 4:59 PM sharp and refusing to answer texts. They think I’m advocating for laziness.
I’m not. I’m advocating for sustainability. Think of it like this: If you try to run a marathon without ever stopping for water or a stretch, you don’t win. You collapse 15 miles in. Your business, your team, and your own mental well-being are running a marathon every single day.
What Happens When We Don’t Draw the Line?
The erosion of boundaries doesn’t happen in one dramatic moment. It’s death by a thousand tiny pings.
- Decision Fatigue Sets In: When you’re constantly interrupted, your brain never gets a chance to do deep, complex processing. You resort to easy, fast, often mediocre decisions.
- Respect Diminishes: When the CEO sends an email at 11 PM, suddenly everyone feels obligated to reply. This creates a toxic expectation where personal time is second-class time. The unspoken rule becomes: If you value your job, you value this crisis happening right now.
- The ‘Creative Void’ Disappears: Seriously, when do you think your best ideas come? Usually not when you’re staring down a Slack notification. They arrive when you’re walking the dog, taking a shower, or staring blankly out a window. If we fill every spare moment with reactive work, we starve the creative engine.
How to Reintroduce Sanity (And Why Leadership Must Go First)
Changing this culture isn’t about adding a new policy document. It’s about modeling behavior. It starts at the top, always.
1. Define Sacred Spaces
As leaders, we need to explicitly state when we are *not* working and encourage others to do the same. I often tell my team: ‘If something is truly an emergency—meaning the building is literally on fire—call my personal cell. Otherwise, an email sent after 7 PM will be addressed tomorrow morning at 9 AM. Seriously. Go be a parent/cook/person.’
This gives permission. When you stick to your own off-hours, your team feels safe reclaiming theirs.
2. Master Asynchronous Communication
We default to synchronous communication (meetings, immediate replies) because it feels productive. It’s not. It’s often just performance theater. Use tools to their full potential. If it’s not urgent, put it in a shared document where people can review it when they are mentally ready, not when you happen to fire it off.
3. Celebrate the Off-Time
This is the biggest shift. Start publicly recognizing people who take real vacations, who log off without checking in, or who successfully delegate something difficult rather than doing it themselves at midnight. Celebrate the break as much as you celebrate the win.
Look, building a world-class business doesn’t require sacrificing your soul. It requires smart energy management. If we want high performance consistently, we need to treat our people—and ourselves—like high-performance engines that require proper cool-down time. A healthy boundary isn’t a sign of low commitment; it’s the ultimate commitment to longevity. Let’s stop glorifying exhaustion and start celebrating sustainable success.
