While post-pandemic work flexibility has come as a welcome relief to most UK employees — Brits spend the least amount of time in the office compared to our global counterparts at 34 per cent and 50 per cent respectively—hustle culture is still alive and kicking.
And from colleagues disrespecting your boundaries and emailing over the course of an evening or weekends to favouritism shown to those who work in the office and are more visible to their managers, many of us are still struggling to get to grips with what all this work-life balance really amounts to.
To make matters even worse, an insidious new form of hustle culture has entered the chat: the 5-9 trend.
Akin to the #girlboss movement which flooded our social media feeds almost 10 years ago and has thankfully been scrubbed from most of our vocabularies, the 5-9 trend originated on TikTok (where else) and involves users sharing jam-packed morning schedules, everything they accomplish before they go to work.
Taking photographic evidence of sunrise workouts or posting a selfie with a homemade smoothie in hand is nothing new, but what makes the 5-9 trend different is that it encourages a kind of toxic productivity that can lead to burnout, something 76 per cent of workers have experienced at some point in their career.
Even more worrying are the statistics around how workers are dealing with extreme stress: 84 per cent have admitted to powering through instead of tackling the root cause of burnout.
So, if you want to avoid falling into the trap of the 5-9 trend or facilitate a better outlook when it comes to work-life balance there are a couple of things you can do immediately.
For starters, identify what kind of schedule works for you. If you prefer to work late at night or your family life dictates your mornings and getting the kids out the door to school on time is your biggest priority, don’t berate yourself for not having done a workout or baked a loaf of sourdough to boot.
Similarly, if you prefer to pause your working day in the afternoon for a couple of hours and go back to your work later that evening, a super early start might not be the best idea.
Next, be strict about setting boundaries. Pause notifications outside of your working hours and don’t fall into the trap of always responding to emails within seconds of them pinging into your inbox out of hours.
Looking for a job that facilitates work-life balance and doesn’t encourage toxic workplace practices? If you’re ready to start your search, The London Economic Job Board is the perfect place as it features thousands of jobs in companies that are actively hiring, like the three below.
eClerx is seeking an Operations Analyst to join its financial markets team in London. In this role you will analyse trade and transaction reporting exceptions to identify and resolve causes accurately and on a timely basis, collaborate with sales, trading operations and technology counterparts and complete submission of daily reports, internally and to reporting repositories in various jurisdictions, globally. Candidates should have familiarity with trade and transaction reporting requirements and operations, with experience handling and resolving exceptions. See the full job description here.
National Physical Laboratory is helping to combat issues on a global scale such as climate change, curing diseases and the development of cutting-edge communications technology. As a Security Controller you will be a member of the ESG Directorate, responsible for overseeing the end to end security performance for projects and ensuring NPL is fully compliant with customer and UK legislative requirements. You will also develop plans for meeting threats and new technologies. Access additional details here.
Working as part of a team delivering the new London E-Business Support Programme, a fully-funded package of support specifically aimed at helping small business owners in London make better use of digital technology to enhance their online presence, attract more customers, increase sales and improve their business operations, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Officer will work closely with programme partners to ensure there is a consistent approach to EDI. As such, you will possess excellent IT skills, be comfortable working with different stakeholders and be able to demonstrate that you are experienced in ensuring project deliverables such as outcomes and outputs are achieved. Get more information here.
