Is anyone else over the whole "hustle culture" vibe in consulting? I’m 45, and I’m tired of feeling like I have to be “always on” to prove my worth. At what point do we collectively admit that balance makes us better consultants, not worse?

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“Hustle culture” is corporate gaslighting. If you need to work 70 hours a week to prove yourself, your firm is failing you. The best firms are moving toward sustainability, not burnout. If yours isn’t, they don’t deserve you.

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Depending on deal cycles, strength of teams, and commitments, work week hours fluctuate from ~20 hours to ~60 hours/week. This is a lumpy profession which is somewhat unpredictable. Balance does make us better but when a $20M deal is on the line, can get very unbalanced real quick. But that’s what we all signed up for. And then there’s the pay.

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Ill add to that that if you are working 70 hrs at 45 Im sorry but you are not actually working. You are just keeping busy. Unlikely it translated to outcomes.
I guess when you are young likely you have 30 hrs where you are really productive and maybe 40 hrs where you are learning. Thats the best case scenario.
At 45 you are leading, so if you are calling meetings and team and client dinners work, then id bet you are doing it wrong.

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Thank you, P1. Your earlier post read differently. This one provides a great perspective on how the focus shifts and priorities evolve with professional tenure and maturity. I can relate

Personally I’m exhausted by the number of people who claim to work 70-80 hours. I’m not sure people know what that means. I think about work approx 80% of my waking hours- but I don’t do work 10 hrs a day 7 days a week (or whatever formula one may use). What we need to do is be honest about how much time we are producing work- not talking about it, not thinking about it.

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You need to not give it that much space in your head.

Gotta earn it everyday

Here is an article on 10 ways to build and preserve boundaries from a psychology journal

https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-way-to-build-and-preserve-better-boundaries

Our firm has never embraced this culture. Our practitioner consultants are expected to bill 36 hours per week. Partners focus on leverage and keeping billable time down to a sustainable level.

At that precise point when you leave consulting. That’s when.

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