Is the 5-9 trend hurting your career?
Social media’s 5-9 trend is hard to ignore. It started to gain popularity in early 2023 and has taken TikTok and Instagram by storm, becoming one of its most searched for hashtags.
Essentially, the 5-9 trend sees people share their pre-or post-work routine, and can include anything from working out to meal prepping, meditating to journaling and laundry to washing dishes.
On the surface, it seems like a good way to share life hacks and take inspiration from how other people handle time management and prioritise their tasks. But, scratch a little deeper and you might see that the 5-9 trend is glamourising hustle culture, which can impact on your feelings of self worth and negatively impact your career.
Since the pandemic, workers have realised the importance of work-life balance and have started to actively reject hustle culture. They have realised that quality over quantity matters when it comes to professional output and the importance of downtime.
Adding to the pressure
With rising calls for a four-day work week and growing demand for true workplace flexibility, it seemed the tide was turning on an “always on” culture.
Statistically, 76% of workers have experienced burnout at some stage in their career. New research shows that burnout isn’t just caused from periods of overwork and high stress, instead it’s caused by the slow and systematic increase in working hours that results in less time for downtime.
This is where the 5-9 trend can add to the pressure, pushing workers to achieve more with their time, leading to them more likely to experience burnout.
A recent survey on the impact of burnout shows that 84% of workers try to power through burn out, resulting in loss of motivation, reduced self confidence and the inability to achieve high level tasks due to fatigue––the exact things that are needed to achieve career success.
However, the increase in burnout can be split equally between employers and workers, with experts saying that employers need to trust workers to hit targets and goals with a certain amount of flexibility, while workers need to become proactive in protecting their personal time.
If you struggle to prioritise downtime and know that you’re doing everything you can but won’t win out against a toxic culture that prioritises being “‘always on”, then maybe it is time to find a new role with a company that cares about its employees’ wellbeing, and promotes downtime.
By Aisling O’Toole