83
Volume:
2019
,
February

Off Grind

Submitted By:
Julia Cohen, The Field School, Washington, DC

Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work? by Erin Griffith
New York Times, January 26, 2018

Erin Griffith's recent article explores what drives the current workforce's youngest generation to undertake every experience as a professional and personal growth opportunity. Though this approach to work, or "hustle culture," is most often connected to Silicon Valley and similar industries, its paradigm maps easily onto independent schools where we (too) often foster similar, go-getter-until-we-burn-out environments. Griffith queries who benefits from this mindset of #TGIM (thank goodness it's Monday) and "rise and grind." Is it the workers or the bosses? The article inspires us to extend its line of thinking: for example, how does hustle culture manifest itself at schools that celebrate the traditional trifecta of roles: teaching, coaching, and advising? Additionally, it prompts us to consider the intersection of organizational and generational cultures: who works the hardest, the most, and at what cost? What drives our youngest teachers, and how do they embrace or disengage from the multiple roles they're able to take on only in our type of school environment? How do our school communities foster or refuse hustle culture? This article stands as a great think-piece about the way we push and pull teachers of multiple generations and perspectives under one schoolhouse roof.

Categories
Psychology & Human Development
Student Wellness & Safety