Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly may be pop culture’s most popular workaholic. What’s not to admire? She is powerful, successful and has high expectations for herself and for those around her. Her job encompasses her life, yes, but it also fulfills her. Yet, she’s demonized for it. Literally — she is The Devil Wears Prada.
With the rise of mental health awareness, prioritization of self-care and pushback against achievement culture in recent decades, there’s a growing belief that being accomplishment-driven and participating in “hustle culture” is negative, categorizing people as unhealthy workaholics with skewed priorities and low self-worth.
While this is true to some degree, it isn’t the whole story. High achievers’ drive for accomplishment and productivity isn’t inherently unhealthy; rather, it’s the culture we’ve developed that produces workaholics and burnout. It’s possible to be a high achiever without being a workaholic — in fact, it is necessary for our well-being.
“When a workaholic can go from work as a coping mechanism to work as a way to create impact, then I think that is a high achiever,” said Samantha Lane, time-management coach and founder of Present & Productive and Origami Day. “It takes a little bit of reworking to know how we can protect our ability to continue working and enjoy our work, and even show up better.”
High achievers prioritize work that aligns with their values. Studies show that people who are excited about their work have a greater sense of purpose. Pursuing the things that are important to you boosts your confidence; the pursuit of mastery boosts mental well-being. Just because you enjoy working hard and putting effort into your passions doesn’t mean you’re engaging in toxic achievement. In many ways, self-care can be toxic as well.
“We would say that absolutely everybody needs some sense of achievement, and that in fact, if you’re not getting a good sense of achievement, it’s going to get in the way of you feeling fully self-actualized,” said Dr. Kirsten Bradbury, licensed clinical psychologist and associate professor of instruction at UT, who teaches the undergraduate studies course Burnout Prevention.
Dr. Bradbury mentioned that in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, achievement is second from the top and is needed to fulfill our potential. A lack of balance is not due to striving for achievement, but often reflects a lack in fulfilling the needs below achievement.
However, high achievers can tend to become workaholics. Achievers love to get stuff done, and when they tie their self-worth to their output, it’s easy to feel guilty when they’re not working. Especially in the United States, toxic achievement culture is driven by capitalist motives. Success is defined by productivity and diligence: the more you achieve, despite sacrifice, the more you’re rewarded. Often, this leads high achievers to experience depression and burnout.
“That’s maybe where some of the friction comes from, of feeling that achievement is something potentially dangerous to people,” Bradbury said. “When people achieve blindly, they achieve for others. They achieve for other goals. They achieve for other people’s values, in ways that can end up burning you out.”
Being driven and productive doesn’t necessarily make you a product of hustle culture. Prioritizing your goals does not make you a workaholic. Ignoring your basic needs for achievement? That’s where it is unhealthy. But ignoring the need for achievement is also unfulfilling. Although it’s easy to get wrapped up in believing achievement is toxic, we should rethink our perspective. Achievement is not the absence of caring for yourself or living your life — it’s a step toward realizing who you are and who you can become.
Coppa is a journalism sophomore from Charlotte, North Carolina.