Why is everyone my age tired? I studied hustle culture and burnout for my psychology thesis

Researching the Hustle: Insights from Young Adults

For my MA in Psychology, I interviewed 12 young adults (18–30) from college, corporate jobs, freelancing, and creative fields, and ran a follow-up survey. This post is about the interviews, since that’s where the interesting stuff is.

Key Findings from the Interviews

What came up repeatedly during our conversations:

• Identity: People tie their self-worth to productivity, so rest feels undeserved.
• Guilt: Many feel guilty relaxing, and their minds don’t switch off even when they rest.
• Comparison: Platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and influencers keep raising the bar, while the underlying struggle is rarely shown.
• Structure: Pressure comes from colleges, workplaces, and families—not just an individual mindset. Participants described “being busy” as something highly valued at home.
• Normalisation: Burnout is treated as expected or even something to be proud of. As one common sentiment goes, “everyone my age is tired.”
• Boundaries: Work constantly spills into evenings, weekends, and mental space.
• Coping: People rely on talking to friends, going to the gym, getting sleep, and pursuing hobbies, expressing a real desire for “ambition without losing myself.”

Burnout is treated as expected or even something to be proud of—with many young adults feeling that constant exhaustion is simply the default state of their generation.

Study Limitations

It’s a small sample, recruited through personal networks and social media, and based in India, so I’m not claiming it generalises universally. The survey showed hustle beliefs and burnout going together, but because it’s cross-sectional, I can’t say which causes which. It may simply be that burnt-out people are more likely to endorse hustle beliefs.

Over to You

I’d love to hear whether this matches your experience. What’s actually helped you step off the treadmill?