One of the most harmful trends in today’s work environment primarily affects women and stems from the distortion of the dynamic image of the working woman who is expected to accomplish everything. We’re talking about hustle culture, the workaholic mentality that undermines employees’ well-being and is often mistakenly seen as a major achievement of modern office life.

The rise of women in the workforce is a significant feminist victory that came after many years of sacrifice. However, a few decades after women entered the global workforce en masse, a new model of the working woman emerged—one who combines “male” ambitions with feminine presence, often symbolized by high heels and a power suit. This woman, who may work just in the office next to ours, works hard, constantly seeks ways to achieve goals, believes she has found the balance between her professional and personal life, and pressures her colleagues to pursue perfection in their work.

However, when everything revolves around this mentality, there is no true work-life balance, and the risk of burnout lurks just around the corner. The harmful effects of workaholic culture on both mental and physical health are at the heart of the following books, written by women who deconstruct hustle culture from a feminist perspective. They invite us to recognize the mistakes we make in our daily working lives (and beyond), which could cost us dearly in the long run.

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, by Anne Helen Petersen
Millennials are considered by many writers as the major victims of hustle culture, as they experience burnout at high rates due to these behaviors and the misfortune of living through some of their most productive years during the global economic crisis. Petersen examines how millennials became the “burnout generation” and how this affects their social behavior at all levels.

Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, by Kristi Coulter
With extensive experience in leadership roles at Amazon, Coulter describes in detail how she sacrificed her personal life and ignored her values to maintain her professional titles. This book focuses on how female ambition is distorted in the modern workplace, revisiting the issue of gender equality.

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, by Tricia Hersey
Rest is a revolution, says Hersey, who rejects hustle culture entirely, calling the system that breeds it dangerous as it often forces workers to believe that productivity is the only measure of their worth.

Work Won’t Love You Back, by Sarah Jaffe
Published in 2021, this book presents stories of women across various industries, revealing that the phrase “do what you love” is deeply misleading, leading to exhaustion from the exploitation workers face from employers. Jaffe argues that the sooner we accept this, the quicker our lives will improve.

The Myth of Making It, by Samhita Mukhopadhyay
Another successful female writer, this time from the publishing world, chronicles the history of feminism in the workplace and offers solutions that can lead us out of the current dead-end hustle culture, which glorifies productivity while ignoring the importance of workers’ well-being.