You should be grinding 24/7. Days of rest are for the weak and those who don't deserve success. Forget caring about your friends and family members; your career is your family now. If you’re not waking up at 4am and drinking protein shakes to save time, you’re never going to have the life you’ve dreamed of.
We’re all familiar with this kind of toxic messaging. We’ve seen the posts on social media and heard the “motivational speeches” on YouTube. But if you’re interested in calling out hustle culture, rather than succumbing to the pressure to be a girlboss or hustle bro, we’ve got the perfect list for you down below. We’ve gathered some of the cringiest posts from the LinkedIn Lunatics subreddit, so enjoy scrolling through and keep reading to find a conversation with the founder of Her Messy Bun, Danielle Clemente!
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My Friend Sent This To Me, Caption: "Wow. This Company Just Invented The Lunch Break"
Lunatic From Blind, Thought They Belonged Here
Ouch
i mean, if that’s the case then the stats are technically true 🤷
What was once a professional site used for networking and searching for jobs, LinkedIn seems to have gone off the rails in recent years. Instead of simple posts about people celebrating being at their current job for 5 years, the site is now filled with toxic advice and “professionals” bragging about their commitment to their work ethic. That’s why groups like LinkedIn Lunatics have begun surfacing. This subreddit, which describes itself as “for insufferable LinkedIn content,” has been around since 2019 and has amassed 324k members, or “LinkedIn Premium Members.”
“Scroll through LinkedIn and you will find a mix of rampant virtue signaling, cringeworthy titles, and stories that could come from r/thathappened,” the moderators explain in the community’s About section. “This subreddit is for sharing and discussing these LinkedIn characters.” From facepalm worthy posts to the worst advice you could ever imagine, this group has it all!
Bill Gates
I Finally Have Something To Contribute To This Community
Now, there’s nothing wrong with having a great work ethic. Working hard can be rewarding and satisfying, especially when it translates to higher pay, promotions and greater opportunities within your company. However, there’s a big difference between being invested in your job and being a workaholic. Many of these “LinkedInfluencers” tout the advantages of missing important events in their children’s lives, skipping out on holidays, working while sick and working overtime because “the hustle never stops.”
To learn more about hustle culture, we reached out to Danielle Clemente, Creative Consultant and Founder of the Her Messy Bun Podcast and Consciously Creative. Danielle explains hustle culture as “when you put work above everything including your mental health, available energy, rest, family and personal time.”
“Hustle culture is filled with unsustainable practices that perpetuate the idea that you live to work, rather work to live,” she continued. Danielle also noted that hustle culture can negative impact our lives for many reasons, including causing burnout, forcing people to try and meet unrealistic deadlines or expectations at any or all costs, and affecting how we see ourselves in the world.”
He Loved Being At His Office That Much
if anyone sprinkles my ashes outside of my old school i will unalive them /s (i hate that place)
Gotta Find A Way To Stand Out
Others Take Vacation - I Take A Think Week. We Are Not The Same
“It’s harmful on so many different levels, and it has the ability to affect anyone,” Danielle told Bored Panda. “Hustle culture is sneaky, because the idea to hustle is also tied to the idea of working hard or that you have to hustle in order to get what you want. The word hustle itself is defined as constant movement or forcing movement, so when applied to entrepreneurs (especially neurodivergent creatives) it’s extremely detrimental to your wellbeing.”
Dude Dies And Is Back To Work In 5 Hours
His last name does contain the word “gag”. So you were forewarned.
Hustle Lords Are Back!
This Upset Me Just As Much Seven Years Ago As It Does Today. Choose Momentum Not The Movies
Danielle also says that most of us have participated in hustle culture at one point or another, due to how normalized it’s become. “If you ever went to school sick because your parents couldn't take off work, if you ever worked for a company that only allowed so many sick days or time off, if you ever went to a university that failed you if you missed too many days, if you ever got road rage… The examples are endless,” she shared. “I think the majority unknowingly participate because of how ingrained it is into people's everyday lives. Once you start realizing that there’s an alternative way to work and live, you start seeing how many things are tied to it.”
“I’m On Vacation But With A Hotel Lobby So Nice, How Can I Not Work?”
Dude Puts Himself As Investor For Every Stock He Owns
Sorry Kids, Gotta Hustle
no, you won’t remember the lives your children have led because YOU WERENT THERE
But we’re not all doomed to a life of perpetuating hustle culture forever. “What I teach burnt out creatives and entrepreneurs, is that there’s an alternative way to work, there are simple solutions to everything,” Danielle shared. “On the small scale it looks different for everyone, but when you zoom out and look at the big picture, it’s all about learning to work around your different energy levels and as I call it – Work Intuitively.”
Work Life Balance Isn't For People In Their 20's!!!
So a family instantly appears when you get to your 30s? What about your 20s also generally being your healthiest to allow for a more energetic parent who can give more to a baby?
Smh At All These Spoiled People Not Willing To Work For Half Their Market Worth For No Reason Smh
Always Choose Linkedin Followers. Agree?
Danielle recommends “creating an intuitive work schedule, filled with simple strategies that honors how your brain works. An example of this, I’ve been teaching for years and has helped so many creatives and large creators, is to break up your days into themes and then always start with the bare minimum, the easiest yes,” the expert explained. “Working in themed days prevents context shifting which then intern protects your current energy levels, and allowing yourself to do the bare minimum first takes the pressure off of feeling like you have to stay busy, or constantly do more.”
Hustler Hustles His Son To Hustle
Yep, this one became creepy as it went on
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Selling stuff that your parents bought with expendable income. This is how people like Elon Musk grow up to believe that they are "self-made". the only value he's teaching his kid is that entitlement pays much better than poverty. Except neither of them probably understand that.
Do golf courses search for lost balls to sell them or give them to someone?
Load More Replies... That's 167$ just for selling stuff that you can only sell once every few years and 90$ for chores which most children would do for free or at least for much less money. How much is the regular allowance in the US?
Also he has to be able to source those items to sell. Not going to get people giving him stuff for free very often.
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What, you mean he didn't sweep chimneys or work in a coal mine too?
His revenue would be 292.50. You don't pay him an allowance, but give him $20 to wash a car
In my country golf courses lose lots of golf balls on streets so you you can return them to the course and get like 5 bucks for it
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So, he pretty much gets an allowance for doing things around the house.
So you don't give him an 'allowance' but you DO pay him $20/hr or more to wash cars? I can wash my grungy old van in under an hour. I'm assuming you have newer model cars you keep much cleaner than my van. So I could wash those in probably 20 minutes each. Assuming an hour for the kid is generous. You are probably paying him at least $30 / hour for what is unskilled labor. Way to prepare him for the real world.
I spent a good hour on my parents large cars. Inside and outside, sometimes covered in dirt and dead bugs from constant commutes. Then use special window cleaner and would sometimes get rid of paint scratches or detail. It all depends. But I agree it's generous for what a worker would get unless they were with the companies that clean in the parking lots of businesses.
Load More Replies... We don't pay an allowance but we give our kid hundreds of dollars for washing the car and putting a few items in Facebook marketplace? His other "hustle" is selling electrical equipment we gave him that he no longer wants.
Yes, but he 'brokered a deal' to sell secondhand on market place, what a hero! /s
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My guess is he walked into the office to tell you so you would for once show you're proud of him...
Mom Dad when you get older I got a place for you at shady pines retirement home. Where you will die a sad lonely existence
Where is selflessness? How did we get to a “real world” where helping others must involve compensation. Instead of having him do all that, why not just give him an allowance to help him explore his interests. Maybe he saves up for a laptop and researches 3d modeling or coding. Or maybe he buys art supplies and learns to paint. Or maybe he just spends it on video games, but at least he has the ability to explore himself and just be a kid while he still has his childhood!
That's the life of a child with no home or a child living in poverty helping his family pay bills
Well, my mom is teaching me to invest in stocks and etfs. I'm OBSESSED
Hrm, doing chores for his parents and getting paid -- isn't that the definition of an allowance?
Yeah daaaawwwwwg, my kid figures out a way to make money, and he gets a percentage, he gotta pay his pim.... I mean his household first.
I didn't get an allowance. I got panic attacks well into my 20s any time I spent money on something "unnecessary" and all of the other effects of the trauma that comes from watching your parents struggle to keep you a roof over your head and food on the table while trying to hide that from you. This guy is probably actually messing up the kid's understanding of how much living costs normal people who don't have neighborhood golf courses
Pretty sure dad took 200$ for allowing the kid to hustle on his property.
1. Hmm, I'm not totally against this. Three of the points are pretty normal. Washing the cars is a chore, chores pay allowance. That's pretty normal. Collecting golf balls, pretty much a kid job (like paper boy), again pretty normal. Digitizing the photos, this falls sort of partway in chores and partway into teaching a kid about jobs. As a kid I wanted money for something (D&D books) and my Dad offered to pay me to help him with putting in a fence on our property. Normally I'd have done that for free, but it was a way for him to teach me and it gave me the money - win win. I don't see digitizing photos as being any different. Selling the stuff is a little different, but hey if it's stuff they no longer use it teaches about how to dispose of old stuff (better to sell it than throw it away, or let it rot in a cupboard). I feel like too many kids get huge allowances for nothing, they do no chores, they laze around and expect $50 (or more!) a week. (more)
2. (Cont) As long as the Dad in question isn't forcing his kid to hustle every day, every week then I don't see this as a bad thing. Maybe the kid wants an Xbox or something else. This lets the kid understand that he can work to earn it. And when he buys it, it is *his* not the "family xbox*. I always thought giving allowance based on chores made a lot of sense.
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Imagine being married to him and having to listen to that pish day in day out.
I wonder if he'll be just as proud when his lil hustler sells off the TV, XBOX/gaming consoles, couch/furniture, etc... Smh
This is EXACTLY how you raise sociopaths that see everything thru the lens of, "How does this benefit me, or how can I make money off this?" What a f*****g horrible life philosophy. I feel sorry for every kid this a*****e has.
So....it's bad to teach a child the value of hard work and money? Much better to just hand them everything, and build up this expectation that they inherently deserve whatever it is they WANT, so upon being released into the real world they go through life with a massive sense of entitlement and no means of overcoming any adversity?
So this is actually how I got my only spending money as a preteen/teen and it's not terrible in itself if the parents have the funds to do this. But bragging about this like your son is gonna make a startup next year is really sad...
This is so gross. What kind of parent treats his/her kid like an employee?
When this guy stops delivering a financial return his kids are going to drop him like a hot potato.
Kid's got a neighborhood golf course and skinflint parents, he's going to grow up with a VERY healthy attitude towards money
So you’re paying him for chores around the house. Isn’t that kinda the definition of allowance? It was with my kids
$292,50 for mostly jobs and sales from his parents' items. That's not the real world.
No value added, no money? Wait until you get old. What goes around comes around
He's going to need his side hustle skills when he flunks school and drops out.
Not gonna lie. Kid gets paid a better wage than alot of people for a lot less...
Were the golf balls his to sell, or was that fencing of stolen property?
Wish I grew up in your house. Don't know what an allowance is. I was allowed to live at home.
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Alright Which One Of You A**holes Posted This?
Run, You One Legged Pigeon. Run
Danielle also told Bored Panda a simple test we can all do to see where we’re at in the toxic hustle culture world. “If your idea of productivity is constantly trying to find ways to save time and energy, only to use that time to do more work, that’s part of the toxic hustle culture,” she noted. “I help creatives learn how to save time and energy, so they have time and energy to live more, and do the things they love.”
If you’d like to learn more about Danielle or gain more tips from her on combating hustle culture, be sure to visit Her Messy Bun!
How Romantic!
"Yellow Flag" To Not Work For Free Before Your Start Date
Don’t Forget - No Friends
Are you feeling inspired to finally use all of your PTO and actually take some time to rest out of spite, pandas? We hope you know how ridiculous all of these posts sound, so keep upvoting the ones that made you laugh. Let us know in the comments what the craziest things you’ve ever seen posted on LinkedIn were, and then if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article discussing how toxic LinkedIn is, look no further than right here!
You’re Wasting Time On Food When You Could Be Working On Your Second Hustle
Why stop there? Amazon order for meal replacement shakes/bars and multivitamins and then you can eat while working. Saved another 58 minutes!
Meet The Final Boss Of Linkedin
The Dystopian Future Where Daycare And Parental Leave Are Replaced With Babies At Your Workplace
This isn't "the office" - it's a public library which thoughtfully provides a spot for your kid while you use the computer to, say, look for a job or find a book in the catalogue.
I've Just One Question. Why?
Because Your Professional Network Really Needs To Know This
People Ask Her How She Has Abs Any Time Of The Year, Apparently
i have 7533873 things going on and can’t even get out of bed
All I got from this is that every single person on every single post sounded miserable, frightened or both.
If someone is miserable/frightened, that's fine, and it's great to ask for help, but trying to drag others with you, or worse, use them as ground to stand on, that's where I draw the line for my sympathy.
Load More Replies... He/she/they who dies with the most money still dies. Why bother getting more money than you need?
Right? And I’d rather spend my life nurturing my hobbies and interests and work only enough to live within my means. I’ll probably never retire… but oh well, I might die next week too
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My heroes are the bosses who understand humanity. The ones who give the musician the rural signal box so that they can be paid to practice, or who don't penalize volunteer emergency workers for office hours call outs.
We all know people like these who are so obsessed with work and "getting ahead" they don't have time to have a life. And most of them are so smug and obnoxious you can't even feel sorry for them.
We all "know" them... As in 'yeah, we used to hang out, but i haven't seen him in five years, cause He never had the time anymore, so i stopped trying. I wonder if he's still alive'...
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I f*****g hate LinkedIn. It's just as shallow as IG without the pretty photos.
most of these people seem like they don't have actual jobs. It's just a bunch of made-up toxic bu**sh*t to massage their egos and make them feel important. I feel sorry for their families, wives, kids, etc.
Seems to me that an awful lot of this hustle is to make it look like you're working, when you wouldn't be caught dead doing actual work. It takes a lot of effort to a) convince someone what you're selling is real, b) convince them they need it, c) convince them they need it from you, and d) convince them your price is worth it. A. Laubin Oboes has a multi year wait list for their instruments, and very close to $0 advertising budget. They haven't had to convince anyone of anything in about 60 years
Good luck with that. Let us know how that works out for you.
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All I got from this is that every single person on every single post sounded miserable, frightened or both.
If someone is miserable/frightened, that's fine, and it's great to ask for help, but trying to drag others with you, or worse, use them as ground to stand on, that's where I draw the line for my sympathy.
Load More Replies... He/she/they who dies with the most money still dies. Why bother getting more money than you need?
Right? And I’d rather spend my life nurturing my hobbies and interests and work only enough to live within my means. I’ll probably never retire… but oh well, I might die next week too
Load More Replies... My heroes are the bosses who understand humanity. The ones who give the musician the rural signal box so that they can be paid to practice, or who don't penalize volunteer emergency workers for office hours call outs.
We all know people like these who are so obsessed with work and "getting ahead" they don't have time to have a life. And most of them are so smug and obnoxious you can't even feel sorry for them.
We all "know" them... As in 'yeah, we used to hang out, but i haven't seen him in five years, cause He never had the time anymore, so i stopped trying. I wonder if he's still alive'...
Load More Replies... I f*****g hate LinkedIn. It's just as shallow as IG without the pretty photos.
most of these people seem like they don't have actual jobs. It's just a bunch of made-up toxic bu**sh*t to massage their egos and make them feel important. I feel sorry for their families, wives, kids, etc.
Seems to me that an awful lot of this hustle is to make it look like you're working, when you wouldn't be caught dead doing actual work. It takes a lot of effort to a) convince someone what you're selling is real, b) convince them they need it, c) convince them they need it from you, and d) convince them your price is worth it. A. Laubin Oboes has a multi year wait list for their instruments, and very close to $0 advertising budget. They haven't had to convince anyone of anything in about 60 years
Good luck with that. Let us know how that works out for you.
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