In today’s fast-paced work environment, hustle culture has taken root—glorifying long hours, skipped vacations, and weekend grinds as signs of ambition and dedication. For many young professionals, working weekends and burning the midnight oil has become a norm, often seen as a necessity to meet unrealistic deadlines imposed by managers. However, entrepreneur Aryan Kochhar from Delhi is challenging this mindset and exposing the darker truth behind such practices.
In a candid LinkedIn post, Kochhar urged young professionals to rethink the culture of sacrificing personal time for professional praise. “If you’re working weekends, you’re not building a career. You’re covering for broken systems,” he wrote. According to Kochhar, many companies don’t reward intelligence or efficiency—they reward those who sacrifice the most, often without compensation or recognition.
He further emphasized that answering late-night emails isn’t leadership; it’s unpaid crisis management. Similarly, skipping vacations doesn’t indicate ambition—it reflects normalized exploitation. Kochhar added that consistently working on weekends doesn’t reflect passion or hustle; rather, it reveals that the system failed to function effectively from Monday to Friday.
One of his strongest points was a caution to employees who think working extra hours will impress leadership. In reality, Kochhar said, they are teaching companies that they are available for free. “Real ambition isn’t working yourself to exhaustion. It’s building something that doesn’t fall apart without you,” he wrote. He also took a jab at companies that glorify constant hustle, stating they aren’t grooming future CEOs—they’re merely cycling through “disposable heroes.”
Kochhar’s bold take struck a chord with netizens. One user remarked, “Great point. Companies often see the most self-sacrificing as the best employees, which is sad. They’re setting the wrong expectations.” Another quipped, “Working weekends? More like the employee of the weak-end!”
Others echoed his sentiments. “This hit hard. Took me years to realize overwork isn’t a badge of honor,” said one user. Another added, “Overwork is a sign of poor HR resource mapping, not employee dedication.” A final comment wrapped it up aptly: “If weekends are the emergency exit for weekday failures, it’s not the people—it’s the process that needs fixing.”
