Is Leaving Work at 5 pm Quiet Quitting? Rethinking Hustle Culture and Burnout

Ashley Elliott
1 hour ago
4 min read

Why Leaving Work at 5 pm Felt Like an Identity Shift

As someone who has identified as a “hard worker” and “high achiever,” it was a complete identity shift to focus on solely meeting the expectations of the job. I was only giving 100% of my energy and time instead of 150%.

It felt like an identity shift to just close my laptop at the end of the day at 5 pm, which was the contractual obligation of the job. Some of you may know this as quiet quitting, closing the laptop or leaving the office at 5 pm, or just focusing on meeting the contractual obligations of the job.

Is Finishing Work at 5 pm Really Quiet Quitting?

As I sat with that idea, I began to ask myself:

What exactly am I quitting when I close my laptop at 5 pm?
Is it my job, or is it hustle culture?
What narrative am I no longer believing when I decide to finish my work at 5 pm?

For me, having that blank space in my calendar after 5 pm helped me:

Create balance in how I worked
Recover from burnout

That blank space helped me pursue things I was passionate about, such as:

Different recipes
Cooking different cuisines
Spending time enjoying food

Back in university, I was drained and emotionally burned out at the end of the day. I did not have the energy to cook pasta sauce from scratch or enjoy cooking Greek food such as lamb kebabs.

Whereas now, I have the energy and time after 5 pm to enjoy my passion for cooking and food.

Creating Work-Life Balance by Leaving at 5 pm

Closing my laptop and leaving the office at 5 pm gave me the energy and time to:

Go out on dates, whether that be to coffee shops or restaurants
Meet my partner that I am with today
Book and plan travel across Canada and Europe
Pursue passions outside of work

How “Quiet Quitting” Reinforces Hustle Culture

Very recently, in our culture we’ve seen the rise of the narrative called “quiet quitting,” which describes anyone whose intention is to meet the contractual obligations of their role.

The idea that someone who sets boundaries and meets the contractual obligations of their job is a quiet quitter:

Creates stigma
Creates guilt
Reinforces hustle culture
Reframes healthy work-life balance as a lack of ambition

The label of “quiet quitter” subtly shifts what we consider ‘normal work.’

When we:

Work our agreed hours
Complete our responsibilities
Don’t take on unpaid extra work

…and that gets called “quitting,” the baseline moves.

Now the expected standard becomes overworking, rather than us simply doing what we were hired for.

Furthermore, this term of “quiet quitting” teaches us often that anyone who works their agreed hours and meets the contractual obligations of their role is:

Disengaged
Unmotivated
Not a team player

But what is with this narrative that when we finish our work at 5 pm, we are quiet quitters?

How Hustle Culture Contributes to Burnout

Narratives like this can often make it that much more challenging to recover from burnout.

That’s why it’s important to critically think about the narratives we’ve been taught by our culture.

It’s important to dial up our own sense of:

Intuition
Curiosity

So we can discover what story, deeply in our bones, we want to believe around work.

How Feminine Embodiment Supports Burnout Recovery

Turning up curiosity is what led me to learn about feminine embodiment.

Learning about it is what helped me discover embodiment practices that I can do daily, so I can:

Dial up intuition
Create boundaries
Discover what lights me up
Trust myself

The act of embodiment is what dialed up my intuition and trusting myself when I could sense that I needed a break at 5 pm.

Listening to my heart helped me:

Rewrite my own story of what it meant to be a good worker
Create blank space in my calendar for rest
Recover from emotional burnout

By listening to my intuition, I was able to rewrite my own definition of what it means to be a committed worker instead of listening to the cultural narrative. By listening to my own intuition, I was able to discover what my passions were, such as food or travel, and create the space in my calendar for those passions.

Closing my laptop at 5 pm with ease is one of the actions that helped me achieve those things.

An Embodiment Practice to Try

But that wasn’t done until I really leaned into the practice of embodiment.

One embodiment practice I recommend is my guided meditation, rejuvenate your energy after burnout (insert link), which you can explore to begin reconnecting with your internal rhythms.

So what I leave you with today is a second embodiment practice that you can do to support you in creating balance in how you work so you can rest based on your internal rhythms.

Step 1: Dial Up Your Intuition

The first step of this practice is to dial up your intuition. This can be done by:

Closing your eyes
Placing a hand on your heart
Taking a moment to be with your thoughts, emotions, and energy

Or you can:

take a long walk in nature
find a quiet space
be with yourself

Reflection Questions

Then, I invite you to ask yourself:

What narrative am I no longer believing when I decide to finish my work at 5 pm?
What level of commitment makes someone a good worker?
What narrative are you no longer believing when it comes to what it means to be a committed, good worker?

One-to-One Support for Burnout Recovery

Lastly, if you are looking for one-to-one support with creating the openness in your schedule so you can use your time to move your body, hang out with your kids and friends, and rest when you need to based on your internal rhythms, then I invite you to book a discovery call with me here, and I can share suggestions with you!