Advocating for grueling 80-to-100-hour work weeks, tech billionaire Elon Musk once famously posted on social media that “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”
If hearing that makes you feel like a slacker, you are certainly not alone. It is meant to do precisely that. Remarks of this nature serve as prime examples of the kind of thinking that has fueled toxic productivity for generations, conditioning workers to equate their self-worth with their output and availability. However, in this new era of workplace "right-to-disconnect" policies and shifting societal values, a comment glorifying extreme overwork is far more likely to be met with eye-rolling than a thumbs-up.
Since the global pandemic and the subsequent mainstream rise of remote work, a pronounced cultural shift has been taking root across various industries: a widespread rejection of the traditional rise-and-grind mindset. People are increasingly questioning how overworking became so normalized in professional spaces, and examining why they bought into the exhausting narrative for so long.
This leads to a fundamental question currently facing many labor markets: Is hustle culture finally on its way out?
“I don’t think ambition is dying. I think our willingness to sacrifice our health in the name of ambition is starting to die,” says Toronto-based holistic coach Annie Gaudreault, founder of Veev Health & Wellness. “For years we’ve glorified being busy, exhausted, and constantly available as evidence that we’re committed and successful. But there is nothing high-performing about being chronically depleted.”
Gaudreault emphasizes that hard work itself is not the inherent problem. Rather, hard work can be deeply fulfilling when approached sustainably. The challenge moving forward, she notes, must center on figuring out “how well we can perform without sacrificing our health to do it.”
Focusing on impossible productivity standards remains an expressway straight to burnout. The work-till-you-drop mindset stubbornly ignores the hard physiological reality that human productivity tends to decline sharply after long stretches of sustained overwork. Eventually, as professionals discover the hard way, your body sends you the bill.
Expectations Have Changed
This philosophical reckoning has steadily made its way into traditionally demanding fields, including the high-stakes world of real estate. For decades, the profession has operated under the unwritten rule that clients come first at all hours of the day and night, transforming agents into perpetual responders.
“Our clients’ expectations have changed, and so have ours,” says Kim Fairley, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association.
Fairley points out that many people within the industry now place significantly more value on flexibility, mental health, family time, and rich experiences outside of work. The definition of a successful Realtor, she argues, is undergoing a necessary transformation.
“Answering every message immediately and never taking a day off shouldn’t be the definition of a successful Realtor,” Fairley continues.
Fortunately, structural shifts within the technological landscape are providing agents with new avenues to manage their workloads. The rapid rise of artificial intelligence, alongside other advances such as secure e-signatures and virtual meetings, has helped pave the road to new, more automated ways of handling complex real estate transactions, she adds.
Don Kottick, president of Remax Canada, shares a similar perspective, observing a notable evolution in how agents think about their professional lives. While real estate has traditionally been an “always-on business,” Kottick notes that the industry is adapting as Realtors embrace modern tools designed to operate more efficiently. These technological aids hold the potential to carve out valuable time, allowing agents to pursue a much-needed better work-life balance.
“Technology can make a meaningful difference. AI can streamline day-to-day operations,” Kottick observes.
A Business, Not a Job
For some professionals on the front lines, the technological acceleration is hard to overstate. Corbin Chivers, an agent with Stonehaus Realty in British Columbia, says he has “never seen anything improve this fast” in his entire lifetime. At the same time, he finds that the majority of agents have not yet learned how to harness artificial intelligence and automation properly.
By taking a deep dive into AI himself and successfully building a supportive team around his operations, Chivers has managed to free up a substantial amount of time in his schedule. Yet, paradoxically, reclaiming those hours has not led him to scale back his professional ambitions.
“But working less isn’t what excites me,” Chivers says candidly. “Building more is.”
It is a reminder of the diverse perspectives found across the industry. While Chivers remains in awe of the revolutionary strides being made by artificial intelligence and automation, he does not feel that these tools are fundamentally altering real estate’s deep-seated grind culture at this current juncture.
“I don’t see hard-working agents working any less than they did 10 years ago. This is a business, not a job with set hours,” Chivers explains. “At the start, you invest your time. Later the goal is to buy some of it back. That’s what I’m building for—freedom. Not a lifetime of doing every job myself.”
The Grind Isn’t Dead Yet
Despite the growing appetite for sustainable work systems and mental health prioritization, the broader reality reveals that burnout culture is far from dead. The tension between the desire for balance and the stubborn demands of the profession remains palpable.
“I’m seeing a mix,” says Juliana Vallee, a British Columbia-based Remax agent and coach. “The conversation has changed faster than the behaviour.”
Vallee points out that part of the ongoing challenge stems from the fact that the real estate industry still actively rewards the grind. Traditional metrics, including production rankings and corporate awards that exclusively celebrate high sales volumes, continue to dominate agency culture. Because of these visible benchmarks, newer agents understandably assume that constant availability and round-the-clock hustle are simply the mandatory price of admission for success.
To combat this cycle, awareness has become Vallee’s primary goal when working with clients and peers. She encourages individuals to notice when one area of their life is consuming too much energy and to develop the conscious awareness required to counter-balance it.
Among the most practical changes Vallee has observed in the agents she coaches are deliberate strategies like time-blocking both professional tasks and personal life commitments, alongside setting firm boundaries and expectations with clients right from the initial meeting.
Navigating these boundaries is further complicated by broader economic conditions. The current challenging housing market creates an environment where traditional playbooks no longer apply reliably.
“Nobody hands you a playbook for a market like this,” Vallee says. “I don’t think there’s one simple answer. Almost every agent I talk to now says they want more balance, yet many are still answering texts at 10 pm and working through their kids’ sports games. They just feel guiltier about it than they used to.”