36. SLPs and Hustle Culture Series: Episode 1

Today's episode is the start of a podcast series about hustle culture and the impact it has on the field of speech pathology. This series isn't just about shedding light on the issue itself but igniting a powerful conversation on redefining productivity and work-life balance. I'm sharing my personal struggles with feeling inadequate as a mom and an SLP. I'm calling out the role that we play in perpetuating the cycle of "work-work-work-work-burnout." I'm challenging listeners to consider their own beliefs about "success" and how those beliefs impact their stress levels.  I'm shedding light on the generational divide in our profession when it comes to boundaries around time. This thought-provoking episode is one you don't want to miss!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

This is your speech path mindful time management for the busy SLP. My name is Teresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnout and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in. Hey SLPs, welcome back to the podcast. So today's episode is the very first episode of a series that I'm doing all about hustle culture. At least, that's what I'm calling it right now. I don't know, somehow I would not be surprised if this sort of evolves in some way and once it winds up being released, it might be labeled something different. But regardless of the title, this episode and these subsequent episodes in this series are all going to be talking about really the culture of our field, the field of speech pathology. Right now, and specifically I'm talking about the hustle culture, and the reason why I feel compelled to talk about this is because I am really quite honestly tired of the narrative, if you will, of the energy, of the sort of culture and dynamics that exist in our field right now. I don't know if it's always been this way, and it's just now that my eyes are sort of opening up to things, but I tend to think that over the past several years, there's been a shift in our field in terms of work life balance and satisfaction with the job, with the career of speech pathology. More and more I'm seeing and hearing from SLPs who are feeling incredibly overwhelmed, stressed, burnout, just absolutely exhausted, struggling to make ends meet in terms of managing everything they have to manage at work and everything you have to manage at home and still have time for yourself in the process, right. And then, of course, the recent change with the ASHA rates has got everyone talking about this topic, and so I just figured what better time than to dive into something that is essentially the whole sort of crux of my coaching practice, of Teresa Harp coaching, which is designed specifically with SLPs and moms in mind who are struggling with quote unquote work life balance.

Speaker 1: 3:28

So in today's episode, we're going to talk about what hustle culture is. I'm going to kind of go through some different perspectives on this and I'm going to give you some examples of how this directly shows up in our lives as SLPs, really in your life, as a speech, pathologist or related health professional and a mom or a woman who is growing a business and a family at the same time, running a career, running a business and running a household at the same time. Okay, so hustle culture, let's talk about it, let's just dive in. So this is a term that is thrown around quite a lot, especially more so, I would say, recently. That refers to the idea that we need to be constantly busy, constantly productive, and it really places this intense value on work, working to the greatest extent possible, so working very long hours, getting up very early, working late and really filling your schedule with things that are going to sort of help you climb the ladder, so to speak, towards whatever your, you know, whatever that goal, whatever those goals or that destination is.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Now I want to acknowledge that I am somebody who absolutely values hard work. I enjoy putting a lot of effort into things that I do. That's just sort of, I guess, how I was designed, like how I'm wired, and I love stories of people who do the same right. I love the movies, the stories, the books about people who busted their ass to get to somewhere where they didn't think they could be or where no one else thought they could be. And you know the documentary on Michael Jordan, for example. I forget what it's called because you know memory, but the documentary about Michael Jordan, I just watched, niaid on Netflix. I love a good story like that.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So the reason why I acknowledge that, why I'm sharing that with you, is because I want you to consider what your sort of internal I don't know wiring, if you will is like in terms of working and success and how you define those things and how you value them, because it's going to look different for every person, but it will absolutely play a major role in how you spend your time. And if you're somebody who tends to be very driven or tends to be very active and goal-oriented, my opinion is you, we because I'm included in there we are at risk, perhaps even a greater risk, for hustle culture and then ultimately burnout. And so because we have this sort of internal glorification of hustle culture and then we get to see that magnified and represented externally all over social media, all over TV, all over, you know, the internet, wherever you go, right, and then you see those stories. So, between those sort of those two things the internal piece and then the external demonstration it's really easy to get caught up in this culture, and I think it's also important to identify how all or nothing thinking might be showing up here for you. So there may be some internal beliefs, whether you realize it or not, that you might feel that you can either be massively successful by working incredibly hard or you will be totally unsuccessful by not working at all. But there is no middle ground and that I want to challenge that.

Speaker 1: 8:06

I don't agree with that. I think there is a lot of middle ground and I think that all or nothing thinking is what gets us in trouble, it's what limits us from allowing ourselves to take a break, it's what limits us from allowing ourselves to pause and rest, or it's what causes us to judge ourselves or, if we're being honest, judge others for not doing enough in our mind, for not working hard enough, for not putting in the hours right. That's where our brain because we're human, we have human brains, that's what our minds do, that's what, that's what shows up for us, and sometimes we're not even aware that those thoughts exist. And then sometimes, when we do become aware that those thoughts exist, then we're like, oh gosh, we're horrible people. I can't believe I thought that. I can't believe I thought that about somebody else, or I can't believe I'm saying that about someone else, right, but we don't tend to have that same level of awareness and that level of shock when it comes to ourselves.

Speaker 1: 9:18

We don't tend to say, oh, I can't believe I'm talking to myself like that. I can't believe I'm thinking about myself like that. I can't believe I'm thinking that I'm lazy for laying on the couch and taking a break. Like, we don't have that same, that same sort of I don't judgment. I guess we don't have that same awareness of how that is unfair to ourselves. We might give others more grace than we give ourselves. Right, how many times have you judged yourself for taking a break or taking a day off, or not having a plan or not doing anything at all? And you might not even realize that you're judging yourself.

Speaker 1: 10:06

But if you listen to the thoughts that are going through your mind, to the words, the vocabulary that's showing up in your thoughts, they're really informative. It's really telling. It's a huge eye opener. Oh, I'm so lazy, right, I've got nothing done. I'm such a bum. I basically was a waste of life. Today, right, how many times have you heard yourself say or think some version of that? And I want to challenge that. How, ask yourself, how does that relate to the hustle culture, and how does that impact your ability to feel peaceful, feel productive, feel proud, feel content? You know, however, it is that you would like to feel, because those things just they all go hand in hand. Okay, so, in terms of how I think this shows up for SLPs on a more specific level, I want to get even more specific about this for you, and this have to be really. I should be really careful about what I say, but I mean, I'm just going to be honest.

Speaker 1: 11:29

I do believe that this hustle culture, this sort of dynamic, is created, or, if it's not creative, it's definitely cultivated or perpetuated by graduate programs, graduate level programs. I think that many of the master's programs for speech pathologists and I would guess that it's not just specific to speech pathologists, I would imagine this is. This might be happening in other fields as well, but I can only speak about our field there's this pressure of how much information students need to learn, how quickly they need to learn it, how high they need to perform and how busy they need to be, like, how packed their schedules need to be in terms of course load and direct clinical work, observations, research projects, so on and so forth. We pack it in for the grad programs and I think, I like to think, that this is slowly starting to change. I am seeing, I can say personally, that I'm seeing more opportunities, more instances, I will say, of grace and understanding being afforded to grad students. I am seeing those slow, small shifts where students are now being given more understanding, more flexibility, more I don't know support, even while they are working towards their master's. And I didn't see that. I didn't see those same instances, those same examples when I was going through grad school. I mean, for me, I remember, I know that there was several people that started the grad program that did not complete the grad program, most of them, a couple left on their own, but several were pushed out. And I think that our field yes, we want a very high level of, or a high caliber of, speech pathologists representing our field, taking care of our patients. It is an important role and it can quite literally be life or death in some instances not in most for speech, but in certain settings, yes, but does that mean that we need to put as much pressure as humanly possible on our grad students in order for them to succeed? Is there perhaps another way? Right, and it's interesting when this conversation comes up, either in, you know, meetings that I have with colleagues or when I see threads on social media about this.

Speaker 1: 14:53

I definitely have seen trends in terms of SLPs who've been in the field for longer versus SLPs who are new or relatively new to the field. Where there's a shift, there's a distinct difference in the outlook overall. Now, I'm generalizing here. I'm definitely making big generalizations, so take this with a grain of salt and this is all just my opinion. But what I've noticed is that SLPs who have been doing this for longer tend to make comments, like you know, specifically about the newer SLPs or grad students.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Those who have been in the field longer tend to make comments like well, you haven't paid your dues yet, and I don't mean that literally. I mean, like you know, you haven't put in the work yet, so you can't ask for a lighter caseload yet. Wait until you get to my point where I've been doing this for 25 years. Right, or I'll see comments, like you know, students now, they just don't want to do what it takes to be an SLP. Or they, you know, everyone wants everything handed to them. Everybody gets a trophy right. Or, you know, now it's so much easier because they have information at their fingertips. And I didn't have that when I was in school. I had to go to the library and look up real, actual books and put in the work put in the long hours. You know, now you can get things done so much faster.

Speaker 1: 16:24

You know there's, there's more resources that are available for new SLPs. I wish I had that when I was a student. And it's one thing to say those things from a place of you know, I guess. I guess acknowledgment or a place of belief that it is in the best interest of the students, you know. So, in other words, it's one thing to say that in support of students like wow, I'm so happy for you that you have these resources available. This would have been so helpful for me when I was a student. That's a very different energy, that's a very different mindset than oh, wow, must be nice, you have all of these resources. This wasn't available for me when I was a grad student, right? Major difference. Major difference in energy, major difference in tone.

Speaker 1: 17:20

And so the point is that those SLPs who have been doing this for longer, if we say that we had it so hard, so then therefore all new SLPs should have it so hard nothing changes, because, let me tell you, it's the same SLPs who have been doing this for 20, 25 years who are also burnout, stressed, overwhelmed, wanting to retire, but they can't retire. They feel stuck, they feel trapped. And it's ironic, right, that these sort of comments and judgments are coming from the SLPs who probably very much genuinely wish that it could be different. And the only way for it to be different is if we change the culture, if we change our mindset and our expectations that we place on ourselves. Otherwise, the SLPs that are coming into the field now are going to be no better off than the SLPs who are coming into the field, who are in the field and have been in the field for quite a while. Right, it's sort of like those of you who are listening who are moms when you have kids, you want your kids to have better than what you had. Right, you want more for them, you want things to be better for them than they were for you. And I would offer. Can we maybe adopt some of that mindset as SLPs, for the better of our field, right? For the betterment of SLPs, for the betterment of our clients, the clients that we treat and serve, right? The happier the SLPs are then, the better the outcomes for the clients, right? I would argue that's true, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 19:18

Now, another way that this shows up, this hustle culture for SLPs, is in terms of caseload. So we all know that in general, the caseload levels are high. Caseloads are high for SLPs. Not only high, they are unreasonable, generally speaking. So the issue here is that there is this underlying belief or this underlying message that's being sent, that the higher your caseload, the harder you're working and the more successful you are. So private practices with big caseloads are seen as quote unquote more successful versus private practices with lower caseloads, not as successful.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Slps who have high caseloads tend to be sort of the ones that are seen as by it, by it now, higher ups administration and so forth. They're seen as capable, competent, hardworking, ambitious, right. Versus when admin sees that you have a low caseload, it can sometimes be perceived as lazy, underachiever, poor work, ethic, right and now, granted, a lot of this is with caseloads. A lot of this is just basically who, how many kids you're assigned, and might have very little to do with with sort of your work ethic, if you will.

Speaker 1: 21:09

But for those of you that have a private practice or for those of you who are somehow responsible for determining caseloads for yourself or for other SLPs, I would encourage you to get really curious about what your sort of beliefs and maybe biases are about caseloads, because you may have some underlying belief like the more clients I have, the more successful I am, or the fewer clients I have, the less successful I am. That might be a thought that you didn't even realize is happening in your brain and then that impacts your caseload. It impacts what you do with your schedule, how many cases you take on right If you have a wait list. Like there is a sort of subset of SLPs in our field who own a private practice who have these thoughts, these limiting beliefs, that then impact or lead to, I would say, tendencies to overwork, tendencies toward the hustle culture. Okay.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Similarly the turnaround time, the expectations for documentation. So a lot of this is again determined by people who are not SLPs, who are making the rules about how quickly you need to have your session notes done, how often you're writing progress reports or how often you're conducting evaluations and writing evaluation reports. A lot of that is predetermined by your position, but some of you get to decide that yourselves because you're the boss, because you own a private practice. And I think that inherently there is this belief that we as SLPs hold that if we are not on top of our documentation then we are crappy SLPs. And because our casals are so high and because we're overworked and we're exhausted and we're constantly hustling, there's very little room, very little bandwidth, very little time and energy to get that documentation done within the workday. So we're bringing documentation home which then leads to hello, hustle culture.

Speaker 1: 23:42

Right, I have to stay on top of my notes or I have to catch up on my notes. If I don't, I'm a horrible SLP, I'm a horrible person. Right? Again, another example of all or nothing thinking. So it's this sort of perpetual cycle of not having enough time, not having enough energy to meet unreasonable expectations, or and or creating those unreasonable expectations for ourselves because we look around and we see other people, or we think there are other people around us who are hustling, staying on top of things. They're not having a problem keeping up, so we need to do what we need to do to keep up, and I just I'm not saying that that is necessarily wrong. For some of you, that might be what you enjoy doing and that's working really well and that's absolutely fine. Then keep doing that right.

Speaker 1: 24:46

Then this podcast isn't for you, but for those of you who are completely exhausted, for those of you that are feeling like you have zero personal time, personal life time for self-care, for those of you who are feeling like there is no such thing as work-life balance, that you're just behind constantly in all areas of your life and you're failing as a speech pathologist and you're failing as a mom or a partner or a spouse or whatever that role is for you. This episode is for you. You are the people I'm talking to and I want you to really get curious about what are these underlying thoughts? How do you define work-life balance? How do you define hustle culture? What do you think about when you hear that phrase? What do you, in your mind, constitute as successful, as hardworking like? What are those thoughts about those topics and what are your values?

Speaker 1: 25:48

Because those are the pieces that you need to be aware of so that you can modify them, you can adjust them as needed in order to create that level of work-life harmony that you are craving, that you're struggling to achieve. And if you want help with this, if you want to learn how to get started, then book a call book a call with me. I'm happy to walk you through it and talk to you about how you can create some semblance of work-life balance and control of your time immediately in your life, how you can, piece by piece, take back control of your schedule so that you can break free from that hustle culture, so that you can shift that sort of energy and story that you tell yourself, so that you don't have to subscribe to it, you don't have to be part of this. You can create a new reality. You can create a new story for yourself where you are incredibly successful as an SLP, as a business owner, as a wife or partner and as a mom. All at the same time, you can feel proud of how you show up and what you accomplish and what you do in each of those roles, without having to sacrifice one for another.

Speaker 1: 27:13

Alright, I'm going to leave it here for the first episode of this series. In the next episode, though, make sure you tune in, because I'm going to be talking a lot about how to differentiate between being busy versus being productive, how you think about those terms and how this is messing with your time. So make sure you join me for the second episode of this Hustle Culture series and, in the meantime, make sure you join the SLP Support Group on Facebook. It's free. We do monthly challenges and we're going to be adding some really cool features in the upcoming months. One that I'm really excited about is Q2 planning. We're already working towards Q2, so we're going to be doing a Q2 planning session and we're going to be doing some lunch and learns. So hop into the SLP Support Group if you're not already in there. Can't wait to see you in the community and I'll talk with you all next week.