35 Things People Wish Society Would Stop Romanticizing And Instead Embrace Reality

Romanticizing something essentially means that you spin hardships in such a way as to make them appear worthwhile. There’s a promise of some sort of grand reward if only you see things through and stick it out despite all the pain. Let’s not be naive: nobody guarantees you rewards. Sometimes, things are just bad, and the pain isn’t worth it.

Take burnout as an example. It’s an incredibly common problem that affects employees globally, and it’s something that we see as a major issue with very far-reaching consequences. Burnout is often seen through rose-colored glasses as part of being a ‘hustler’ (read: an exhausted workaholic with poor boundaries). Burnout doesn’t just affect your health in the short and long term. It also leads to poor performance, worse results, and low job satisfaction. It’s a lose-lose situation for the employees and their employers.

Recent research from SHRM found that a whopping 44% of employees in the United States feel burned out at work. The mental health-focused research also found that 45% of respondents felt emotionally drained from their work. Furthermore, 51% reported feeling used up at the end of the workday.

Meanwhile, the Boston Consulting Group noted in a recent report that an average of 48% of desk-based workers from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are currently grappling with burnout. One way to combat burnout (and the ensuing turnover!) rates is by making employees feel included, valued, respected, supported, and as though they belong.

Your relationship with work will depend a lot on your background, where you live, what company you’re employed at, how you handle your work/life balance, and how well you enforce healthy boundaries. While some employees are pressured to operate at maximum efficiency and be ‘on’ at all hours of the day, others push back against overwork to protect their physical and mental well-being.

At the end of the day, you can make requests for workplace culture improvements and should high standards for how businesses should treat their employees. However, unless you’re in an influential management or executive position, those key decisions are probably out of your control.

So, it falls to you and you alone to know what your boundaries are when it comes to (over)work. You also have to decide how you communicate them to your superiors and how you enforce them when (inevitably) someone crosses them.

What do you personally think society romanticizes that only ends up harming anyone who believes the fairytale, dear Pandas? What’s your relationship with burnout and hustle culture? Do you see it as something glamorous or do you see past the illusion?

On the flip side, do you think there are any things that are romanticized for a good reason? We’d really like to hear your take. Drop by the comments to share a few thoughts.