Breaking Past Hustle Culture: This LinkedIn User Left Behind Promotions & Titles To Prioritise Her Family

LinkedIn is a platform that often clouds one's social media with work or work-related stories. It's a rather unusual sight to see a user say that they have taken an "indefinite break" from their career to focus on what really matters to them at the moment. However, this is exactly the story that Sharmishtha Biswas wanted to convey to many people through LinkedIn.

Sharmishtha has an elaborate academic and professional profile that accounts for the fact that she is a career-driven person. For the same reason, it came across as a surprise to many of her mentors, colleagues, and family members when she announced that she would be serving her notice period at the company she is currently working at. Right around the time when she received a promotion as the Director for the Asia-Pacific along with an offer to the Singapore office, that too.

Simplifying it all with the hashtag "#familyfirst", here's the story that Sharmishtha shared with The Logical Indian.

'Today I Quit My Job That I Loved'

Sharmishtha posted the story on the day she had placed the papers for her notice period, and the former read, "Today I quit my job that I loved".

Working with a reputed company since 2017, her dedication has brought in several promotions and titles that propelled her to great heights. Her family was also equally proud of her achievements. However, in 2021, she was posed with a choice that many people at their career peak would hesitate with.

After her father passed away in 2019, she began living with her mother and her pet dog. Around the time when she received her promotion, her mother was diagnosed with progressive ear disease. The disease was found to be rare and slowly spread along as a condition of vertigo. Due to vertigo, her mother kept taking falls quite often and was severely hurt to the extent that she had to be taken for surgery multiple times.

As she kept getting sick, Sharmishtha kept going back and forth for her mother's treatment. Her sister, who is well-settled in the United States, suggested better treatment options abroad. However, after a few sessions with the doctors abroad, her mother conveyed that she would be a lot more comfortable being treated by doctors back in India.

This was the time when she started feeling like there was a stretch between her roles as a professional and a daughter. Even though her company was considerate along the run, she realised it was time to make a decision. Talking to The Logical Indian, Sharmishtha explains how she wanted to "cut loose and not have anything else in her mind" while taking care of her family.

She considered it the right thing to do at the moment and says that it is all about prioritisation. In her own words, "In a daily scheme of things, some things need to be prioritised. And to each his own."

Striking A Clarity About One's Identity

Commenting that her mother was not a fan of her decision to quit the job, she says that her mother thinks that she is being held back because of her illness. Reassuring her mother has now become a pastime, and it also happens to be something Sharmishtha is sure about. To The Logical Indian's question "Did you feel held back at any point?" she responds within a blink of an eye, "No, not at all."

Adding on to this, she says that a little break would not put anyone's years of career, degrees, and efforts down the drain. Confirming the same are the multiple people commenting under her LinkedIn post saying, "we are ready to support you back with your transition to the workforce". Grateful about the support that has come along her way, Sharmishtha says that she feels free and happy at the moment.

Acknowledging that she is fortunate to have had the agency to take a break, she understands that it is not easy for many to leave behind a promising career and its perks. Especially when it comes to taking care of ageing parents, financial and emotional agencies play a pivotal role.

As a country, we do not have a proper geriatric support system in place. So even though we tend to have an emotional bond that many in the west lack, we lack the practicality that the west has established. Having a support system would always be helpful for people who do not have the agency to take care of their ageing parents, and it would also help the parents feel independent from their children.

Hold The Pause On Hustling

Also known as the burnout culture, hustling in work culture is all about work dominating an individual's time in such an unnatural way that they may not have time left for any other aspects of their life.

With a constant rush to achieve boastful feats or even stability, many people in the previous, as well as current generations, let themselves be dominated by work. However, this is beginning to change slowly, and the millennials are beginning to go for career lines that genuinely interest them.

Speaking about this, Sharmishtha says, "People make fun of millennials saying they're so finicky and that they want one thing today and another thing tomorrow. But in fact, they're the best generation who are actually thinking about their own joy."

Building further on this idea, she says how people from earlier generations, including many of our parents, have worked at one organisation for over 40 years under one boss. While it may fall under their idea of a disciplined life, it often conflicts with the idea of doing something that genuinely makes them happy.

"It's important to get our priorities straight," and for this, understanding one's identity and self is necessary, she believes. Today, even if it's for a brief or a long period, she chooses her identity as a daughter and her mother's primary caregiver. This understanding has given her clarity on her purpose - to ensure that her mother regains her health. With this clear cognizance, she gets to decide where her energy is being directed to.

"It's really more about balancing energy than balancing time". This was an idea passed down to her by her mentor and something she highly resonates with. Instead of working entirely for five days and setting aside two days at the weekend for living life, she suggests allowing oneself to be flexible and find the balance in where their energy gets directed.

Creating a healthy equation within the workplace and within life in itself would then seem like a piece of cake.

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