Urgency Culture Is Bad for Employee Wellbeing and Productivity
Experts define urgency culture as a notion that everything has to be done right away. In the business environment, the culture of urgency may include instant replying to emails and messages, dealing with last-minute requests, and having unrealistic deadlines and abundant workload.?
Of course, some tasks are genuinely urgent and important. For example, launching a new product or entering a new market typically come with pressing tasks and unexpected issues that should be resolved immediately.?
However, certain matters could seem urgent at the moment but don’t require immediate attention. Experts define them as false urgencies. False urgency is bad for business because it steals focus from non-urgent yet essential activities such as strategic development.
Perpetual urgency puts extensive pressure on employees and undermines their ability for prioritization, decision-making, and problem-solving. In the long run, urgency culture exposes employees to chronic stress, hindering their mental and physical health.
*This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published at the CAKE.com blog: https://cake.com/empowered-team/urgency-culture/?
How urgency culture affects mental health
In today’s fast-paced work environment, the pressure of being constantly “on” and responding instantaneously to every request has a detrimental effect on people’s mental health.?
When every task is perceived and treated as a priority, employees inevitably start to operate in the “hustle mode” — work hard, work long hours, eat unhealthy food or nothing at all, and sleep less. Long-term, these behaviors expose the body to high levels of stress.
According to the Harvard Health Publishing article, a stressful situation activates the “fight-or-flight mode.” It’s a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes, such as faster heartbeat, shorter breath, muscle tension, sweating, and stress hormone secretion. The body can even overreact to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as traffic jams, family difficulties, and work pressure.?
The same article indicates that, over time, repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. In workplaces where false urgency and “hustle mode” are embedded in company culture, exposure to constant stress is inevitable.
The lasting activation of the stress response system and extensive exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all the body's processes. This could have notable implications for our physical and mental health.?
How can urgency culture lead to burnout
We asked Jes Osrow,? Co-Founder and COO of The Rise Journey, an HR consultancy, how companies create a culture of urgency and how it affects employees’ wellbeing. As she ?points out, true urgency does exists in fields like healthcare, but it's often misused in typical business settings, creating a toxic environment:
“This manufactured sense of urgency leads to micromanagement and unnecessary pressure, which many employees describe as workplace gaslighting.”?
According to Osrow, a false sense of urgency leads to widespread disengagement, quiet quitting, and burnout.
So, how to recognize the signs of burnout? The 2022 Boston University Research highlights the typical signs:?
How urgency culture decreases productivity
Urgency culture also negatively impacts employee motivation, satisfaction, engagement, and company productivity.?
Certified Professional Career Coach and Founder of Career Bloom Coaching, Theresa White, says that in workplaces where urgency culture is common, people may feel they can never take a break, making it hard to stay happy and focused:?
“I've seen firsthand the effects: people get tired, make mistakes, and struggle to balance their work and personal lives.”?
She adds that the urgency culture ultimately affects teamwork, lowers productivity, and causes high employee turnover.
In addition, false urgency creates an atmosphere where employees pivot between tasks without completing any. The constant shift in focus reduces the time available for meaningful work and hinders the ability to delve into complex problems, eventually reducing the quality of outcomes.
Urgency culture may help you get more things done. But, long term, it leads to stress, inefficiency, poor quality of work, and eventually burnout. Thus, eliminating the urgency culture creates a healthier and more fruitful work environment.?