“Have we taken ‘hustle culture’ too far?”
Jen Dillard posed the question in a recent green screen, where she highlights a Broke Agent post about an agent heading into kidney surgery, but assuring clients they would still be available for calls.
What started as a parody post on real estate agents taking hustle culture to a ridiculous extreme revealed how divided agents are on where dedication ends and unhealthy expectations begin.
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Here’s what she was talking about and why she thinks the industry has gone overboard, to the detriment of agents across the country. Plenty of agents agreed. Some shrugged. A fair number pushed back. And, as usual, we’ve rounded up a generous sampling of all kinds.
Let’s dive in!
The Post That Started the Debate
The message behind Dillard’s green-screen video came from The Broke Agent, who explained, “My post is an intentional mockery of the hustle culture side of real estate.”
Dillard laughed when she first saw the parody. But as she scrolled through the comments, her stomach started to turn. Agents were sharing real stories that sounded almost as extreme as the joke:
- An agent texting a client from recovery
- An agent taking a call the day after a c-section
- A woman negotiating an offer from a hospital bed after lung surgery
Those stories are what pushed her to make the reel. She opens by comparing real estate agents to other professionals. An attorney sets an out of office message, and “no one blinks.” A CPA disappears every April, and clients accept it without question.
In theory, anyway.
Dillard argues real estate agents built a different set of rules for themselves.
“Every time we answered at 11 o’clock at night, every time we said yes, when we should have said no, we made being available the whole thing instead of being good at the job.”
Agents Are Sharing Their Own Hustle Culture Stories
Agents started adding their own stories, the kind that make Dillard’s argument feel less like an exaggeration and more like a description of daily life in the business.
One Realtor wrote that clients asked her to jump on a call the day she came home from the hospital with her newborn.
Other agents shared similar stories:
Is It the Industry, or Is It the Agents?
The comment section splits here. Some agents point to the industry itself. Others put the responsibility back on themselves.
For Some, It’s Just Part of Being a Business Owner
Not every commenter agreed hustle culture has gone too far. Some take it as part of being a real estate agent, or anyone in sales, or anyone who owns a business, either as an indispensable part of the growing phase or something they should simply accept as the norm.
For Others, Boundaries Are a Must-Have
Some agents had strong opinions on setting boundaries. And some stressed the importance of communicating them from the start in any client relationship:
Zoodealio CEO Kala Laos expressed wholehearted agreement in her comment, summing up how a lot of agents view a career without boundaries:
Overall, the comments showed a spectrum of thoughts about the industry and its relationship to hustle culture and boundaries, as well as the balancing act between client demands and having a life worth living. For some, the latter falls under long-term goals. For some, it’s an indispensable condition of staying in the industry.
And for those wondering how to set boundaries with clients without scaring them off, Dillard posted a simple question as a comment on her own post:
So, where do you weigh in on this? Are boundaries necessary for everyone? A nice-to-have for established pros? Or a clue that someone should probably look for a different line of work?
Head on over to Instagram to share your thoughts.
