5. The Productivity Pandemic
People in Sasstopia are competing over output again; burnout incidents rise.
Mayor Tiggy holds a press conference to give an update about rising HCT levels.
Another week, another issue. HCT levels are still on the rise and it’s causing a full-on productivity pandemic. Now, residents in Sasstopia are trying to out-work and out-perform one another. Mayor Tiggy calls a press conference to talk about the rising levels of hustle culture toxins and hands it over to her team to discuss. Danica Downloads from the Office of Ease kicks off the press conference by talking about the disruptions to sleep, the algorithms and productivity. Mixin’ Mo from the Ministry of Mindset talks about the infiltration from outside the borders. Terumi from the Council of Calm gives an update from the Wellness Ward. She says that they’ve seen more activity than usual because people are feeling stressed out. They all urge people to be vigilant and know that the things they are experiencing are due to rising HCT levels and not because they are doing something wrong. People are getting infected by the algorithms and the hustle is being hard-wired into their brain.
Boss Lady Jax and Priya Pitch Perfect are taken aback by Lina’s conversation about quitting her internship.
That message, however, seemed to miss Lina. She has been interning at Back-to-Basics Ad Agency, working for Priya Pitch Perfect, the Creative Director, and Boss Lady Jax, the CEO. Lina has been working long hours during the past few weeks and feels completely burned out. She goes into Priya’s office where her and Jax are speaking. Lina lets them know that she is quitting her internship. Priya is completely taken by surprise, and Lina explains that she’s been pulling all-nighters because it seems to be encouraged by other staff. Lina took the internship in Sasstopia because she thought that she could thrive on her own terms, without having to perform work or constantly be “on”. She wouldn’t have come to Sasstopia if she felt like she was getting treated that way. Jax is not happy about the news. Both her and Priya want Lina to stay because they value her. They told her that the rising levels of HCT are the reason for the productivity panic, but assures her that it is not something they stand for at Back-to-Basics or in Sasstopia. Lina says that she’ll think about staying but in the meantime, she needs to get some rest.
The Deepest Amelia tries to intervene when her friends debate their productivity levels.
Even the students at Sasstopia High School are feeling the productivity crunch. The Realest Riley and Trendy Lourdes have a debate about who’s the most productive at the end of the school day. The Deepest Amelia overhears them and is wondering why they are talking like that. Both Riley and Lourdes say that they want to make sure they maintain their good grades so that they can get into a good college, not realizing that the rising HCT levels are causing teachers to give them more work. Students are burning out but feel like they can’t stop because they don’t want their grades to drop. Amelia warns them that they are getting caught up in the hustle, but they don’t want to listen. She tells them to consider themselves warned.
Lithinia briefs Mayor Tiggy about the students choosing to stay after school, not for activities, but additional study time.
At the end of the week, Mayor Tiggy meets with her Legal Council, Machi Moxie, and Lithinia, Chief of Staff, to discuss all that’s happening in Sasstopia with the productivity burnout. They tell her that employees are hustling to stay on top of their work and students have replaced after school activities with extra study halls. Lithinia notes that there has to be a problem if students are making more time for schoolwork. Mayor Tiggy is not pleased, especially when she sees the damage that rising HCT levels cause in other parts of the world. She doesn’t want the people of Sasstopia, especially the students, to experience this level of stress and burnout.
Machi assures Mayor Tiggy that they are doing everything that they can to intervene without performing any lockdowns, but that if things don’t get better, it might come to that. She also notes that productivity was never something that they had to measure in Sasstopia since softness and ease is the way of life. Lithinia asks Mayor Tiggy to authorize the expansion of burnout prevention zones because she fears that if they don’t take any more measures, they will look like a lot of other major cities that are filled with blight and despair. Mayor Tiggy authorizes the expansion and knows that it is time to set up a meeting with the Dare Divas Special Ops team to figure out what there are options are. They have never seen HCT rise to such high levels and they may have to wage a full-on rebellion, for the first time, ever.
What do you think Mayor Tiggy’s options are? Want to have a little fun? Download the Too Much Work, Not Enough Sass worksheet to start thinking about ways that you don’t experience a productivity panic.
Curious about the story behind the story? Check out my latest Hustle Rewritten Substack, Act III: The Choice Is Yours, I begin to talk about the tools needed to launch an intelligent rebellion and escape hustle culture. Explore the world of Sassy | Chic | Geek, check out our content here on Substack, on YouTube for our Prelude to Intelligent Rebellion series and Pinterest. We occasionally post on IG , Facebook and Threads.