In an industry built on agility, speed, and client demands, the line between ambition and exhaustion can be razor-thin. For PR and communications professionals, being constantly "on" has long been framed as a marker of success. But a growing discourse is pushing back, advocating for a shift from toxic hustle to an intentional and sustainable "healthy" hustle, with the focus on clarity, energy, and systems that enable professionals to thrive without burning out.
Telum Media spoke with Rebecca Jarvie-Gibbs, Co-Founder and COO of Example, on what it means to reject performative busyness and embrace balance as a badge of honour. Rebecca recently launched her own podcast, Fine Form, which explores the realities of hustle culture and shares candid insights from her journey through burnout and recovery.
From redefining productivity and reducing friction to modelling sustainable leadership, her reflections provide a roadmap for PR and comms professionals eager to reclaim personal time, protect their energy, and pursue success on their own terms.
What did your own experience with overwork teach you, and when did you first start rethinking what success should look like?
I believe work often reflects what we haven't yet resolved in ourselves. When you're unclear about who you are, the job quickly steps in to define it - offering validation, identity, a sense of worth. That's when ambition shifts.
Instead of being yours to guide you forward, it becomes tethered to external markers - titles, client counts, or how busy you look. On the surface, it may appear impressive, but inside it feels very different.
My turning point came when full-blown burnout collided with the birth of my son - I felt utterly trapped in a cage of my own making. From a dark and uncertain place, I began to rebuild by doing two things. First, I got really clear on how I wanted my work to feel, not just how it looked. And second, I confronted the toxic behaviours I'd adopted around work and made big changes in how I showed up for myself each day.
You've spoken about rejecting toxic hustle. How would you define a "healthy hustle," and what might that balance look like for someone working in PR?
For me, it all comes down to energy - something either gives it to you or takes it away. I still believe in hard work; building a career or life you want takes discipline and focus. But there's a difference between feeling tired yet satisfied, and feeling constantly tired and empty. One feels like effort with momentum, the other feels like effort slammed up against a wall.
My idea of balance may not be the same as someone else's, but the key is clarity. As you move through a period of work, ask yourself: is this exciting me, expanding me, or just exhausting me? A simple way to check is by keeping a "drain vs gain" tracker for a week. If something consistently drains you, it's probably a good time to stop chasing it.
I also think of work in terms of spikes and stretches. There are spikes of intensity - a big pitch, launch, or campaign - that can be energising and exhilarating. But they have to be balanced with stretches of recovery, reflection and recalibration. When the spikes start to feel like the rule instead of the exception, that's when burnout creeps in.
Ultimately, I believe that a healthy hustle is rooted in what I like to call 'professional resonance' - when your ambition is grounded in clear values and sustained by simple, energising habits.
When you look at the PR and communications industry today, do you see a shift in working styles - particularly with younger professionals prioritising wellness, balance, and flexibility - or are we still a long way from breaking free of hustle culture?
I think a lot of people talk about wellness and balance, but don't really know what that actually looks like in practice. And so without realising it, they build habits that actively prevent those things from happening and allow huge amounts of friction into their day - unclear priorities, reactive communication, SO many meetings - and wonder why they feel overwhelmed.
I then see it play out in two main ways. On one side, people disconnect completely. They play it safe, avoid pushing themselves, and end up struggling with a lack of purpose. On the other, they fall into martyrdom, become addicted to the stress and exhaustion and justify doing a lot as if it's the only way to succeed. I've been there, and it's a dangerous place to stay.
For me, the real shift comes when you take ownership of the friction. Burnout doesn’t just "happen" to us - it's the accumulation of habits and systems that we tolerate. Without clarity on how you're working and what you're working toward, it's easy to get swept into a cycle where busyness replaces progress, and wellness remains a buzz word rather than a lived practice.
PR often rewards being busy - but busyness doesn’t always equal progress. How do you personally tell the difference, and what habits or approaches have helped you shift towards real productivity?
I think PR actually rewards agility and creativity, but too often people conflate that with being busy and stretched. One of the great things about our industry is the speed at which you can influence news and culture, and the energy that comes from delivering impactful work and building strong relationships. But you can't be agile when your diary is crammed with back-to-back meetings, and you can't be creative when you're stuck in a perpetual loop of clearing your inbox.
For me, the two biggest habit shifts came down to reducing friction and changing how I communicate. Reducing friction means designing your day so fewer things feel unnecessarily hard - cutting out recurring stress points like clunky processes, mismatched meeting rhythms and unrealistic schedules.
Changing communication meant breaking the cycle of urgency and reactivity. For years, I thought being constantly available and instantly responsive was proof of competence. In reality, it kept me in a constant state of distraction. Now, I don't reply to emails on my phone and I avoid responding in the heat of the moment - because rushed replies made in a heightened state are almost always the ones I regret.
As an agency leader yourself, how do you put these ideas into practice within your own team? And what lessons could other senior leaders take from your approach to building a productive but sustainable culture?
First and foremost, I live it. There's no point talking about balance if you’re still leading from a place of urgency. Panic breeds panic. If you show up constantly spinning plates and stretched thin, the team will think that's what leadership looks like.
It is absolutely crazy to me now that I once thought being a busy leader with a crammed diary and no time to think was inspiring. In reality, it only modelled unsustainable behaviour.
I also used to take on my team's stress, going into overdrive to solve their problems or take work off them. Of course, some things are mine to manage - the resourcing we have, the clients we work with, the timelines we commit to. But how someone chooses to work is ultimately on them. Being clear on what sits in their control and what doesn't has been an important shift.
Ultimately as a leader, you set the tone, so if you remove constant friction, protect energy and model alignment, you give your team permission to do the same.
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