Shopify is looking for product managers who can keep up with an "unrelenting pace."
Solace, a healthcare marketplace, bluntly tells job seekers: “If you’re looking for work-life balance, this isn’t it.”
And at Rilla, a software company building AI tools for sales teams, a senior engineering job explicitly warns applicants: “Please don’t join unless you're ready to work 70 hours a week—in person.”
Welcome to the summer of 2024, where corporate job postings are increasingly filled with messages that would’ve been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. The tone is clear: long hours, high pressure, and hustle culture are back in vogue.
It may seem counterintuitive for companies to recruit with a pitch that basically says, “This is going to be tough.” But the labor market has changed dramatically since the employee-friendly days of 2022.
Now, Americans face longer job searches, more competition from laid-off professionals, and a tightening hiring landscape. While the U.S. continues to add jobs overall, the pace has slowed, and major corporations are trimming white-collar staff.
In this new environment, employers are taking a tougher stance—not only scaling back on flexible hours and remote work policies but also openly warning candidates about the grind ahead.
At Google, co-founder Sergey Brin recently suggested that 60-hour workweeks were the “sweet spot” for productivity. The federal government issued a memo earlier this year announcing a new push for a “performance culture,” emphasizing “excellence at every level.” And Microsoft data shows employees are logging into after-hours meetings more frequently than they did a year ago.
“The pendulum has swung,” said Lori Reed, president of Schechter Reed, a recruiting firm based in Reston, Va. “Companies are clearly in control again—and they’re testing how much they can ask of workers who are eager to land a job.”
This kind of messaging, Reed noted, also helps reduce turnover and limits applications from mismatched candidates—something many recruiters are grateful for amid a flood of resumes.
At Rilla, prospective hires receive a detailed culture statement after their interviews. One line reads: “We don’t have strict work policies, but we tend to work 60 to 80 hours every week.”
Will Gao, the company’s head of growth, encourages applicants to carefully consider each of the eight core values listed. “If you have a gut feeling you don’t agree with our culture,” he tells them, “don’t lie to yourself.”
Gao, 26, even joked with employees about not sleeping in the office—as he himself did for about 10 days straight in June.
“We’re very clear about who we are,” said Sebastian Jimenez, Rilla’s CEO, who hadn’t taken a vacation in eight years before finally going on his honeymoon this summer. “If you align with this—and there are plenty of people who do—then come apply.”
To encourage proximity to the New York City office, Rilla subsidizes employees’ rent if they live nearby. Jimenez also highlights the financial upside: He hopes every employee becomes “insanely wealthy,” and says sales reps earn an average of $350,000 annually.
On Reddit, users debated Solace Health’s no-work-life-balance disclaimer. Some praised the honesty; others argued that extreme hours should come with million-dollar paychecks. Brett Terpstra, a Minnesota-based software developer who has applied to around 60 jobs since April, agreed. “If I were working 70 hours a week,” he said, “you’d have to pay me over $1 million.”
He added that he avoids any job posting that signals poor work-life boundaries: “I automatically opt out of anything that doesn’t respect balance.”
Startups aren’t the only ones raising the bar. Even McKinsey, one of the world’s top consulting firms, now explicitly states in job descriptions that associates must be prepared to attend meetings outside normal business hours or take on urgent projects with little notice.
“Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work,” reads the job description.
Blair Ciesil, a partner leading talent attraction at McKinsey, said the firm noticed some newer hires were surprised by realities like cross-time-zone collaboration. Now, McKinsey makes a point of framing those challenges as opportunities for professional growth.
“The reality is, there’s a level of rigor here,” Ciesil said. “Being honest up front allows candidates to self-select out of the process—and that’s good for both them and us.”
As the job market shifts, one thing is becoming clear: companies are no longer shying away from what they expect. For many, it’s a return to old-school intensity—with the hope that the right kind of candidate will rise to meet it.