This week I became curious about the 'hustle culture' in the workplace after I felt I was being 'hustled' by professionals who were contracted to supply services to me.

I was taken aback by the ease with which professionals are comfortably passing off substandard work, and at times work that was not theirs, as original.

Is this a new norm, I wondered, and if so, "How does it fit into the workplace?" was my next question.

I decided to consult Google to see what it could offer for my enlightenment.

I was quite amazed when I realised that what I thought was the 'hustle culture,' based on my many years of experience, was now almost completely wrong. My initial thoughts, and what I always understood the slang term 'hustle' to mean, is the drive and ability to make a quick turnover. It's about making as much money as possible in the shortest possible time. The hustler therefore would not care about the quality of work being delivered, nor the product/service, or the need of the customer.

My reading told me that my assumptions were clearly outdated.

The 'hustle' is now the showing-off of hard work that can become excessive in the age of digital media. It is a 'fake it till you make it' mentality. It is more gloss, fluff and a superficial or nonexistent world being created by the connected on-liners. It's a need and the actions that optimally portray the hustler as being wired for success.

What, therefore, are the standards ascribed to the attributes of the hustle vs the attributes of skilled, productive effort towards work?

There are certain deliverables of each job function for the wired hustler. This leads to the question of what percentage of time spent at work is given to their daily effort towards harmonising their parallel digital universe. Is the hustler able to give you his/her best and be present both physically and mentally?

The perceived value my company creates can be measured by my clients' willingness to pay for my services. This was strategically built on certain pillars of skill, specialisation, trustworthiness and a drive to deliver the best service to my clients from reception to representation.

In my view, I only had two options when I decided to offer my services to the public if I wanted to be considered competitively advantageous in my field. I must either provide my services at the lowest cost in the industry and consider low-cost inputs, or outperform my competitors by offering an outstanding service with guaranteed results which in turn would justify the requirements of premium inputs.

This would mean hiring the best staff, procuring and applying quality technology and creating a learning, flexible and client-focused work environment.

So where does the hustle fit into this equation, and is it sustainable?

The theory that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one is tried and tested. The 'hustler' will always need to find a new gig, a new victim, if the hustle is devoid of a sustainable strategy for building and keeping clients and is singularly foc