‘My Body Gave Up’: Bengaluru Consultant On Toll Of 14-Hour Workdays

A Bengaluru-based chartered accountant has sparked fresh debate on the costs of hustle culture after revealing that months of relentless 14-hour workdays left her physically and mentally exhausted. Meenal Goel, who has worked with KPMG and Deloitte, said her drive to succeed came at a severe personal cost.

Goel laid bare the extent of her exhaustion in a LinkedIn post, describing how an early-morning alarm marked the point at which she could no longer push herself physically.

“I worked 14-hour days for 6 months straight and last week my body just gave up!”

“Tuesday morning. 6 AM. Alarm rang. I couldn’t get out of bed. Not because I was lazy. But because my body literally refused to move,” she wrote.

For six months, Goel maintained an unforgiving

routine, starting her days before dawn and working late into the night, with little respite even on weekends or during holidays. She said she believed the sacrifice was essential to making her venture succeed.

“I convinced myself: ‘This is what building a business takes,’” she wrote.

Her breaking point arrived mid-conversation with a client, when she was suddenly overwhelmed by a surge of anxiety.

“Heart racing. Couldn’t breathe. Had to hang up. That’s when it hit me: I’m building a business but destroying myself. What’s the point of success if I’m too exhausted to enjoy it?” she wrote.

“So I made a decision: No work after 8 PM. Not even “quick emails.” Sundays completely off. Phone on silent. One hobby that has nothing to do with work,” she added.

She soon started to see the benefits of her new approach.
“It’s been almost 1 week. My productivity? Actually increased. My mental health? Finally healing,” she said.
Goel concluded the post by saying, “Here’s what I learned: Hustle culture celebrates burnout. But burnout doesn’t build empires. It destroys them. You can’t pour from an empty cup. Rest isn’t lazy. It’s strategic.”
The post generated several reactions.

“No matter how heavy the demands of work is, one must protect time for oneself and treat it as sacred. Jobs can be replaced, but life and the moments that passes cannot,” one user wrote.

Another person said, “Burnout doesn’t mean you failed. It means you tried too long without recovery. Rest isn’t a reward—it’s part of the work.”

One account said, “A sobering reminder—endurance, not exhaustion, is the true architecture of lasting success.”