Jennifer Tosti-Kharas

So then if on top of that, I really feel like, gosh, no matter what I ask you to do, I ask you to come in off hours,

All times of day or night, always go above and beyond.

Oh, I know I can't count on my other employees, but I can really count on you.

You know, at what point is it unfair?

Is it exploitative?

And is it pushing into a personal space, you know, personal life in a way that is depleting and frankly would lead to burnout?

and in fact that is what some studies have found is that people with stronger callings the the good way to say it is they go above and beyond their ideal employees the more negative way to say it is they will sacrifice personal time even when it's not paid and they do they can as a result report um greater physical and psychological um health issues

greater fatigue, stress, burnout, and ultimately will leave jobs because it's simply unsustainable to keep working at this pace.

Yeah, so this is another musician's story.

Colin Huggins is a busker, so he plays his 900-pound Steinway Baby Grand piano in the middle of Washington Square Park.

So listeners may have stumbled upon him if they've walked through

Washington Square Park and heard absolutely beautiful classical music being played.

He would literally lug this piano from his apartment in the East Village over to Washington Square Park and the moving blankets he would lay under the piano and invite people to lay down under the piano so they could really experience the wall of sound that he was producing.

He was doing this by choice.

He used to be a professional accompanist for the Joffrey Ballet.

He described that once he got a taste of this public performance, he was hooked.

So he experienced a strong passion for music, a strong passion for public performance, and it may come as no surprise this was not a lucrative way to make a living even pre-COVID.

But the last, and this is already representing a real sacrifice to do one's work,

But the last that I had read about Colin Huggins, and again, he's this beloved piano man of the village and of Washington Square Park.

This was in 2023.