Wish this didn't need to be said.

I have a pace that's comfortable for me to work at, that tends to be a bit faster than others in most things I've done. It is difficult for me to work slower unless I'm tired/exhausted. I shouldn't have to worry about making someone else's job harder just because I'm working at a speed that I like.

Working fast does have a secret extra advantage tho: You can stop and take little breaks more often. That's a good way to slow down

Yep.

I used to put everything I had into being the most productive worker possible because I was isolated from other people. I was convinced that no one would want to be friends with me as an actual person, so the most I could contribute to society was in the work I did. So I did more work than anyone else, because I had to--everyone else could already show their worth just by being the types of people that others would actually want to be friends with.

I also looked at it like I was doing everyone else a favor, since the more work I did, the less work anyone else would have to do, and they could spend more time relaxing and being themselves. It wasn't until more recent years that I started realizing that anyone else might be looking at me, seeing the excessive pressure I was putting on myself out of self-loathing, and seeing me as an example of what they should be, or worse, what other people should be.

So in short, I do think you're right, I'm just filling out some of the rationale for where this kind of hard-work attitude might be coming from. I come from cultures that have been heavily influenced by Protestantism, meaning they're influenced by the Protestant work ethic too, the idea that your entire value as a person is determined by how much work you do. I don't believe that, myself--I'm not sure I ever honestly did, at least when I was thinking about other people rather than myself--but it's definitely an ever-present cultural expectation that can be hard to dismantle.

But that's why dismantling it is a truly revolutionary act, so keep at it.

I feel this in my bones.

When I was younger I used to be really good at operating efficiently and quickly, and I think it also "helped" that I was often not taken seriously and given work that was way below what I was capable of (as a young woman trying to break into the tech industry).

These days my neurodivergence and various health issues mean that I just can't do that anymore. I'm often the 'slowest' developer or the 'least productive' in the eyes of my bosses. To overcome that I would have to make work the centre of my life and calibrate my whole life around maximising my work output. Obviously my employers would be thrilled if I did that but I'm not going to because, uh, that's fucking gross.

I can't speak knowledgeably about any other industries but the tech industry sucks because of how many young dudes (usually cishet white guys tbh) are rewarded and praised for having no life and spending all of their time working, and often these people are neurotypical and have no chronic health issues so they're able to just Work Work Work at a super fast pace, kinda like I used to do. So then those guys are held up as paragons of productivity and the rest of us are measured against them. Any other metrics of success are ignored in favour of speed. It's disheartening to say the least.

I heavily agree with this. The only thing I don't actively follow this mindset for is when I help close at work (a fast food restaurant) as me and usually the other people on my shift want to get the hell out at a decent time.

I had a short stint as one of the Amazon drivers, this one gets even better! :D

The managers of the third party I worked for were the most competitive adrenaline-fuelled racenuts you'd ever seen. When they started, they would work 12 hours, no breaks, sprinting from van to doorstep and back to see who could get the "high score".

Amazon sets it's quotas using rudimentary AI. They got promoted, the algorithm took that as normal human capability, and the routes become beyond unreasonable. (like, any person with a conscience would expect the workload demanded by... week 2 of training, when someone barely even knows the routes).

Mind you, the managers were cool to those of us not wanting to race, but it caused a massive headache for everyone. The routes were too big, almost every shift ballooned to 12-14 hours so we could actually finish, and they'd been fighting corporate trying to get the quotas down ever since.