Today was one of those days when I barely had time to get up between meetings — to use the restroom, grab a cup of coffee, or just breathe. It was meeting after meeting after meeting, and even during the few blocks when I didn’t have anything scheduled, I still found myself hopping on calls to help someone who needed support.
I’ve been working from home since 2012, and before COVID, there was always a bit of a buffer between meetings — time that actually allowed me to get work done. As a senior manager of engineers, I do spend an enormous amount of time in meetings, but I’m usually the first to suggest canceling one if a Slack message or email would do the trick.
Since everyone became a remote employee, it feels like meetings have become the only game in town. Even when I go to the office for a change of scenery or to meet visiting colleagues, I have to choose the day carefully — otherwise, I’ll just end up taking video calls from a different location. The real goal is to find those rare “water cooler” moments that don’t exist when you work remotely full-time.
I honestly don’t know how anyone — especially other managers with similar calendars — manages to eat lunch, use the restroom, or take a few minutes to actually get to know their team. Something feels fundamentally broken now that everyone has access to devices and can connect from anywhere, anytime.
I’m strict about maintaining my work/life balance. When I clock out, I stop checking work emails and notifications — and I expect the same from my team. Still, it amazes me that even in 2025, people expect others to be online, available, and camera-ready all the time.
The post-COVID world of work has normalized back-to-back video calls in a way that feels unsustainable. We’ve traded the commute for constant connectivity, and I’m not sure we’ve come out ahead. Sure, I love working from home—I get to see my family, save time on commuting, and work in comfortable clothes. But the tradeoff is that work has become more invasive, more demanding of our attention in ways that feel relentless.
Today, my calendar tried to kill me. It almost succeeded. Tomorrow, I’m blocking off time for lunch, bathroom breaks, and just existing as a human being. Because if we don’t set those boundaries ourselves, no one else will.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash