Long, long ago, when I was a wage slave (probably not unlike yourself), I too was chained to a cubicle for a minimum of eight hours a day. Sometimes more. Why?

Good question.

I was a software engineer, cranking out code for whoever needed to sell more of something on the internet. Which is where I disagreed with “management” quite vehemently. You see, I was always on a project with timelines. Why would it matter if I worked six hours or ten? Did I hit my timelines? Did I deliver what was promised?

But what mattered most seemed to be the number of hours I was visible.

And of course, how many extra on-site hours I worked to increase that visibility. I always felt that my corporate worth was more about seat time than creative output. I guess that’s why we have middle management. If you can’t do and you can’t teach ….

Later I switched to full-time remote work, which was better. Ish. My hours were more or less my own, as long as I hit the sprint’s story points on time. Which I did … until I didn’t. Because it was then that I discovered middle management never truly goes away.

When you’re a remote worker, you are expected to keep email, Slack, and your phone available at all times … for that fun little “quick check-in”. Now I don’t know if you and your career require “flow”, but software does. It’s not like cooking french fries where you just return to the assembly line. Coding requires a lot of moving parts to exist in your head and constantly be updated as the coding progresses.

And when that ding hits and you’re pulled out …

What folks didn’t understand was that it took a solid 20-30 minutes to get back into the flow. It’s fragile and needs to be rebuilt from scratch. So that “I just need 30 seconds of your time” actually costs 30 minutes. And when you’re constantly bombarded with quick questions, you never get into the flow … until you either shut off notifications or you work off-hours to get your real job done.

I did the former and almost got fired for it. Seriously. My project overlords, when they couldn’t immediately reach me for a quick check in to justify their jobs, decided that I was not meeting my corporate love requirements and tried to have me banished.

Twas a no-win. And a large reason why I quit corporate life.

Why am I sharing this? Because I kinda forgot it. Until I realized that it never really goes away, even in “retirement”. The film, edit, release process for a YouTube video is exactly like coding, especially the edit portion. You have to keep this virtual story in your head as the edit progresses, and any interruption takes you out and makes you have to restart all over again.

A phone ding. A girlfriend who wants to show you a funny TikTok. Your laptop suddenly needing the power cord or it will die in three seco….

I’m actually kinda pissed. I quit the rat race to get some much earned respite from this nonsense, and yet apparently it’s human nature. Oh well, at least I don’t have to fill out TPS cover sheets anymore. LOL!

So … tell me a horror story about a part of your work life that followed you into the real world. LOL!