During my time there, the biggest drawback was the severe lack of work–life balance. My team’s workflows ran around the clock, and it was common to receive work-related messages outside normal hours—including early mornings, late nights, and even on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Slack channels expressing urgency were frequently spun up and expected immediate responses; in one instance I was pinged at 6:30 a.m. PST and, when I did not reply instantly, my manager’s manager was looped in as an escalation. On another occasion, a late-night request from a senior executive demanded an escalation form filled out by the end of the next day. These interruptions were routine and often I found to be, very unnecessary.
We repeatedly alerted senior leadership that the team was understaffed and overwhelmed, but our requests for help were largely ignored. As a result, our team faced constant escalations and heavy task backlogs—20–30 outstanding items each morning—and were then held accountable by upper management for the very capacity issues we had raised. Overall, the persistent urgent demands and lack of support made the role unsustainable.
