I check my email once or twice a day, and try to keep slack completely shut down for the majority of the middle of my day (I kinda treat it like a more engaged

I check my email once or twice a day, and try to keep slack completely shut down for the majority of the middle of my day (I kinda treat it like a more engaged or rapid-response email). I’ve found success keeping certain chunks of time marked as busy on a shared calendar. I try to shift conversation away from email and slack into calls when it looks like a problem needs to be solved, and then go back to email to archive the findings. I commit to a 24 hour max turnaround on all communications outside of weekends and vacation. People have my phone number and so far it has not been abused to get around my expectations; there would be an immediate rebuke if that were to happen. I can’t help but think that if people advocated more for what they need, and politely, respectfully, but firmly set out expectations for how they work, a lot of managers would get on board. As in, “this is the way it is, let’s find a way to make it work.” Those that do not should be quit as soon as possible; they’re less interested in managing, moreso in man-handling, and I just don’t have the time or energy to care about those politics. This is probably why I work independently, granted I don’t work in HA environments. I also think this partially explains ageism: in general it’s just easier to control young new grads who have no comparative experience, especially when you throw huge salaries at them and make them believe they owe you everything for it. Apparently I had some things to get off my chest :)