> Everywhere I went I was in a trance, forming arguments with people who only existed in Slack for me. The debates, the designs, the confrontation! Every time I closed my eyes I would start a stupid fight, until eventually a simple thing like an invite in my calendar became a tangible menace; a small needle, poking in the same sore spot as the last one.

This rings familiar for a past job. For the longest time I thought it was my fault, that I was the one causing conflict or being unreasonable to push back on the constant influx of demands and changes.

Then I finally escaped the situation into a healthier team. It was immediately obvious that the prior team had more managers, pseudo-managers, and busybodies than it had people who actually did the work. There were so many product managers, program managers, design managers, UX managers, product designers, customer experience designers, and other titles looking to make themselves appear valuable that Slack and calendars became a warzone for attention. We'd get started on a project on Monday only to have the rug pulled out from under us with a weekly reshuffle of the priorities list or monthly reorganization of the department.

I distinctly remember the sinking feeling in my stomach every time a new calendar invite would pop up, or every time I'd see the latest "@here" from one of the warring product managers trying to look more important.