…nnoying.
I hate them.
You know… those people who are perpetually boundary-blind.
They keep sending messages when you don’t respond, as if trying to force your attention.
I’m in awe at how they have this special kind of entitlement.
They keep nudging when you don’t reply, as though your silence is a sin.
People claim to be busy, yet somehow they find the time to patrol their inboxes like it’s their full-time job.
I reply when I can, and when I choose to.
Your urgency is not my emergency.
Your incompetence is not my problem.
It’s just too disrespectful.
This was one of the reasons Neithan and I left our previous jobs.
Message bombers everywhere, as if chatting was the main job description.
We’d get off a meeting, and five minutes later, there’s a new chat.
Don’t reply? Another one comes in.
Sometimes, across different platforms.
No response on FB? They’ll try Viber.
Still nothing? They’ll send a text.
No reply? They’ll try Telegram.
Crazy! Amazing!
As if it were urgent.
The pace of nudges and follow-ups made it feel like we were working life-critical jobs.
But unread and unresponded messages are not emergencies.
Monday morning, we wake up to an FB message that reads
“Hi, Jen. I sent you an email.”
Okay…
So… you’re messaging me, to let me know, that you sent me a message in my email.
How about you let me start my day and wait for me to actually check it?
This makes no sense.
They’ll send messages regardless of the time of day.
Morning, afternoon, evening.
If the sender is in a different timezone and it’s daytime there,
well, she couldn’t care less.
She’ll still send a message even if it’s 11:47 PM in the Philippines.
Amazing.
Weekends? What weekends?
You’re on a holiday in Boracay? She doesn’t care.
“May I call?” she said.
Haha.
It’s your birthday? Doesn’t matter.
“I know it’s your birthday and you might be out, but the paper needs to be revised…”
Haha. What a joke.
And for what?
You’d think we were earning premium rates.
Haha. Dai lamang.
Can’t even keep up with inflation.
Not even enough to tolerate the madness.
Anyway, we didn’t want that kind of setup.
So we left, because there was no way that system was going to change.
Instead, we changed our environment completely.
Hence, we built Pixelzero.
Now, whenever we encounter something similar, it flips a switch in me almost instantly.
It pisses me off the palengkera in me shows up right on cue.
I have zero patience and tolerance for people who disrespect time.
Neithan and I fight hard for our nights and weekends.
We fight hard for time freedom, so we can focus on real, meaningful work.
Work that actually matters.
Hobbies we care about.
People we want to take care of.
No one is taking that away from us.