In a horrifying story of the grossly unbalanced division of work and life perpetuated by toxic grind culture, 27-year-old Queens, NY resident Allaire McDonald admits she spent her entire workday working.
Nooo! That’s not a life!
“I just took my paid hour lunch at noon, and then my single approved half-hour break later in the afternoon,” Allaire told horrified reporters who had just been zoning out on their phones for like two hours before meeting her for this interview. “I don’t get what the big deal is.”
Sources close to Allaire say this isn’t the only time they’ve seen her reserve personal activities for after the working day is done.
“She works from home and doesn’t even take hours-long FaceTimes with her sisters until after 5 p.m.,” said Allaire’s roommate, Evan. “What’s even the point of working from home then? It just makes me sad for her. I wish she’d learn to integrate her personal life into her work life more and more until her ‘work life’ exists only in theory, like God intended.”
Allaire says she’s not sure what’s so wrong about her routine.
“I start work at 9 a.m., but I like to chill and drink my coffee first, so sometimes it’s really more like 10,” she explained to reporters like she was divulging a dark secret. “Then, I work until noon when I have lunch. Then it’s back to work again until 5. Which I think is fine? I had more than enough time after work to go for a run and make dinner.”
Sources close to Allaire were horrified at her apparent lack of boundaries, adding that they were both “sad” and “angry” for her.
“Everyone knows you should be going for a long walk in the middle of the afternoon and then racing home in fear once you realize you actually have a meeting in two minutes,” Evan said. “That’s what having a healthy work-life balance is all about.”
Allaire said she’s not sure how working the hours specified by her full-time job and not a second more, then allocating her personal life into whatever free time she has left over, is a “lack of boundaries,” but she’s willing to try to make some changes.
At press time, Allaire had caved, throwing in a load of laundry brazenly at 2 p.m. However, she didn’t have the nerve to go and flip the load over until she had sent her last email of the day.
“Baby steps,” she said.
