As the morning sun cast a soft glow through my window, I turned on my laptop, the quiet hum of my MacBook greeted me like an old friend.
With a freshly brewed cup of coffee in my hand , I settled into my ergonomic chair, ready to face the day.
As the clock struck the hour, I clicked on the popped up calendar notification, dialling into the Zoom meeting for our weekly Tech Retro.
The screen flickered to life, revealing a grid of unnecessarily colourful virtual backgrounds, a digital mosaic of all my colleagues’ faces.
Then it began.
One by one, my colleagues recounted their recent endeavours, their tales marked by late night oil burning and relentless pursuits of deadlines.
Each expression became a heavier mix of burnout and exhaustion. Echoing the industry’s unwritten rule of success equating to hours spent working.
As the updates wound down, our PM took the lead, her screen sharing a spreadsheet that seemed to hold the room’s collective breath.
It was our moment of reckoning: the average story points per day for each developer laid bare for all to witness.
The numbers scrolled by, a digital march revealing the relentless pace we were all expected to maintain.
