24/7 Mindset?!

In April 2026, I shared this post in LinkedIn and received over 67k impressions. It definitely hit a chord with many.

I just saw a recruiter post a role for an Executive Assistant that required a “24/7 mindset” and “after-hours availability.”

Respectfully… what?

When did we start writing job descriptions that sound like modern-day indentured servitude?

Let’s call it what it is.

“24/7 mindset” is not a skill.

It is an expectation of constant access.

And constant access is not leadership. It is poor planning disguised as urgency.

We cannot preach wellness, resilience, and work-life balance while quietly embedding burnout into the fine print.

If your executive function collapses because someone is not available at 10:47 PM, that is not a high-performance culture. That is a boundary issue.

Executive Assistants are strategic professionals. They are not on-call emotional regulators. They are not human alarms. They are not extensions of someone else’s inability to manage time.

High standards? Yes.

Accountability? Absolutely.

24/7 availability as a mindset? That is a red flag.

We have to stop normalizing exhaustion as ambition.

If we want healthy, sustainable organizations, the language we use matters.

Curious — would you apply to a role that required a “24/7 mindset”?