What your boss’s home life has to do with your work life

I am fiercely protective of my weeknights. I like to decompress and do anything but work – you definitely won’t find me at the after-hours event or sending 9pm emails! When my twins were toddlers, I felt I needed to guard that time even more closely. Like many working parents, those few hours between work and sleep felt fleeting and like controlled chaos. So I wasn’t thrilled when, at my corporate job, a recurring meeting landed on my calendar every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The leader running it worked in another time zone, where the meeting just so happened to fall in the traditional workday. Importantly, he also had a stay-at-home spouse. Week after week, I logged on, gritted my teeth, and harrumphed about why everyone else’s evening had become negotiable. For about four months, I attended