A first-month performance review delivered an unexpected critique: "You're great, but you can be hard to get hold of." The feedback stung, especially for someone juggling a PhD alongside work. It touched on a genuine tension in modern employment. Constant availability has become an unstated expectation in many offices, yet research increasingly suggests that responding to every message, Slack notification, and email creates fragmentation, kills focus, and paradoxically makes people less productive. The case against total responsiveness isn't about being lazy or difficult. It's about protecting the mental space needed for deep work, problem-solving, and actually finishing things. Some of the most functional teams have learned to batch communications, respect focus time, and distinguish between urgent (truly needs an answer now) and merely convenient (someone wants a response when it suits them). Setting boundaries on availability isn't a personal failing. It's a prerequisite for doing work that matters.