According to Fortune, Martin Ott joined Facebook as Managing Director of Northern and Central Europe operations back in 2012 when the company was pre-IPO and pivoting from desktop to mobile. He’s one of the few executives who witnessed Meta’s evolution firsthand from its early days under a twenty-something Mark Zuckerberg. The biggest lesson he took away wasn’t about grinding all hours but the opposite – Zuckerberg taught him to focus on making the biggest impact during working hours. Now as CEO of Taxfix, the Berlin-based tax app valued at over $1 billion, Ott implements strict rules about meetings and email timing to protect work-life balance for himself and his team.
Zuckerberg’s Surprising Lesson
Here’s what’s fascinating about this story. We’re used to hearing about tech leaders who preach the 24/7 hustle culture. You know the type – the ones who brag about sleeping four hours and working through weekends. But Ott says Zuckerberg, of all people, taught him the exact opposite approach. The focus should be on impact, not hours logged. Ask yourself what one thing you could do today to really make a difference. And more importantly, do you even need to be in that meeting? It’s a refreshing take from someone who was there during Facebook’s most intense growth period.
The Deliberate Boundaries
Ott doesn’t just talk about work-life balance – he’s built specific practices to enforce it. He structures his day carefully, starting early around 5:30 AM with reading and exercise. But here’s the crucial part: even when he drafts emails before his team starts work, he uses scheduling functions so they don’t land in inboxes until 8 or 9 AM. “I don’t pull people out of their free time,” he explains. That’s deliberate leadership. He recognizes that constant accessibility creates pressure that ultimately hurts performance over the long run.
Marathon, Not Sprint
The contrast with other tech leaders is striking. While Lucy Guo from Scale AI brags about working from 5:30 AM to midnight, and Twilio’s CEO only takes six to eight hours off on Saturdays, Ott argues this approach simply doesn’t work long-term. “That 24/7 only works so long,” he says. Building a company means dealing with constant crises and pressure. If you treat it like a sprint, you’ll burn out. But if you see it as a marathon, you need to maintain high performance over years, not weeks. Basically, sustainable success requires sustainable habits.
Broader Tech Culture Shift
This feels like part of a larger conversation happening in tech right now. After years of glorifying hustle culture, we’re starting to see pushback. The pandemic forced many companies to reconsider what productivity really means. And leaders like Ott are proving you can build billion-dollar companies without demanding 24/7 availability. It’s not just about being nice – it’s about recognizing that burned-out employees don’t do their best work. The companies that will win long-term are the ones that understand sustainable performance. They’re the ones that treat their people like valuable assets rather than disposable resources.
