Context: I work remotely at a medium sized startup with several teams. My time zone is ahead of everyone else’s, so I’m usually the first to log off for the day, and my calls are usually scheduled at the end of my day to accommodate everyone. I make room for this on Mondays when I’m syncing with the rest of the team and on the occasional Tuesday if there’s a cross-team meeting I am required to be at. I try very hard to have all my calls on Mondays and Tuesdays and spend the rest of my week focusing on tasks, especially since my work is quite independent and can be done async.

The incident: So there was a cross-team call this Tuesday (yesterday) that was scheduled a few weeks ago, for the end of my workday (so I would have to start work an hour later). I made my arrangements around it — I had to schedule dinner with my partner for her birthday on another day (fine with her because she also has work, but still an accommodation).

Then yesterday a few hours before the call, it was rescheduled to another day midweek. With no explanation. I was really annoyed by this; I made plans around this call and calls generally negatively impact my productivity. They also rescheduled the call to the end of my work day. So far, I have responded by declining the invite, which I don’t like doing because everyone else at the company is allergic to taking meeting notes, and I’ll most likely be lost. But I’m also sick of this shit and need to set a boundary.

Am I being irrational? I feel that there’s no consideration for the fact that I have a life outside of work. I understand that remote jobs require some flexibility but also don’t think that should come at the expense of my boundaries. How should I approach this in the future?