Martin Ott joined Facebook in 2012 to lead its Northern and Central Europe operations as managing director, at a time when the company was still pre-IPO (its initial public offering followed in May of that year), pivoting from desktop to mobile, and employed only a few thousand people worldwide. He is among a small group of leaders who witnessed Meta's transformation firsthand—from its scrappy early days under a twenty-s Mark Zuckerberg to one of the most powerful platforms on the planet.

Yet the biggest lesson Ott took away from that period had nothing to do with scale or speed—or with grinding around the clock. He credits Zuckerberg with teaching him the opposite: focus on making the biggest possible impact during working hours.

"One of the things I'm also passing on is, there's only so many hours in a day," Ott, now CEO of Taxfix, the Berlin-based tax app valued at more than $1 billion—a level that places it among tech's so-called unicorns—tells Fortune. "Ask yourself, what is the real one thing you could do today to really have impact, make a difference? Ask yourself, do you need to be in that meeting or not?"

Tech Billionaires Push 24/7 Work, But Ott Says Burnout Is the Real Risk

Ott's stance is a notable counterpoint at a time when many tech leaders insist the only route to success is being permanently available. Lucy Guo, the cofounder of Scale AI and the world's youngest female self-made billionaire, wakes at 5:30 a.m. and works until midnight; she previously told Fortune that people who crave balance are in the wrong job. Twilio CEO Khozema Shipchandler has said the only stretch he allows himself "to not think about work is six to eight hours on Saturdays." LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman has argued that work-life balance simply is not possible in the startup world—not least for founders—and, with the exception of dinner with family, has said he expects employees to be working constantly.

The stakes of that debate extend beyond executive lifestyles: the World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress—the very risk Ott says he works to head off for the people who report to him.

"That 24/7 only works so long," Ott says, adding that switching off matters not only for leaders but also for the people who report to them. "It's also protecting team members from getting burned out. You don't ever want to get there."

"It is making sure that you're not about 24/7 constant on, but being deliberate."

Strict Boundaries Around Meetings and Email

Along with attending only the meetings where he can make a genuine impact, Ott has built deliberate practices to protect both his own boundaries and those of his team.

"So the most important thing is I structure my day," he says. Most mornings, Ott gets up around 5:30 a.m. and reads for half an hour before working out. "I exercise in the mornings, I go running here on the lake," he says. He also tries to stay connected with a support network and meditates to support his mental health, though not on a fixed routine. "At times, I meditate every day, and then I drop it. Now I'm in the phase where I've dropped it and want to pick it up again."

And although Ott starts his day early, drafting emails before meetings begin, he makes sure nothing lands in his team's inboxes until the workday starts. "I start writing Slack messages and emails. Often, they only go out with a scheduling function at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. So I don't pull people out of their free time, which they need to recharge, because it is a marathon."

The scheduling habit is his marathon mindset made operational: sustained high performance, in his telling, depends on recovery time that workplace norms either protect or erode.

"Everyone tells you, when you start a company, or you're running a company, there will be ups and downs. There will be constant crises. There's a lot of pressure as well," he adds. "You need to make sure you see it actually as a marathon, not a sprint. And that also means you have to maintain the high performance over a long period of time. And that doesn't work 24/7."

A version of this story was originally published on Fortune.com on November 14, 2025.