How is "Not Available" still treated as unprofessional in 2025?
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Set my WhatsApp status to "Not Available" yesterday.
Woke up to three passive-aggressive messages and a reputation I didn't even build.
I wasn't ghosting anyone. I wasn't avoiding clients. I was just... offline. Like a normal human who needed to step away for a bit. No emergency, no drama — just me not being reachable 24/7.
But in that silence, a client mentioned me to someone else. Who mentioned me to someone else. And now there's this version of me floating around conversations I was never part of:
"He didn't reply."
"Maybe he's avoiding us."
"Doesn't seem reliable."
I said nothing. My absence did all the talking.
How is this still the default expectation in 2026? Why does simply stepping away automatically translate to "I don't respect you" in people's heads?
Anyone else dealing with this? Or have we all just quietly accepted that being human is somehow unprofessional now?