Zaria Parvez left her senior global social media manager role to pursue another social media position after five years at the company. Her most effective work came when she did not strictly separate life and work, which she identified as a difficult but productive tradeoff. Running Duolingo's large, viral social account generated intense pressure, chronic sleep loss, and anxiety that led to medical leave. Duolingo's marketing, driven by an edgy green owl mascot and platform-specific viral tactics, resonated strongly with Gen Z and amassed tens of millions of followers on TikTok.
There was a lot of, 'I'm not gonna check Slack after 5. I'm going to actually work a 40-hour week,' she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday. 'But I will say, when I didn't separate my life from my work, I succeeded far more in my role. That's a hard truth.'
"Last year when I went on medical leave. I was really confused and exhausted," Parvez said. "It got to the point where the anxiety of running such a big account and having to be always on was so on my shoulders."
"I would get three hours of sleep at night. I would be incessantly trying to figure out, how do I be creative in all the best ways? How do I do this on my own?"
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