The Tyranny of the Digital Calendar – Business English Lesson

Business English

The Tyranny of the Digital Calendar

Level: B1–B2 Time: ~90 min Topic: AI in Business

TEXT:

📋 Overview

1Warmer

2Key Words

3Understanding

4Business Language

5Discussion

6AI in Business

📰 Article

HIGHLIGHT:

The Tyranny of the Digital Calendar

As workers struggle with complicated shared schedules, tech companies say they can help

By Emma Jacobs · Financial Times, 16 December 2025

1At this time of year, juggling social drinks, work parties and pre-Christmas deadlines, while also scheduling when to pick up the turkey and host relatives, the electronic calendar can feel tyrannical rather than helpful.

2I hate mine so much, I am considering returning to a paper diary next year. This is not a humble brag about being busy, but a whinge about overcomplicated scheduling. Most of us recognise the email back-and-forth, flipping between apps to hold multiple times in diaries, or discovering a meeting convener in a different timezone has reserved 30 minutes to chat when you should be tucked up in bed. One San Francisco-based executive I know repeatedly sent me a bunch of dates via Calendly, all for 10pm. I blocked him. At least I have not fallen victim (yet) to scammers adding phishing links to my diary.

3The digital calendar has become a staple of office life, with companies such as Google as well as newer, smaller tools like Motion and Reclaim offering to streamline and optimise scheduling. These ubiquitous shared calendars have brought some interesting dynamics to the surface.

4When teams have access to each other's schedules, it can help protect time or it can become intrusive, as one man revealed on social media. He discovered his calendar was not private after his boss asked if they could "do the product intro" on Friday — at a time the busy employee had blocked out to "get a chicken".

5Patrick Lightbody is attempting to rectify some of these problems with Reclaim.ai, the artificial intelligence app he co-founded that promises to schedule work, meetings and life. He says shared electronic calendars have historically suffered from a lack of nuance, unable to denote whether an appointment is open to negotiation.

6Social dynamics — and tensions — inevitably come into play. Vanessa Ciccone, a social scientist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, studied an organisation that set employees' default calendars to "open", giving them the option to make them private. "People were largely willing to accept that senior-level workers had things to do that warranted calendar privacy, whereas non-senior-level workers were not afforded this same level of understanding." Junior workers opting to keep their calendars hidden were described as "secretive", with suspicions that they were hiding something.

7Open calendars can help with logistics if, for example, only two people are booked to use a giant boardroom that could be repurposed for a larger meeting, notes Ciccone. The flipside is surveillance, with managers monitoring their teams' time.

8There can be other outcomes from such transparency. One man used colleagues' schedules like Instagram, scrolling "through people's calendars as a person might scroll through a social media website", says Ciccone. "He also felt exclusion at times due to this scrolling, where he would occasionally find a meeting or an after-work drinks event that he wasn't invited to."

9Then there's the etiquette. Julian Givi, associate professor of marketing at West Virginia University, found that a "maybe" response to diary invitations was seen as kinder, by those RSVPing, than a hard "no"; it was, in reality, far more annoying, making it harder to plan a party or arrange a meeting. "While a 'maybe' leaves you with flexibility, it's not really good for those who invited you," says Givi. "They might be left feeling disrespected that you left them in limbo."

10While my instinct is to return to paper-based diaries, efforts by tech enthusiasts to solve such problems look promising. Already, Google's Gemini is proving useful to me by entering suggested meeting times in my electronic calendar based on discussions in email exchanges.

11"Right now, your calendar is a passive tool that lets others claim your time," says Louise Ballard, co-founder of Atheni, an AI-powered coach that helps users navigate agentic tools. "Soon, AI agents will actively defend it, learning when you do your best thinking, blocking out focus time, even negotiating meeting slots on your behalf. I'm certainly going to train my agent to protect the hours I need to get stuff done."

12She says the time drag of negotiating scheduling with others could be fixed by an agent, for example by setting a future date to meet in response to a discussion over Zoom. "Tools like Motion are already doing this — automatically rescheduling your day when plans change and protecting deep work time. We tried it last year, and it wasn't brilliant, but things are moving at breakneck speed."

13Lightbody says AI's ability to work beyond the simple binary between busy or free will be transformative. "You'll actually have more of a conversational state with someone's personal assistant, a digital personal assistant."

14The future, says Ballard, will be "two agents haggling over diary slots while you get on with actual work. Liberating or terrifying, depending on your outlook."

📋

Lesson Overview

About This Lesson

This article discusses the pros and cons of using a digital calendar at work and addresses issues such as employee privacy, the effects of 'over-sharing' and the feeling of not having control over one's time. It concludes with a discussion of potential solutions associated with digital calendars.

Business Topic: The use of AI in business
Business Language: Scheduling and office dynamics
Activities: Key words · Understanding the article · Business language phrases · Discussion
Groups: Whole class, pairs, small groups

👈 The article is always visible on the left. Use the tabs above to navigate each section. Choose a highlight colour to mark and select text in the article.

Warmer

Discuss the following questions with a partner or the class.

💬

1. Do you use a digital calendar for your work schedule, personal schedule or both? If so, which calendar do you use?

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2. If your company uses a digital calendar, is it open and shared with everyone, or private so that only you can see it?

Key Words

Choose the key word that matches each definition (paragraph numbers in brackets). Then complete the example sentence using the same word.

convener (2)phishing (2)rectify (5) agentic (11)haggling (14)warranted (6) etiquette (9)afforded (6)intrusive (4)tyrannical (1)

when criminals send fake emails or websites to make people give personal information

Cyber criminals steal millions of dollars by .

controlling everything, as a dictator does

leaders don't allow criticism of themselves or their actions.

the rules of polite behavior in society or business

The of business meetings varies in different cultures.

a person who requests or organises a meeting

The scheduled the meeting at a time when I couldn't attend.

justified something

I think that employee's actions a strong response from management.

with the ability to act independently and make decisions

AI bots can save you time by managing your schedule.

given something or allowed to do something

My new job me the opportunity to travel.

to correct a situation or correct a problem

Hiring more people will our problems with production deadlines.

accessing a person's private actions or information

Some people think giving their bosses access to their personal calendars is .

10.

negotiating a price or the terms of an agreement

We spent months over the terms of the contract.

Answer Key:

phishing / phishing
tyrannical / Tyrannical
etiquette / etiquette
convener / convener
warranted / warranted
agentic / Agentic
afforded / afforded
rectify / rectify
intrusive / intrusive
haggling / haggling

Understanding the Article

Choose the correct option to complete each sentence according to the information in the article.

1.Digital calendars are a 'staple of life' in many offices because they …

a.make scheduling easier and faster.

b.allow employees to see each other's personal schedules.

2.When workers can see each other's schedules, it can help save time, but it can also …

a.cause scheduling conflicts.

b.invade people's privacy.

3.Most people think that employees should have access to the schedules of …

a.other employees only.

b.other employees and their superiors.

4.Some employees worry that shared calendars will be used to …

a.manage logistics.

b.monitor what employees do with their time.

5.If an employee is not going to go to an office social event, it is more respectful to RSVP …

a.maybe.

b.no.

6.Soon, AI agents will be able to …

a.cancel meetings.

b.negotiate times for meetings.

7.In the future, … will negotiate times for meetings.

a.two AI agents

b.an employee and an AI agent

Answer Key:

a – make scheduling easier and faster
b – invade people's privacy
a – other employees only (junior workers were not given the same privacy as seniors)
b – monitor what employees do with their time
b – no (a "maybe" is more annoying and disrespectful to the organiser)
b – negotiate times for meetings
a – two AI agents

Business Language

Part A: Complete the sentences with the phrases in the box.

deep work timetime dragdefault calendar juggling deadlinesblocked out timestreamline scheduling

1.I usually have several different projects at the same time, so to get everything done on time is sometimes difficult.

2.Meetings can be a(n) if they are not planned and managed well.

3.I don't check email or allow interruptions during my so that I can concentrate on the work I'm doing.

4.We use electronic calendars at work to help us and avoid time conflicts.

5.When I worked at a big company, I usually every day to check and answer emails rather than constantly interrupting my other work.

6.Our company uses a(n) so that all employees can automatically see each other's schedules.

Part B: Complete the sentences from the article with phrases from Part A. Scan the article to check your answers.

1.She says the of negotiating scheduling with others could be fixed by an agent… "Tools like Motion are already doing this — automatically rescheduling your day when plans change and protecting ."

2.Vanessa Ciccone… studied an organisation that set employees' to "open", giving them the option to make them private.

3.At this time of year, social drinks, work parties and pre-Christmas , while also scheduling when to pick up the turkey and host relatives, the electronic calendar can feel tyrannical rather than helpful.

4.He discovered his calendar was not private after his boss asked if they could "do the product intro" on Friday — at a time the busy employee had to "get a chicken".

5.The digital calendar has become a staple of office life, with companies such as Google as well as newer, smaller tools like Motion and Reclaim offering to and optimise scheduling.

Part A:

juggling deadlines
time drag
deep work time
streamline scheduling
blocked out time
default calendar

Part B:

time drag / deep work time
default calendar
juggling / deadlines
blocked out
streamline scheduling

Discussion

Discuss these questions with a partner or in small groups.

📅

1. According to the article, what are some advantages and disadvantages of shared calendars?

📓

2. Do you prefer to use a paper diary or an electronic calendar? Why?

👥

3. Do you think employees should be able to see their colleagues' calendars? Why or why not?

🤖

4. Would you use an AI assistant to help you schedule your time? Why or why not?

Wider Business Theme – AI in Business

Look at the pros and cons of AI in the business world. Then discuss the questions below in groups.

✔ Positive Effects

Processes data and tasks very quickly, saving time and money.
Works continuously, enabling round-the-clock customer service.
Identifies trends in the economy and consumer habits.
Handles routine tasks, freeing employees for creativity and strategy.
Completes mechanical tasks with far fewer errors than humans.

✗ Negative Effects

Replacing many human workers, especially in manufacturing.
Very expensive — out of reach for most small businesses.
Cannot judge certain situations; may make bad decisions.
Data collection creates risks of criminals accessing private info.
Over-dependence risks losing critical thinking skills.

💼

1. In what ways is AI used (or will be used) in your professional field?

⚖️

2. What are, or will be, some of the effects of AI on your field? On you personally? Are there more positive or more negative effects?

🌐

3. Do you think that, in general, AI is more positive or more negative for business? For workers?

💬 Useful Language

AI can be used effectively to …

Sometimes AI is used unethically. For example, …

I think that, in general, AI is a positive / negative development because …