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During a recent interview, Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications, stated that the balance between personal and professional life is unfeasible in practice, especially for business leaders. The statement occurred on the podcast Grit, where the executive also reported having abandoned all hobbies in the name of the company and family.
Yuan, who leads the company currently valued at around US$ 20 billion, shared that he has dedicated the last decade exclusively to Zoom and his three children, all of whom are part of Generation Z. According to him, “work is life and life is work,” but he emphasized that when responsibilities overlap, family always comes first.
This statement reflects an increasingly common dilemma among executives and workers facing hybrid schedules and constant connectivity, especially after the explosion of remote work during the pandemic. Zoom itself has become a symbol of this new era, with millions of users working from home from anywhere — from the living room to the beach.
However, Yuan acknowledges that this freedom has also brought challenges. The popularity of the tool has made the boundaries between professional and personal life practically invisible, a direct consequence of his own innovation.
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Impossible Balance or New Reality?
For the founder of Zoom, attempting to maintain clear boundaries between work and personal life can be illusory. In his view, business leaders are in a position of responsibility that forces them to merge the two spheres of life. “There’s no way to balance,” he stated. “It’s all one thing.”
Yuan is not the only prominent figure to acknowledge this difficulty. Other public figures, such as former U.S. President Barack Obama, TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, have also expressed their views on the apparent impossibility of achieving real balance in high-performance contexts.
Despite his almost total dedication to work, Yuan emphasizes that he never hesitates to put his children first when there is overload or scheduling conflicts. For him, this is a non-negotiable choice: “Family first. That’s it.”
Generation Z and the Challenges of AI
In addition to the reconciliation between work and personal life, Yuan also addressed his concerns about the professional future of young people, especially those in Generation Z. As the father of three teenagers, he says he fears the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to the traditional job market.
The CEO mentioned that even in traditionally valued fields, such as computer science, recent graduates are already facing difficulties in entering the workforce. According to Yuan, the trend is that in the next 10 to 20 years, most current jobs will be impacted or even replaced by AI.
In light of this, he advises young people to prepare gradually, both technically and emotionally, for a transforming world. “Enjoy life on campus, but learn a bit of AI,” he recommended during the podcast.
Read more: Deloitte creates a “Lego voucher” of up to R$ 5,600 per year to help employees relieve stress
The Impact of the Pandemic and the Zoom Roller Coaster
Zoom became a key player during the global health crisis. In April 2019, the company was valued at US$ 9.2 billion. With the pandemic, the number of users surged from 10 million to 350 million in just a few months, and the market value skyrocketed to US$ 160 billion by the end of 2020.
However, with the gradual return to in-person work, Zoom has lost some of its prominence. Today, the company is valued at around US$ 20 billion — still a significant amount, but well below the peak.
This volatility has heightened the need for continuous innovation and adaptation to new ways of working, something Yuan believes is inevitable for any business in the tech sector.
Two-Day Workweek on the Horizon
The executive also shared his vision for the future of the workweek. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, Yuan believes that the five-day workweek model may become obsolete. In his ideal scenario, two or three days of work would be sufficient with the assistance of digital agents.
This possibility has also been raised by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, who recently suggested that human work may be drastically reduced due to automation and AI.
Yuan emphasizes that this scenario does not mean the end of work, but rather a reconfiguration of productive routines. The priority will be to maintain efficiency with less time, through collaboration between humans and intelligent systems.
These statements were made by Eric Yuan during the American podcast Grit in June 2025, and reported by outlets such as Fortune, Business Insider, and Infomoney. The data about the company and its market fluctuations were extracted from institutional statements and public sources from Zoom Video Communications.
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