For close to five months, while working for a prominent businessman, Emma's life centred solely around work.
"My phone was always close by," Emma told Hack. "The hours were terrible."
Emma and her colleagues were constantly connected using the Chinese messaging app, WeChat, so even when they were at home, they were effectively at work.
It would be no big thing for their boss to email and ask them to finish a document at 10pm, after they'd already gone home. Emma would often work till 2 or 3am - then go back into the office at 9am.
She had no life, basically.
It was really stressful, yeah. I would get anxious if I didn't have my phone on me."
When the stress of the job started affecting her mental and physical health, Emma decided enough was enough, and quit.
(Emma is not her real name, and she's asked us not to identify her employer because - well, she still needs to make a living.)
A new survey to be released on Monday shows that Emma's story is pretty common.
Tech stress 'worse in young people'
Just over half of 18-31 year olds have experienced "technology stress" from being constantly connected to their place of work or their job. For example, smartphones make it easier for your boss to email you even when you're not at work, and social media means you can monitor developments in your sector at any time of the day or night.
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Not-for-profit company Reventure conducted an online survey of 1,001 people on workplace stress. Forty-six per cent of overall respondents said they felt like technology meant they were "always on" and couldn't ever completely switch off.
For young people, the survey results were worse. Fifty-four per cent of young people said they had experienced "technology stress" sometimes or often.
"Whilst technology has undoubtedly increased productivity and connectedness, it seems to be having a troubling impact on work patterns and the ability of workers to switch off from their job," lead researcher for the company, Lindsay McMillan, said.
Lindsay said work-life balance is "vital", and that it's important that ever-present technology "does not negatively impact on healthy relationships and lifestyles outside of work".
'Multitasking on steroids'
Internet expert at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), John Lenarcic, said technology was making it easier to be distracted in the workplace. Where once an employee might have had one urgent task to finish, now with mobiles and email they might be juggling several tasks.
"It's like multitasking on steroids," John told Hack. "People don't want to, or don't know how to, disconnect. We have a digital distraction epidemic."
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And John reckons it's not just in the workplace. People are putting more and more focus on what he calls "digital capital" - that is, that someone's worth is based on the amount of likes they get on Facebook or followers they have on Instagram.
Being connected online is like oxygen."
Is internet addiction a thing?
But is it possible to be addicted to the internet?
John's not so sure. Addictions usually have a physical component - that is, your body craves it.
The most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is basically the Bible for psychiatrists, did not list internet addiction as a disorder. It noted that obsession with online gaming specifically should be examined further, but didn't go as far as listing it as a proscribed addiction.
"The studies suggest that when these individuals are engrossed in internet games, certain pathways in their brains are triggered in the same direct and intense way that a drug addict's brain is affected by a particular substance," the manual said.
"The gaming prompts a neurological response that influences feelings of pleasure and reward, and the result, in the extreme, is manifested as addictive behavior."
John reckons constantly connected is more of a bad habit than a physical addiction.
"It can affect livelihoods and relationships," he said.
Mindfulness 'alleviates stress'
Before you smash your mobile into a thousand pieces, there are techniques to beat tech stress.
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John thinks you should stop and smell the flowers.
Mindfulness is the alleviation of stress. It is a contemplation of what you should and shouldn't be doing with your life."
Mindfulness is a bit of a trendy buzzword, but it basically means being present and living in the moment.
Mental health group Reachout explained.
"We spend so much time thinking over stuff that has happened in the past, or worrying about things that may happen in the future, that often we actually forget to appreciate or enjoy the moment," the group said on its website.
"Mindfulness is a way of bringing us back to experience life as it happens."