15 boundaries to set at work to be happier
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For many of us, we spend a large proportion of our week at our job. It is therefore, no different, well actually more important to be able to set clear boundaries to protect our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
Creating healthy boundaries that align with our values is incredibly important as it can help to prevent burnout, reduce work related stress, anxiety and depression, resulting in a happier overall you. This, in turn, should result in a more productive and effective you – which also benefits your employer.
We are all different and are likely to have different boundaries. It’s nuanced. However, we set out 15 boundaries below to help you establish what is important to you when it comes to your workplace.
1. Manage expectations regarding your non-working hours
Unless it’s expected as part of your job, your non-working hours should be for your personal time. You should not have to regularly answer emails or do other work related activity if it’s not in your job description. Communicating this in a sensitive professional way is key.
2. Challenge deadlines
By challenging deadlines, we don’t mean do this in a confrontational way. In fact, quite the opposite. If, for example, your boss gives you something to complete just before the end of your working day and expects you to work late into the evening completing it, you should determine by asking when the deliverable is due and that you can complete it first thing the next working day.
Of course, doing this will require judgement call but you should not be expected to work late into the evening if this is not the norm in your role.
3. Set meeting agendas and expectations for meetings
Have you ever been in a meeting where one person has gone off on a tangent and completely derailed the agenda? It’s not only frustrating but disrespectful to everyone else’s time – time that you cannot get back. It’s important to feel confident enough to speak up in a respectful way to refocus on the agenda. Often, it’s better to set expectations at the beginning so a meeting isn’t derailed.
4. Speak your mind rather than what people expect you to say in a respectful way
This one is a given. Ultimately, if it’s expected of you to give your opinion in your job, you’re being paid to do so, so you should in a respectful way. Employers want carefully considered decisions made and not “group think”. Therefore, if your opinion goes against what your colleagues are saying, a healthy environment would encourage you to put your views across. As long as you can back these up with a sound rationale, do speak up respectfully.
5. Take breaks
Taking your lunch break, toilet and reasonable hot drinks/water breaks should be a given. Be sure to take these and speak up if someone challenges these, in a calm professional way. It is unreasonable if someone at work stops you from going to the toilet to take a comfort break.
6. Prioritize work tasks
This one is particularly important if you have multiple tasks with close, similar or exact deadlines. Ask your manager/team lead to help you prioritize the importance of your tasks if you’re unsure. It’s better to manage expectations than to silently assume and then disgruntle the task delegator by missing a deadline you weren’t completely sure about. Communication is key.
7. Manage your workload
This ties in with prioritizing your workload. If you’re at full capacity and cannot take on anymore work, be sure to communicate this with your manager/boss. Ultimately, if you don’t they will assume that you can take on more work. We cannot always assume that our manager/boss knows what’s on our plate, especially if they have a lot of colleagues to manage.
8. Don’t feel obliged to respond to all emails immediately
If you have a tendency of responding to all emails immediately, you’ve already set an expectation to those around you. If you then decide to change tact and not reply to emails immediately, then your colleagues/boss are likely to question what’s changed. In order to handle this effectively, communication is critical here. Start communicating by saying that you’ll get to emails by a certain day/time by acknowledging the emails. Expectations should then be managed.
9. Learn how to say no
It’s fundamentally important to learn how to politely say no in your job. This will help you to maintain boundaries that are integral to you. We understand that it comes easier for some than others. However, try to remind yourself that it is acceptable to decline certain requests. For example, if you receive an invite to attend a lunch gathering with some colleagues but you want to run some important errand on your lunchbreak instead, it should be perfectly acceptable to not go with your colleagues.
10. Communicate your feedback needs and how work is delegated to you
If you have needs to receive feedback on a more regular basis than your colleagues, you should feel free to express this to your manager/team lead. You may want to do this for a number of reasons, for example if you’re anxious about your performance or you generally enjoy self-improvement, then express this in a clear, conducive way. You shouldn’t feel the need to explain in a great deal of detail, e.g. if you’re really anxious and need reassurance, but keeping it short and simple should do the trick.
This also applies to how work is given to you. If you’re a person that works well with written instructions via email, then a good manager or boss should be accommodating to bring out the best in you.
11. Take time off work
Your PTO, annual leave, holiday allowance, or whatever you call it is something you are entitled to. You should therefore use it. Employers want productive, healthy and happy employees and taking time off helps to achieve this. If your boss stops you from taking your holiday, you should question this in a diplomatic way and they should have a very good reason as to why you cannot.
If your boss expects you to never utilize your holiday entitlement then you must calmly, respectfully assert that you are entitled to take this.
12. Physical boundaries
Personal space, touch, spending time in close proximity with a colleague and anything else of a physical nature that is important to you should be honoured in your workplace. For example, if, for cultural or any other reason, you’re uncomfortable shaking hands with colleagues then you should explain this to your colleagues in advance. Although you’re not obliged to give a detailed explanation, a short explanation will help your colleagues to put themselves in your shoes.
A more common one is if you’ve chosen to abstain from alcohol. At work socials, it’s fairly common for colleagues to encourage you to drink. If you’ve chosen not to because, let’s say, you’ve struggled with alcohol in the past, you should not feel obliged to explain why you don’t drink. A simple “oh, no thank you, I don’t drink alcohol but I’d love a *insert name of a soft drink*” is a great response to if you’re offered an alcoholic beverage at a work social.
13. Emotional boundaries
Your feelings, your expectations on responding to your colleagues’ feelings and your general emotional wellbeing matter in the workplace too. While more and more workplaces are more open about and encourage discussing healthy emotional wellbeing, effective communication from you is one of the keys to success when it comes to asserting your boundaries.
If, for example, you have a colleague that has a habit of emotionally dumping their issues onto you when unwarranted, and it’s draining you, you should feel comfortable in communicating that. However, ensure that you’re sensitive towards your colleague.
14. Mental boundaries
If you work with a colleague and they leave you feeling stressed after every single encounter, it’s important to set your boundaries to ensure this doesn’t happen going forwards. Similar to setting emotional boundaries, it’s important to handle such matters sensitively. It’s true what they say, you’re the product of your environment.
15. Ask for help
It’s normal to not have all the answers or know “what next” when completing a task at work. You should never feel as though you have to figure it out on your own. Instead, speak to your supervisor/manager letting them know what you’re unsure about. It is better to speak up and ask for help than to spend time performing a task incorrectly and then dealing with negative feedback from your supervisor/manager.