Flexible workplace arrangements which have become a new way of working for organizations post-COVID-19 Covid-19 have further blurred the boundary that used to exist between work and home.
Hybrid working or remote working while providing flexibility on spatial and temporal dimensions also leads to transgression of the work boundary both in terms of location as well as time.
One of the classic manifestations of this is the well-known Zoom fatigue syndrome wherein an employee ends up spending long hours in virtual meetings and eventually feeling exhausted. We receive meeting invites during non-working hours or stretch our meeting time way beyond work timings.
People working remotely often face this issue of being tagged “available” and “working” because physically we cannot make out if the individual is occupied or busy doing something. This presumption needs to be challenged.
The work easily gets spilled over or spread across the day even post working hours eating into family time or personal time.
The recent cases of work stress led to suicides among employees which got highlighted and warrants the attention of corporate community on what can employee do to draw a boundary and avoid reaching a breaking point.
So, the question is how we draw the boundary and not let work seep into our personal lives. The first stage is to define and communicate the clear boundary and the second stage is to say a “No” whenever this boundary is crossed unreasonably.
The third stage is to “self-reflect” and check the health of your boundary from time to time. Many a time, the way we structure and manage our work can give a message to others about our work preferences and hence not reach a situation where we must explicitly say “No”.
Let us look at these stages:
Stage 1- Let us look at some practical tips to define the boundary at work:
- Being Organized – Planning and publishing our calendars with clear start and end times of the day helps in managing temporal boundaries. This helps stakeholders at work know about one’s availability and working window.
- Clarity on work deliverables and expectations- Work can be unending if we don’t know where to start and where to stop.
- Prioritizing personal time and space – If we are not serious and particular about “Me time”, then there cannot be any demarcation between work and personal life.
Stage 2- How do we say “No” if this boundary is repeatedly crossed without a reasonable explanation:
- Redirect or Reschedule the event to the working window – Checking with the other person if this can be dealt with during work hours or at office space can give the message that you appreciate operating within a certain boundary. For example, if you are getting a call on a weekend or a holiday, the best way to deflect the issue is to question if this can be handled during the working day.
- Proactively let concerned people like your manager know about the things you are currently working on. It is better to let your manager know what is on your plate rather than waiting for it to become full and then struggling with work overload. If the work is crossing the capacity you can manage, better to call that out while clearly explaining your current work portfolio.
- Be clear and firm in terms of what behaviors you value and expect – If someone is trying to bully or unreasonably tower over you, the best way to deal with such situations is to be assertive that you don’t appreciate such behaviors and are not fine with them.
- Communicating and letting others know that you value your time and would not like to compromise with that unless there is an exigency.
Stage 3- Self Reflect and check the health of your boundary:
Taking time to think and check how well is your boundary working helps to take timely corrective actions. Sometimes, our family is the best judge to tell us if we can maintain our work-life boundary. If we are seeing any gaps, it is time to reclaim this by taking corrective measures.
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