Establish Boundaries First

How many of us have said yes to a request to serve on a committee or assist with a project when we knew we just didn't have the time? At this point, the most prominent pastime in U.S. workplace culture might just be complaining about how busy we are. Overcommitting oneself and taking on projects and tasks outside of our established job responsibilities is commonplace. It's easy to get sucked into the vortex of someone else's excitement and want to be a part of that work. Pretty soon, we are making exceptions and giving others and ourselves the benefit of the doubt when we get tasked with work outside our scope or are treated in ways we feel are unfair or even discriminatory.

These are all reasons why it is so important to establish boundaries for ourselves before the work begins. If we don't drop those bumpers in advance, the ball is going to fall into the gutter or jump lanes really quickly. Once that happens, course corrections are considerably more difficult. That's why it's a good idea to set those boundaries anew anytime you start a new role, engage in a new relationship, or consider taking on a new set of responsibilities. If you do it before you have to make any decisions, you set yourself up to successfully enforce those rules, regardless of the situation. Without them, all you have left is to join the chorus of overwork complaints.

These boundaries can fall into a number of different categories. I want to touch on time, scope, collaboration, and response.

Time

There are always considerably more demands on our time than we have the bandwidth for, am I right? At the same time, we keep reading more and more about prioritizing "work-life balance". If you want to have time to pursue hobbies or passions, spend time with family and friends, or simply need to be alone to recharge, you need to set that time and protect it with the same ferocity you do your weekly staff meeting. In most cases, your employer has already set the amount of hours you're getting paid for each week. Hold onto that. It's not simply an estimate. If you're being asked to stay late or take on more work than you have time for, don't be embarrassed to say "I'm sorry, but I'm already going to be at 40 hours this week with the commitments I have on my plate, but I'd love to pick that up next week. If you need it done sooner, why don't we talk about who else might be able to get it done." This also means protecting your time when you're really eager to start something new. Do you need to give something up in order to make room?

Scope

" Other duties as assigned" continues to be the catchall in every job description. Whoever started using it knew exactly what they were doing and saw it as an opportunity to always have the option of expanding the scope of job responsibilities. If you feel like you are being asked to perform tasks that fall outside the scope of the position description you were hired for, you have a few options. You should always be able to express your concern that the work doesn't align with your position. However, perhaps you are interested in taking it on anyway. In that case, you should be asking for the necessary training or professional development to prepare you for that work, and you should be getting paid for that training. No going home and putting in a weekend's worth of work to prepare for more work.

Collaboration

Are you the right person for the job? Perhaps you are, but that doesn't mean you should necessarily be doing it by yourself. If you need help from others that possess talents or knowledge you don't have, don't be afraid to ask for it. If that means they need to give up something else, then that might need to be a reality you express to your supervisor if they truly want the work done. On the flipside, you need to resist the urge to get pulled into work that is not in your wheelhouse. It's one thing to truly want an "outside perspective" and quite another to want to diffuse the work among more folks. Collaborate when it makes sense and bow out of meetings and projects you don't need to be involved in.

Response

Email is of course the low hanging fruit here. The smartphone has tethered us to our email 24/7 and has made it easy to "just send one email" whether we are out to dinner, on vacation, or in bed. Resist that urge. Plug your phone in somewhere other than your bedroom. I promise they still make other alarm clocks, and a majority of us don't have jobs with true emergencies that can't wait until morning. Beyond the email boundaries, it's important to discuss your communication style with new colleagues early and often. Establish expectations for responses and preferred means of communication. If you let them know in advance what to expect from you and you stick to that, there is much less chance of hurt feelings of unintentional offense.

In many aspects of our lives, setting the rules before engaging in the behavior saves us from having to consider exceptions or editing along the way. That doesn't mean we can't change course as our lives change. However, these boundaries ensure that we limit the moments of frustration, confusion, and overwork.

What boundaries have you set for yourself?