Setting Boundaries at Work in 2021

If you’ve ever felt like your work schedule is unmanageable or your boss is always piling on tasks outside of work hours and all this makes you feel overwhelmed .. we have been there!

We recently launched our IGTV series “Saturdays LIVE” where we discuss a variety of topics with this weeks’ topic being “Setting Boundaries at Work + 5 Work from Home tips. This article is the follow-up to that where we will share tips on Setting Boundaries at Work. If you are interested, keep reading to learn more. Be sure to download this article as a PDF at the end of this post for reference.

Setting Boundaries at Work in 2021

Setting boundaries at work

Access Your Personal Boundaries: Before you set boundaries at work, you must first be aware of your personal boundaries and be fully aware of the things you stand for. These boundaries should stem from your morals, values and belief systems — for example, if you are one of those people who keep a sabbath on a Saturday or Sunday and don’t work on these days, this should also be clearly established at work.
Set Time Limits: This is in regards to working hours– this might be tricky if you are working from home, but it still needs to be considered. Decide on the hours whether from 8am – 5pm or whatever is regarded as your work hours and try not to work outside of this. This is of course dependent on the Industry as some jobs that are in Media ( for example) are deemed as “24-hour jobs”. It is important to decide on a time when you start and end respectively. If there is an emergency or something needs your attention urgently, then you might be lenient and work outside of the set hours, other than that, set limits.
Streamline Tasks: This is easier said than done especially in a country like Jamaica where systems and processes are antiquated. I’ve found that using apps and various solutions like Asana and Google teams make work at lot easier. These solutions allow you to create and assign tasks to various individuals vs having random meetings that could have been emails or even texts. In the same breath, as it relates to meetings, verbally tell other team members and Managers in a professional manner to kindly send you an email when something needs to be done vs calling you into meeting multiple times throughout the day as it takes away from the time you could be spent doing actual work.
Keep Your Work-Relationships Professional: Ladies and Gentlemen, I understand it is 2021 and pretty much everything goes but, let’s normalise keeping work relationships professional! Too often people think just because we are naturally and generally nice, it becomes an invitation to go beyond work and people are trying to “shoot their shot” with unprofessional conversations. At no time should a male co-worker be calling at 10 pm to discuss “website plans”. Be clear in all your communications that you are only interested in being Professional. If you aren’t that’s a whole different conversation and it’s all on you.
( Actually) Take time + Schedule Breaks: Whether you are working from home or commuting, ensure you take time off when necessary. This includes vacation, sick days and personal days — yes that is a thing and yes they should be used. In these times especially, it is necessary to take time off to clear your head and step away from the work as this will do a lot of good. Apart from lunch time, take breaks throughout the day– break this into 5-10 minute time slots even if it means leaving your desk to take a sip of water or go outside to take fresh air and get back in. This helps to keep you focused and energised especially on those long, hard days.

Conclusion

While you’re out there setting boundaries, you will experience pushback and infractions.

Building boundaries is not an overnight process—and some people are unaware that they’re constantly crossing them—like that coworker who taps your shoulder when you’re deep in work with headphones on.