Guide to Setting Boundaries at Work

No matter what you do, you find yourself overwhelmed with work and emails from colleagues that scream “urgent!”, almost every day. Of course, this leaves you drained and miserable. Time to put that trend to rest. While setting boundaries at work may seem challenging, it’s necessary for happiness, fulfillment, and productivity.

What Are Healthy Boundaries at Work? 

Boundaries are limits we set for ourselves to protect our well-being and personal space. They’re like invisible limits that we use to communicate what sort of treatment is A-okay and what behaviors feel somewhat uncomfortable. 

At work, you may set personal boundaries around your: 

• Personal life and matters you’d rather keep private (e.g., anything to do with your family).
• Availability, like specific hours when you’re available for work-related matters (e.g., not answering emails on vacation). 
• Workload expectations around how soon you can complete certain tasks (e.g., politely pushing back on an unrealistic deadline). 
• Physical preferences such as saying you feel uncomfortable with hugs or discouraging unannounced drop-ins to your office.  
• Communication preferences around when you’re open for a casual chitchat or how soon you usually reply to emails. 

Healthy boundaries at work help protect your energy levels and deep work hours. They’re also essential for establishing a proper work-life balance: 57% of workers said setting hard boundaries at work has helped them improve their work-life balance.  

Examples of Overstepping Boundaries at Work

The challenge with boundaries at work is that different people have different understandings of acceptable behaviors. For someone, emailing after hours is a normal thing to do. Another person might think you’re okay with the proposed next-day deadline. In many cases, your colleagues can be overstepping your boundaries unknowingly, mostly because you haven’t really communicated your limit. 

But there are exceptions too. If the company has allowed a toxic work environment to blossom, you may be facing more obnoxious behaviors. Colleagues may be deliberately taking advantage of your good demeanor, leaving you absolutely drained. 

Here are examples of overstepping boundaries at work that require a pushback on your side: 

• A micromanaging boss who’s requesting updates multiple times per day and keeps hovering over your shoulder as you work. 
•  A coworker who thinks they’re better than you and constantly points out your mistakes to others. 
•  A superior who is showing signs of favoritism, based on your appearance, rather than actual accomplishments. 

Likewise, you may encounter other slightly awkward behaviors like intimidated oversharing from a super friendly colleague or a prying type who keeps asking about your personal life. No one likes forced familiarities at the office, so you’re right to point that out. 

How to Set Boundaries at Work

Setting boundaries at work is important for your sanity. Ongoing stress undermines your mental and physical well-being and no job is worth that. Still, you may be hesitant because you don’t want to appear rude, especially to your boss. 

Here’s how to professionally set boundaries at work. 

Be Clear About Your Availability

Having uninterrupted time for deep work is critical for your productivity. But those hours can be hard to crave out when you allow others to chat you up on any occasion. To avoid such distractions, be crystal clear about your availability. Explain when and how it’s best to reach you for different types of questions. 

Here are a couple of quick phrases to set boundaries at work around your availability: 

• In your email signature: “My regular office hours are 9-17 PST. All messages, received on the weekend will be processed on Monday.” 
• In your Slack status: “Doing my deep work. Please, ping me when my status is regular.” 
• In an OOO message, “I am currently on leave until January, 15th. For all urgent questions, please contact my colleague at name@company.com.” 
• To in-person requests “Sandra, the best time to chat with me is usually during lunch hours, between 12-14. I keep my mornings reserved for deep work.” 

If you struggle to keep yourself from lurking in work chats, turn off all the notifications for after work hours. This way, you be tempted to just quickly reply to one message (which oftentimes may lead to a barrage of follow-up communication). 

Learn To Say “No” 

About half of Americans consider themselves people pleasers and they have a hard time refusing something to someone. Being accommodating is a good character value, it indicates your empathy and amicability. But unfortunately, people-pleasing behaviors also prompt others to take advantage of your kindness. And that can have a detrimental effect on your well-being. 

Dr. Caroline Leaf points out that such behaviors “drain your energy, cause toxic stress, and affect the way information is processed and memory is built, which leads to neurochemical chaos in the brain and body”.  And then you’re wondering why you’re not in great shape. 

Practice saying “no” or “not now” to offhand requests when these interfere with your availability or work plans. For example, when a colleague asks you to “briefly have a look at their thing”, while you’re in the middle of something important, honestly say that you don’t have the capacity for that and perhaps suggest a better time to approach you. 

Be Consistent 

To ensure that others respect your boundaries, you must be firm about them. By letting some violations slide, you risk these becoming a habit. So don’t be afraid to remind people about your boundaries and not cave in after some mild pressure. 

To sound respectful, avoid negation. Instead of saying “I can’t answer your emails right away”, which may come across as annoying, say something like “I usually check my emails twice a day, morning and evening. If there’s something really urgent, please call me”. 

And once you’ve drawn your boundary, you should stay consistent with keeping to it. If you then say to continue answering emails on the weekend, people will ignore your earlier requests. 

Conclusion 

Boundaries at work are more important for you than for others. When you’re not honest about your needs and proactive at protecting your behaviors, you’ll continue to feel stressed and unhappy. So start making better choices about your well-being by using the above tips!