The Best Flexible Work Hack? Set Boundaries Together [exercise]
Photo by Marco Mons on Unsplash
My last post focused on fluid identities and how one reason we may be feeling happier and more productive is because we’re able to bring our whole selves into work.
The flip side to working at home is that at the same time we’re freaking exhausted. Microsoft’s latest report also shared that people are sending more chat messages and emails than previous years, and meetings are lasting 10 minutes longer than before.
“This barrage of communications is unstructured and mostly unplanned, with 62 percent of calls and meetings unscheduled or conducted ad hoc. And workers are feeling the pressure to keep up.”
Eeek. I feel stressed out just typing that. With flexible work a reality that’s here to stay, we need to talk about boundaries and take the pressure away from the individuals to set their own boundaries.
Leaders and managers, let’s first acknowledge that what we’re doing now isn’t sustainable and that we cannot go back to pre-pandemic ways of working. Once that’s out of the way, the fun begins: let’s discuss and co-create organizational and team boundaries together.
What’s the best way to get your people excited about change? Ask them what changes they want to see! For some inspiration, here’s an exercise...
How to Kick-off a Discussion on Boundaries:
Ask each person to write 3 examples of when they’ve felt their boundaries being pushed in the last 6 months. (What happened? When?)
What feelings came up when this happens? Make a list (no judgements, no right or wrong answers)
What do they typically do when their boundaries have been pushed? (behaviors and actions)
What can each person say or do to protect their boundaries? What do they need from others on their team?
I like these questions because they can be prepped beforehand to give people ample time to think, then they can be shared in any way that’s right for your team: one-to-one conversations or a group workshop or meeting. Whichever format you choose I recommend sharing everyone’s boundaries (anonymous if that’s helpful) for empathy, transparency, and managing expectations.
Once I attended a Mindr event and a woman on the panel shared that she needs 5:30-8:30pm every weekday to be with her kids. She told everyone on her team that she’s unavailable and she blocks it on her calendar. It’s an awesome, simple idea that I might not have thought of myself.
Keep in mind that speaking openly about boundaries requires trust between management and employees. For leaders you’ll need to trust your people to decide the best ways that they can get their work done, which means not penalizing them for setting boundaries. For employees, you’ll need to trust that these boundaries will be respected.
A group workshop can always benefit from a facilitator, someone from another team, or an external person so please let me know if I can support these conversations as we continue to make flexible work work for us as whole humans.