Strong Boundaries Are Key To Work-Life Balance: How To Set Them

Whether you work from home or walk into an office, serve customers or manage a construction site, have a boss or be your own boss, the biggest lesson I learned when I first joined the workforce , is this People will take as much as they are willing to give. This is not a judgement; it’s just human nature.

I first discovered this in the early days of Whole30 when we were trying to grow the program and I was the only one running email and our Facebook page. If a question came in at 9 p.m., I felt like me would have to answer that. If a workshop request came in on a Sunday morning, I’d interrupt my workout, brunch, or errands to respond. If someone submitted a question for the blog, I would stay up until midnight and write the answer. I was exhausted trying to be in 10 places at once, feeling reactive instead of proactive, and quickly approaching burnout… until a friend and fellow entrepreneur said to me, “Melissa, people take as much as you’re willing to give . You have to set boundaries.” Which brings us to one of my most important tenets of boundaries:

It’s not your job to guess my limits. It’s up to me to set and hold them.

This applies to any relationship category but is often overlooked at work, especially when you work for someone else. We tend to assume that our boss’s expectations, workplace culture, or work demands override our personal need for (and right to) healthy boundaries—but these assumptions are wrong. Yes, you accepted the job. Yes, they pay you for your work. But you have every right to demand a healthy, safe, and respectful work environment, and that almost always means setting boundaries.

The thing is, your company probably isn’t going to proactively set healthy boundaries for you. It’s rare for a manager to say to an employee, “I noticed you haven’t taken a vacation in a year – make sure you take the time off you deserve and I promise we’ll take you on this one.” time will not disturb. out.” The truth is, if you don’t tick it, your business, your managers, employees, and customers will eat it up hungry Everyone your time, energy, space and attention. That doesn’t make her mad; it’s just the way the world works. Everyone is under pressure to do more, produce more, and make more money. (It’s called capitalism, honey.) Why she must create strong, healthy boundaries in the workplace.