5 Tips for Setting Workplace Boundaries

Do you check your office email out of hours? Are you available on Slack 24/7? Are you saying “yes” to every project proposed to you, even if you’re already feeling like you’ve got your hands full? If you answered yes to the above, then you’re likely experiencing the stress that a lack of boundaries at work can provide. It’s something women in business are often guilty of!

According to successful author Doreen Virtue, “Boundaries are a part of self-care. They are healthy, normal and necessary.” In the workplace, this holds especially true. Let’s delve into that below, with five tips for setting workplace boundaries, so you can become more successful by working smarter, not harder.

Get Personal to be Professional

Before you can start to set professional boundaries, you need to assess your personal situation. What are your values and life priorities? Are there events that you’ve been missing out on, or hobbies you’ve been neglecting? Consider your home life, passions, and relationships, and what they’re lacking. What do they need to feel fulfilled?

Consider your personal space as well. Have you had enough time for yourself? Take these thoughts into consideration and use them to create a plan. By creating a concrete plan, you’ll be able to better set boundaries at work, because you’ll know why you’re setting them.

As Robbin Jorgensen, founder of Women Igniting Change, says, “If you don’t set personal boundaries, then others get to decide how they treat you.”

Communicate your Limits

Once you’ve identified your personal boundaries, solidify those limits in your workplace by communicating them to your team. Let others know, for example, that you won’t be available to respond at all hours! Instead, you can give them a specific time frame during which they can contact you, and/or expect a response.

It is also important to let your team know what to do in case of an emergency… and clarify what type of thing constitutes an emergency too! It may feel strange defining something you already consider common sense, but people differ in their understandings and experiences. By clearly defining something—whether that be limits or emergencies—you ensure that everyone will be on the same page.

Get Comfortable with “No”

Many women in the workplace want to be seen as ‘nice’, ‘agreeable’, and ‘easy to work with’. This can often result in women saying yes to every project that comes their way though, even when, upon reflection, they later wish they’d said no.

Yet saying no is easier said than done, especially in professional settings… so let’s explore how to do that, feasibly.

Firstly, we can work our way up to the big “no”. If you’re used to saying “yes” to everything, it may feel difficult to switch that straight to a “no”. Instead, say “let me think about it.” Megan Bruneau, mental health therapist and host of Forbes’ The Failure Factor, says in her article on how to say no, that by pausing, you can consider the request, whether it will serve you, and whether you have the time or capacity for it.

From there, you can build your way up to saying “no”, with an explanation. “No, I can’t do the project, I’m currently working on X.” Whilst you aren’t obligated to explain yourself, it can help you feel like you’re softening the blow.

When you’re used to that, follow the advice of Anne Lamont, successful American novelist, “No is a complete sentence.”

If that doesn’t feel comfortable, you might prefer to use our next tip: saying no and delegating.

Delegate when Appropriate

An important part of setting workplace boundaries is understanding what is in the scope of your abilities, and what simply isn’t. In the past, you may have taken on a project that took up a lot of your personal time.

Now, when presented with the project, you can choose to follow the above tips – or you can choose to pair them with delegation. By delegating the work to someone more suited, or with more capacity, you’re learning to play to the strengths of your team.

Prepare to Hold your Ground

Part of setting healthy boundaries is preparing for when people inevitably try to cross them. If others have become accustomed to treating you a certain way, habits may have formed that take some time to unlearn… especially if crossing your boundaries serves them!

If you set boundaries and they aren’t respected, take it as a sign that your boundaries are working! Use those experiences to reinforce your boundaries once more, because each time you do, they become stronger and clearer. Don’t let pushback force you to take a step backwards too, because the saying “give an inch and they will take a mile” is all too familiar in the realm of boundary setting.

As Coco Chanel said, “The most courageous act is to think for yourself. Aloud.” By setting boundaries and communicating them, even in difficult situations, you will become happier, more productive, and ultimately, more successful. 

Written for Empowering a Billion Women, July 5 2021