Setting boundaries at work is essential to building a healthy relationship with your manager and colleagues. Good boundaries help optimize productivity, and they also improve your work life. As the saying goes, “good fences make good neighbors.” If your fence is short and weak, your neighbor’s dog might come into your compound and damage your property. Strive to establish healthy boundaries to have a more fulfilling career and work life.

All You Need to Know About Workplace Boundaries

Your boundaries are essentially your yeses and noes. They are the limits you establish to define how others should treat you. You can think of boundaries as an imaginary or property line that describes what you accept and don’t accept.

In a work-related setting, boundaries aren’t just rules governing your space. They also describe how much time and effort you are willing to give to your employer or your hospitality career. For example, you may set a work boundary that you don’t want to have meetings past 7 pm because that’s family time. Any other time between 9 am and 7 pm is good, but 7 pm is a ‘no’ for you.

Reasons Why You Need to Set Boundaries at Work

Establishing healthy boundaries at work ensures your colleagues and managers know what behaviors or actions are acceptable for you and which ones aren’t. Here are a few other reasons to set boundaries at your workplace:

• Prevent stress and burnout
• Develop a better working relationship with your colleagues
• Improve work engagement and satisfaction
• Get more time for personal commitments
• Become more productive

Types of Boundaries in a Workplace

There are various categories of boundaries that you can set in the workplace. Let’s have a look at them.

• Physical boundaries: Physical boundaries are the rules you create regarding your personal space, body, and touch. They can also define the foods you choose to eat or drink. For example, choosing not to drink alcohol or eat spicy food is a physical boundary. Another good example is when you prefer handshakes and high-fives to hugs.
• Mental boundaries: Mental boundaries relate to your thoughts, beliefs, values, and opinions. Everyone is different. You can’t expect you and your colleagues to meet eye-to-eye on everything. Just as you respect other people’s values and beliefs, whether cultural or social, ask that they do the same for you.
• Emotional boundaries: Emotional boundaries refer to the limits you set regarding your emotions and feelings. They define who you can open up to about your feelings and how much you are willing to share. These boundaries are tough to understand, let alone establish because they relate to one’s emotions and are intangible. Emotional boundaries also help protect you from taking responsibility for other people’s emotions and actions. For example, you don’t have to feel guilty or responsible for how someone else acts or behaves. Having emotional boundaries helps prevent others from manipulating you into taking blame or doing something you didn’t want to do.
• Material boundaries: Material boundaries relate to your possessions, for example, your tools, photos, extra clothes, or food. They are the rules you establish regarding who has permission to use your belongings and how they should use it. A classic example of material boundaries is when you don’t feel comfortable lending your car to a colleague. Someone who destroys or steals your possessions is also violating your material boundaries.
• Time boundaries: Time boundaries are the rules relating to how you spend your time. For example, saying “no ’’ to working on weekends, off days, and night shifts is a time boundary. It’s always good practice for an HR representative or manager to give you a comprehensive overview of your working hours when employing you. If your role requires you to work the night shift or respond to emails during your off time, your manager should communicate in advance. Lateness can also be a time boundary. If you are a manager and you don’t appreciate someone joining meetings late, you can set this boundary with them.

Communication is vital when setting your boundaries. Be concise and honest about them so that your colleagues can begin to respect them. It’s best to communicate your boundaries earlier on rather than waiting until someone violates them. Communicating in advance will help set the tone for how your colleagues treat you. You don’t have to establish all your boundaries in one sitting or day. You can mention them subtly within your day-to-day conversations with your coworkers and manager.