Once you’ve selected a career, it’s time to get learning. Typically, to set you up for success in your first professional role, you will be taught the skills and knowledge specific to your career or sector. This is important, of course, though this curriculum will often miss other valuable skills that you need in the workplace. This includes soft skills like leadership, communication and resilience. It could be argued that these skills are just as important as industry related skills, and can allow individuals to progress professionally in their roles.

One particularly skill that many professionals struggle with is communication and assertiveness. It’s common for individuals to work more hours than they’re paid for or assist with additional tasks that aren’t typically a requirement of their job roles. It may be the case that these professionals are fearful of the repercussions of saying no or worried about what opinions may be formed if they do. It’s important for employees to understand what is and isn’t required of them in their job roles, as well as how to identify situations where they are burnt out from being overstretched with responsibilities. In this article, we will discuss how to set boundaries without hurting your career.

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Why Are Boundaries Important In The Workplace?

Boundaries in the workplace help other colleagues, as well as senior teams, understand how you work and how you can help them when they need it. Without them, individuals can easily take on more responsibilities than they can handle, ultimately affecting their productivity as well as allowing for more mistakes and errors. Similarly, setting clear boundaries within your teams at work can encourage respect and trust between colleagues. It removes confusion over who’s responsible for different tasks and encourages others to demonstrate the same behaviours back to you.

Which Type of Boundaries Can Be Set In The Workplace?

You may believe that most boundaries colleagues can set in the workplace revolve around time and availability. For example, rearranging a meeting that a colleague scheduled after you’re due to finish for the day. However, boundaries can be specific to several other focuses. Here are a few examples:

• Emotional Capacity – This may involve how much you get involved with office drama or other people’s problems they share with you.
• Communication Preferences – This involves how you refer to communicating to internal and external teams at work, for example via email, team messaging or phone calls.
• Physical Requirements – This could involve seating arrangements or how much desk privacy you prefer to work at your desk.
• Workload – This involves the tasks you agree to complete, depending on how much capacity you have or whether they were outlined in your job description.

How To Set Boundaries In The Workplace

The first step in establishing boundaries in the workplace, without hurting your career, is to understand what you’re entitled to as an employee. You may still have your initial contract to re-read, but if you’re unsure or need clarification, you can always reach out to a member of the HR team who will be able to remind you.

Once you’re aware of your rights and responsibilities as an employee, you can then identify your non-negotiables – or in other words, what you don’t want to compromise on. Work through the list of different boundaries we’ve previously discussed, covering everything from your availability to communication style.

Then, once you’re confident in the boundaries you want to set, you can now communicate them to colleagues and management in your team. It’s important to outline all your boundaries clearly, rather than waiting for them to be challenged before bringing them up. It can be helpful to use pre-planned scripts that you can copy and paste to colleagues so that you’re not tempted to over-explain or apologise. However, it’s key to remember that although you’re being stern and consistent with your boundaries, it is not necessary to be rude or unfair.

To help colleagues understand your boundaries better, it will be helpful to offer a brief explanation specific to each circumstance. For example, when referring to your availability or working capacity, you could outline other tasks that you are responsible for and why they take priority. This way colleagues will see that your boundaries are fair and justified, rather than just a preference.

It can be natural to feel guilty or nervous about setting boundaries with colleagues and senior teams in your workplace. It’s important to think about the boundaries that your own employer also has in place for its employees, such as having a legal right to work in the UK, through a British citizenship, Irish citizenship or skills worker visa.  Just as employers set these boundaries for their employees, you can do the same, and confidently set boundaries that are well within your rights. It might feel challenging to set boundaries if it’s not what you’re used to or comfortable with, but with time and consistency, employers and colleagues will learn to respect your decision, allowing everyone to work more efficiently and productively.

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