Establish boundaries
with your
boss about bringing work home
Just because you are employed by your boss and work
a very strict schedule for another company besides
yourself, that doesn't mean that you cannot start
managing your time better by setting boundaries at
the office. What does “setting boundaries
at the office” mean? Simply put, it means that
you must take steps to let your boss know that you
are already overloaded with work at home and do not
want more of your personal time taken away. But the
trick is to do this in a manner that does not carry
a negative outlook on you as an employee.
These situations happen to us all of the time at
work. It goes with the territory of working for someone
else. And like anybody who wants to make your boss
happy, you probably tend to overload your time by
taking on everything at once at the drop of a dime,
regardless of what is already on your plate. And more
than anything else, you probably feel negative and
annoyed with all of the work that is piled on you,
which takes away from your personal time.
Rather than treat these unexpected work burdens during
your day with a negative attitude, why not take a
more positive viewpoint of why your boss is giving
you so much work? Look at it this way, you were asked
to take on these additional projects because you are
reliable, trusted, and in some cases, it may have
been because you were simply available.
If you are concerned about the quality of your life
and feel that putting in all of the extra hours for
work is taking its toll, then you need to employ a
few time management strategies that can work for anyone
in your situation at the office. Below are three tips
that you can start using immediately to start setting
boundaries at the office which will invariably contribute
to the quality of both your work life and personal
life:
1. Although your goal is to work less at home, make
it clear to your boss that you devote many hours each
week at your home office to the company in forms of
daily organization for the projects that you work
on each day. This will let your boss know that you
are already devoting your energy to the company after-hours,
and this may keep you from being overloaded with projects
in the future.
2. When you are discussing work with your boss, be
sure to focus on the actual results that you achieve
during office hours, not the hours that you are putting
in at home. Psychologically, the more result-oriented
at work that your boss hears of, the more he will
focus on keeping work from being sent home. The same
is true for after-hours. If you are always discussing
the “results” that you achieve by taking
work home, then you can count on plenty of work sent
home in the future.
3. Each office has its high-achievers who seem to
be able to leave early, not work weekends, and yet
produce a high level of results every week. Make it
a point to talk with them and ask questions. Find
out their work habits and ask how they manage their
time so that you can employ the same techniques.
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