Did you know that you need to learn to set reasonable boundaries where you work, both for yourself and for those you work with? I want to talk about some common mistakes we make in the workplace when it comes to boundaries.

 

From the book Boundaries: “If you are being saddled with another person’s responsibilities and feel resentful, you need to take responsibility for your feelings, and realize that your unhappiness is not your co-worker’s fault, but your own.”

 

That sums it up pretty well. If you continually allow yourself to be burdened with another’s workload and you never communicate your boundaries, then it becomes your fault, not your coworker’s fault.

 

Maybe you get stuck working late very often because your manager has continual fires that he or she wants you to put out. Reminds me of that saying: “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

 

Many managers are never forced to look at their lack of boundaries until it’s too late, until they have lost a good employee to exhaustion or burnout. You need to take responsibility for yourself and take steps to change this overwork situation. That means a talk with the boss, after much thought, prayer and careful presentation of the problem.

 

When you work for someone who piles one priority upon another, you need to learn to explain that if you are going to do “A” today, you won’t be able to do “B”. And then ask that person to define the priorities. As long as you take those unrealistic priorities they’ll keep giving them to you.

 

If you know you’re doing the work as good as it can be done, and you are convinced your boss is overly critical, then you must develop the ability to stand apart from the critical person and keep yourself separate from their criticism. Do not internalize their opinion of you. Disagree internally. You may also need to confront that person.

 

Perhaps that will get you thinking about the boundary mistakes you may be making on your job. Then the next thing to do is pray about them.