The second tip is to communicate.
You’ve set your priorities. Now let your co-workers know about them.
“Boundaries are often invisible. No one knows they’re there but you. If you don’t articulate [your boundaries], then how will other people know they’re crossing them?” asks Lisa Martin, founder and president of coaching and training company Briefcase Moms in Vancouver, British Columbia.
It’s crucial to be clear about what you want, what you can do and what you can’t do, she says. It’s equally crucial, of course, to take a business approach to this step, Martin emphasizes. Find opportune times to discuss such matters, and use a neutral voice to address missteps.
If, for instance, you’ve negotiated the ability to leave nightly by a certain time but your boss still keeps you late, state the problem neutrally (“This is the seventh time in two months I’ve worked late on a Friday”) and remind her of your initial boundary (“We’d agreed to a firm leaving time.”)
For some employees, this step might not come naturally, especially when speaking to a supervisor, but “you’ve got to take your ‘boundaries vitamins,’ ” Martin maintains. “You have to keep fortifying [your position]. “It gets easier with practice,” she promises.Lingle suggests sharing not only your established priorities but also select details of your personal life with your co-workers.
It’s an approach that Bob Keefe, senior vice president and CIO of Mueller Co.’s Mueller Water Products division and president-elect of the Society for Information Management, has seen put to good use firsthand.
While working at another company, his team encountered a serious error during an electronic data interchange. The team had to contact a colleague for information, although they knew he was out because his wife was heading into surgery.
“He was the kind of person who, if we made that phone call, he’d be back in the office, so we told him the program just ‘ab ended,’ ” knowing that an abnormal end to a program wasn’t serious enough to make him feel he needed to return to work, Keefe explains. Because they knew about his personal situation beforehand, the team took the trouble to glean the necessary information from their colleague without calling him back into the office.
3. Build a business case for your better life.
Savvy professionals are increasingly willing to asking for flexible schedules as part of their compensation packages when offered new jobs, Mok says.
“People with hot skills have more leverage in getting this kind of special treatment,” she says, but that doesn’t preclude others from negotiating additional vacation time, limited overtime hours or flexible start and end times before signing on with a new company. You can use the same strategy to negotiate benefits from your existing employer, too, Mok suggests.
Just approach the situation as you would any other business proposal: by building a business case for what you need. “You need to demonstrate, based on your previous performance, that you will be able to deliver the same results,” Mok explains.
If you want to telecommute, for example, you should explain how you already successfully work without direct supervision — making sure to include specific examples — and how you can accomplish more without frequent office interruptions. Moreover, you should point out that a home setup is in line with your company’s disaster recovery plans because it allows you to work even if the main office is empty due to, say, bad weather.
Part four will show you how to take advantage of corporate policies and programs.
