How to Set Workplace Boundaries with Others

Whether it be the New Balance headquarters or an Amazon warehouse, the workplace is a critical factor in ensuring a business runs smoothly. Therefore, creating a safe and welcoming work environment is imperative to ensure everyone is communicative about the goals and initiatives of the company. By doing so, businesses can reinforce values of safety, trust, and communication not just to their employees, but also their customers. Types of boundaries that should be enforced in the workplace can be split into three main categories— physical, mental, and emotional.

Physical boundaries

Establishing a physically safe workplace is crucial in making sure people can effectively get work done. Even so, issues such as sexual and verbal harassment and extensive overtime work are largely prevalent in many workplaces of today. To help prevent this, it is important to have clear communication in every work relationship, whether it be co-worker to co-worker or employee to employer. This could mean saying no to weekend workdays, taking necessary mental health or sick days, and speaking on professional matters over personal ones. Even offering handshakes over hugs are small but largely impactful ways to establish physical boundaries. 

Mental Boundaries

In addition to physical boundaries, putting mental boundaries in place is another major contributing factor to a successful and healthy workplace. Setting mental boundaries also encourages a more sustainable and effective work-life balance, potentially increasing the output and efficiency of anyone. Therefore, setting clear work hours for oneself, prioritizing tasks and meetings, and avoiding anything gossip-related are beneficial not just to the workplace, but also the employee. Though often overlooked, mental boundaries are necessary for handling work relationships and establishing clear work boundaries with others.

Emotional Boundaries

Emotional boundaries differentiate from mental ones in that they relate to issues such as workplace anger, frustration, and hostility—it relates to how one respects others’ feelings while also managing their own. Empathy is a core value that is reinforced through such boundaries; clearly communicating how one wishes to receive feedback and respecting other people’s needs for time away and personal space are both ways of implementing such in the workplace. By setting emotional boundaries, employees are able to feel understood and can develop a sense of trust with the people they work with.   

Setting physical, mental, and emotional boundaries are imperative to a healthy and safe workplace. By doing so, values of empathy, respect, and integrity are reflected in everyday communications and tasks. Though a seemingly trivial part of the workplace, these boundaries are imperative in enhancing the quality of the work that is done and ultimately setting a moral standard for the businesses of the future.