We all need to set boundaries, even in the most structured jobs, because work has its way of encroaching on the rest of our life. Ashley, a senior analyst for the federal government, recently shifted to a schedule that helps her do her most important work and have some alone time before her family gets home. Now she’s trying to figure out how to further minimize interruptions, deal with slow and busy stretches, and get out of unproductive meetings. Amy G and executive coach Melody Wilding talk through adjustments Ashley can make and things she can say to achieve those goals. They also offer strategies for how to communicate your new limits with colleagues and how to hold the line when your boundaries inevitably get tested.
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You'Re listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.
I'm Amy Gallo.
In this series, the Essentials, Amy B.
And I cover key career skills by bringing together experts on those skills and audience members of ours who are looking to get better at them.
The thing we like about grounding these episodes in the specifics of individual women's experiences is how it makes management principles less theoretical and practical advice more realistic, not only for that one woman participating in the conversation, but also for listeners in all sorts of industries.
Ashley Chaffetz works as a senior analyst for the U.S.
department of Agriculture, leading large research projects mainly focused on school meals.
The job is both flexible and structured.
Flexible in ways that she'll explain in a bit.
Structured in that she has to set and stick to a schedule.
She signs on and off at the same times nearly every day, and because it's a federal job, she's not allowed to have government email or any other work messages or materials on her personal devices.
Ashley's life is so different from mine, where the distinctions between my work and my personal time are very fluid because I run my own business.
I don't have a boss who's telling me what I can and can't do, when I need to be at work or in a meeting and when I can take care of personal stuff.
You know, I'm looking at my calendar right now for last Thursday and I attended two meetings in the morning after going to the gym.
Then I went actually for a physical therapy appointment and left from that straight to have coffee with a former colleague.
Then I came back to my desk and finished up a article that I was writing and had one other meeting before I signed off for the day.
And to be fair, when I say I signed off for the day, it meant I closed my laptop, but I probably came back to it later that night.
And having this flexibility means that I end up trying to check things off my to do list sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday.