Setting and Honoring Boundaries Benefits Us All in Business and at Work

Generally speaking, in life, business and at work, it’s good to have boundaries. Boundaries help to prevent misunderstandings, and like ground rules posted on a wall when facilitating a team discussion, pre-established boundaries help make more objective (and less personal) critical norms for successful work together.

In the workplace, such boundaries usually come in the form of employee handbooks and organizational policies.  Key to the success of setting such boundaries is the follow-through: once boundaries are set, success comes when they are honored and followed consistently by everyone in the organization.

Among other uses, setting and honoring organizational boundaries help to ensure:

1. That we won’t hit, kick, or throw objects at each other; or call each other immoral / illegal epithets; or bully each other;

 

 

 

2. That we won’t get drunk and/or watch t.v. while on the clock at work;

 

 

 

3. That we won’t steal from our employer, or each other;

 

 

 

4. And that as employers, when we are hiring individuals to handle large sums of our organization’s money, we’ll conduct a background check post-offer, pre-hire to ensure that the new hire has not stolen an organization’s money before;

 

 

 

5. That we won’t lie about our education, credentials or work experience; and that as employers, we will verify the education, credentials and work experience of our new hires, post-offer / pre-hire;

 

 

 

6. That we will have anti-harassment policies and annual training; that we will not harass each other;  and that when harassment does occur, we will investigate and remediate the situation swiftly;

 

 

 

7. That we won’t sleep on the job, stealing time from our organization;

 

 

 

8. And that we won’t make false Worker’s Compensation claims (e.g., claiming false workplace injuries, filing a Worker’s Comp claim and collecting the money);

 

 

 

9.  That we won’t falsify our timesheets saying that we were at work, when we were actually getting drunk at the bar downstairs;

 

 

 

10.  And that if we’re union leaders, we won’t embezzle our members’ hard-earned dues.

 

 

 

Because when we don’t establish and honor such boundaries, how can we as a team support the ongoing sustainability and success of our organization?  Not to mention the reputational harm, to the organization and its respective employees alike, which is only counter-productive to customer retention and recruitment.

What boundaries will you set and honor, individually and collectively this week, in business and at work?