Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is a reminder to people who do have
Speaker 1: flexible schedules that you can still set boundaries. You can
Speaker 1: start repeating this phrase to yourself. Just because I can
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I should. The past few decades have brought
Speaker 1: huge changes to the way people work. Laptops and cell
Speaker 1: phones mean much work can be done anytime and any place,
Speaker 1: and while during the transition years, this often meant people
Speaker 1: worked at the office during set hours and then still
Speaker 1: needed to be reachable afterwards. Younger workers in particular, expect
Speaker 1: a huge deal of control over their schedules. They don't
Speaker 1: see this flexibility as a reward for years of proving themselves.
Speaker 1: They see it as the most efficient approach to work,
Speaker 1: and in general it is. However, after studying thousands of
Speaker 1: schedules over the years, I'd say that some people are
Speaker 1: better about setting boundaries with their time than others. If
Speaker 1: you can set your own hours and work from home occasionally,
Speaker 1: you have a great deal of control over your time.
Speaker 1: But that control doesn't mean that your time is anyone
Speaker 1: else's for the taking. There are the classic requests. A
Speaker 1: neighbor wants you to drive him or her to the airport.
Speaker 1: This person is totally capable of taking an uber, but
Speaker 1: since you're home, it's no biggie, right. Or the neighbor
Speaker 1: wants you to let out his dog at noon since
Speaker 1: you're there. On some level, it might not be a biggie,
Speaker 1: but planning your day around a commitment means your time
Speaker 1: isn't fully focused on your work pursuits during time you
Speaker 1: plan to work, and that is a problem. Now, if
Speaker 1: your neighbor has done a huge favor for you recently,
Speaker 1: that is a different matter. But if not, hopefully you
Speaker 1: can develop the fortitude to say no to these requests.
Speaker 1: Oh I've got phone calls stacked up all day, or
Speaker 1: I may need to come into the office, so I'm
Speaker 1: sorry I can't commit. But sometimes it's harder to set boundaries.
Speaker 1: Maybe your partner has an unspoken assumption that because you
Speaker 1: can work from home, it's your job to cover all
Speaker 1: kids sick days or snow days. It's your job to
Speaker 1: wait around for all repair people. And perhaps a couple
Speaker 1: might decide that this split of labor makes sense, But
Speaker 1: if so, it should be a conscious decision, not an assumption,
Speaker 1: and I'd strongly caution against a couple assuming that the
Speaker 1: party who can set his or her own hours and
Speaker 1: work from home must therefore be responsible for all housework. Yes,
Speaker 1: you could throw in a load of laundry during a
Speaker 1: break between calls, but guess what your partner could throw
Speaker 1: in a load before he or she leaves for work too.
Speaker 1: These tasks must be negotiated set Really, I think boundaries
Speaker 1: with kids are the hardest. One of the upsides of
Speaker 1: having a flexible schedule is the ability to accommodate family responsibilities,
Speaker 1: and this can be a real blessing for people who have, say,
Speaker 1: special needs kids who require a lot of medical appointments
Speaker 1: and the like. But what I've often seen happen is
Speaker 1: that people with flexible schedules think that because they can
Speaker 1: do something, they should and they don't necessarily push back.
Speaker 1: A physician's office offers you at ten am appointment, and
Speaker 1: so you take it rather than asking for something at
Speaker 1: a more convenient time. And yes, it can work, but
Speaker 1: then your day is chopped up. Or as I saw
Speaker 1: on a time log recently, a professor picked up her
Speaker 1: children at school at two pm on the days when
Speaker 1: she didn't have afternoon classes. She could do this, but
Speaker 1: the problem was that she wasn't making as much progress
Speaker 1: as she wanted on the research and journal article submissions
Speaker 1: that we're going to help her land tenure. Yes, she
Speaker 1: could do the early afternoon pickup, but there's a limit
Speaker 1: to how efficient we can be, and since she wasn't
Speaker 1: mustering the energy to do the work at night after
Speaker 1: the kids went to bed, something had to give. I
Speaker 1: wasn't totally sure how she'd take this advice, but she
Speaker 1: did agree with me that at least one to two
Speaker 1: days per week she needed some extra childcare hours in
Speaker 1: the afternoon and to work an actual full work day
Speaker 1: during the work day. She did this, and pretty soon
Speaker 1: she was submitting her articles at the pace she wanted.
Speaker 1: Sometimes choices are hard, but again, just because we can
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we should. So if you have a flexible schedule,
Speaker 1: take some time to day to think about what boundaries
Speaker 1: you have around your work hours. Are you satisfied with
Speaker 1: these or not? If not, you absolutely can ask for
Speaker 1: more help a renegotiate any assumptions that have been made
Speaker 1: before work is work, and whether you work at home
Speaker 1: and have control of your hours or not. It needs
Speaker 1: to be taken seriously if you want to advance in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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