Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is a reminder to people who do have flexible
Speaker 1: schedules that you can still set boundaries. You can start
Speaker 1: repeating this phrase to yourself. Just because I can doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I should. The past few decades have brought huge
Speaker 1: changes to the way people work. Laptops and cell phones
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Now, if your.
Speaker 1: Neighbor has done a huge favor for you recently, that
Speaker 1: is a different matter. But if not, hopefully you can
Speaker 1: develop the fortitude to say no to these requests. Oh
Speaker 1: I've got phone calls stacked up all day, or I
Speaker 1: may need to come into the office, so I'm sorry
Speaker 1: 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: kid 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 negotiatedly. I think boundaries with kids
Speaker 1: are the hardest. One of the upsides of having a
Speaker 1: flexible schedule is the ability to accommodate family responsibilities, and
Speaker 1: 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 a 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 timelog recently, a professor picked up her children
Speaker 1: at school at two pm on the days when she
Speaker 1: didn't have afternoon classes. She could do this, but the
Speaker 1: problem was that she wasn't making as much progress as
Speaker 1: she wanted on the research and journal article submissions that
Speaker 1: we're going to help her land tenure. Yes, she could
Speaker 1: do the early afternoon pickup, but there's a limit to
Speaker 1: how efficient we can be, and since she wasn't mustering
Speaker 1: the energy to do the work at night after the
Speaker 1: kids went to bed, something.
Speaker 2: Had to give.
Speaker 1: I wasn't totally sure how she'd take this advice, but
Speaker 1: she did agree with me that at least one to
Speaker 1: two days per week she needed some extra childcare hours
Speaker 1: in the afternoon and to work an actual full work
Speaker 1: day during the workday.
Speaker 2: She did this, and pretty soon she was submitting her
Speaker 2: articles at the pace she wanted. Sometimes choices are hard,
Speaker 2: but again, just because we can doesn't mean we should.
Speaker 2: So if you have a flexible schedule, take some time
Speaker 2: today to think about what boundaries you have around your
Speaker 2: work hours. Are you satisfied with these or not? If not,
Speaker 2: you absolutely can ask for more help or renegotiate any
Speaker 2: assumptions that have been made before work is work, and
Speaker 2: whether you work it home and have control of your
Speaker 2: hours or not. It needs to be taken seriously if
Speaker 2: you want to advance in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 2: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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