This article is written by Benjamin M. Effinger, MPA, Operations Chief of the Cash Management Division at the County of Los Angeles Treasurer and Tax Collector.

  • The problem: Compromising professional boundaries and non-negotiables leads to burnout and job dissatisfaction.
  • Why it matters: We must respect and invest in ourselves at work to be the most productive in that space.
  • The solution: Be present (at work and in your personal life), give 100% where your feet are and do your best to protect and uphold your professional boundaries or non-negotiables.

Balance is critical for a professional to be effective in their chosen career path. Balance cannot be achieved between your personal and professional lives without healthy and effective boundary-setting. Professional boundaries do not mean telling your employer that you will or will not do something, they are simply the rules of the game of work. Finding and securing your own boundaries, both professionally and personally, will help you be the best version of yourself, no matter what identity you currently occupy.

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What are your core values?

Before we get too deep into professional boundaries, one must first establish their professional non-negotiables. These need to be an individual’s core values when it comes to their career. Compromising on these non-negotiables leaves an individual susceptible to compromising all other aspects of themselves at work, including their professional boundaries. Let me provide an example. My professional ethics are one of my non-negotiables. If I am asked to do something illegal, immoral, or unethical at work, I will walk away from that job immediately. I think that is why I am drawn to local government work, because transparency with the community in which we service is of the utmost importance to me and aligns with my professional non-negotiables. Now that we’ve covered an example of professional non-negotiables, let’s get back to setting professional boundaries.

Determine, set, and adhere to a defined work schedule

If my office hours are 07:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, please do not expect me to still be at my desk at 17:30 on a Wednesday afternoon to immediately respond to your Teams message. You will get 100% of my time, energy and attention between the hours of 07:00 to 17:00, but if it happens outside of those hours, it will have to wait until the next business day. In the event that you need to work late, which may happen from time to time, make sure you build it into your schedule. If you stay two hours late one day, flex your arrival time the next day, two hours later. You owe the time to yourself. Even if you are a salaried employee, you are salaried for a set number of hours per week, so giving excess of that will put you on the fast track to burnout, and you are no good to anyone burned out, especially yourself.

At 17:00, I shut down my work computer, turn my work phone onto silent and leave it next to my keys and ID badge on the bureau until the next morning.

Talk early and often about what is important to you outside of your work hours

This one is especially important to me as a senior local government leader. I have a family, am pursuing a doctorate degree and have ventures outside of my professional career in the spaces of men’s mental health and military veteran issues that are important to me. I talk to my employer on a regular basis about these things, and if I need to take time off work to attend to one of these matters, please do not ask me if it is negotiable, as I have already communicated to you how important these matters are to me.

During working hours, be aware of and mitigate time sucks

If you are a middle manager or line supervisor, you’ll know exactly what these are - employee questions that linger on into hypothetical conversations that steal 15-20 minutes of your productivity. If you are a staff member, these are the employees in the cubicle next to you that you have “shown” how to do a task several times, and they have not taken any notes to remember the process. This is productive time that you need to protect, and by setting boundaries within your workday, you can eliminate these time sucks from your day and recapture productive time.

After work hours, shut off and log off issued computers and cell phones

At 17:00, I shut down my work computer, turn my work phone onto silent and leave it next to my keys and ID badge on the bureau until the next morning. There are a few select individuals in my chain of command and my HR manager who have my personal cell phone number in the event of an after-hours emergency, but other than that, I am disconnected. Anything that needs to be done for the day can be planned and scheduled for during the workday, and boundaries within the workday can help you stick to a schedule to complete them.

Setting professional boundaries at work in local government is critical. There are very few “additional” perks that come with working for local government – no bonuses, paid days off for no reason, or tickets to see your favourite sports team – so you have to maintain your lines of what you will give and what you will not. Your employer knowing these upfront is much easier than trying to teach them on the fly once you have set forth a value system of compromise, especially with your own professional non-negotiables.

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