Work and Personal Life: Boundaries Are Your Friends

I was finally settling into my first weekday of my long overdue vacation.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had a chance to just sit and not have to worry about what I needed to do next.

They say it takes at least a few days to get into vacation mode to fully unwind and relax.

After all of the layoffs, reorganization, adjusting job assignment and duties which of course piled on more work to those that remained, my nervous system was working on over drive and I really needed a reset.

This vacation could not have come soon enough.

I had decided to pick a closeby city that wasn’t too far to get to. I also decided to take the train so I didn’t even have to worry about driving.

As you might know from some other articles, one of my fave locales to visit is NYC which isn’t far from me and you can do something different every time you go. So off I went on the train for a few days.

But I would have been just as happy at home on a staycation, as long as I had a breather from the constant work stress battering me on the daily.

NYC is on the water so I decided to take a ferry ride. Nothing is calmer than looking out at the water and feeling the rise and fall of the waves while cruising along.

I grabbed a seat on the ferry by a window and settled in for the ride.

I hadn’t felt this relaxed in some time. I actually couldn’t remember when was the last time I had felt like this.

I was jolted from my zen like vibe when my phone started buzzing. When I looked down it was a call from work. I groaned inside.

Why were they seriously calling me? There were several others covering all of my work while I was gone.

For a mere 4 work days I was off I might add. 5 if you include the July 4th holiday.

I ignored it and threw the phone in my bag. If it was that important they could leave a message.

The next day I decided to explore more of the city on foot and headed down to the Financial District to a quiet coffee shop tucked away on a side street near Wall Street that many locals go to, to work remotely.

I sat down with my latte and croissant to plan the rest of my day.

No sooner had I sat down than my phone rang again with a work call.

Ugh!!! Really?!

I ignored it again. I was in too good of a mood to ruin it with work issues.

A few hours later my phone started blowing up with texts.

Apparently ignoring it was not going to make it go away.

I sighed and braced myself for the inevitable call I was going to have to make and deal with.

According to Indeed, setting boundaries at work actually will make you more productive in the long run.

Your employer doesn’t always buy into this, which is why you need to strongly enforce it yourself.

Constantly working long hours and long days without an end in sight is not sustainable.

This will lead to burnout and will lead to myriad of health issues both mental and physical which can surface in unforeseen ways.

Overall the stress from work can lead to a shortened lifespan. Our body was not meant to handle a high load of stress for a sustained period of time.

One study from Harvard and Stanford concluded that high workplace stress could take off as much as 33 years of life expectancy, which was shocking to me.

Knowing this information and having dealt with a high stress job for some time now, I knew what I needed to do.

I mentally prepared myself, closed my eyes, and dialed back. I was secretly hoping they wouldn’t answer.

Shit, of course they had to pick up on the first ring.

“Hey there so I wanted to call you about a few things that came up here and …”

“Hi how are you. So listen, I am actually on leave at the moment this week but I’ve made sure to fill my team in on everything I was covering before I left. If you wouldn’t mind reaching out to them or if not I come back on Monday and I can touch base with you then.”

I silently held my breath, not knowing what response I would be getting.

“Oh, ok sure yes definitely. It can wait a couple days. I understand. I will call you Monday and we can go over everything. I will let the others know not to bother you this week.”

I let out a sigh of relief and went back to doing some exploring and enjoying my time off.

I did not hear from work again for the remainder of the week, thankfully.