Manage Boundaries Better With Your Team
Off-hours interruptions are increasing — and your employees have noticed, research shows. Learn three strategies to do better for your team and yourself.
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images
Just how much do employees resent it when leaders cross work-life boundaries? Our research found that employees consider being contacted during off-hours an unwelcome intrusion into their personal lives 76% of the time.1 Additionally, 83% of people reported experiencing interruptions at least twice a week, and 41% reported an increase in interruptions compared with pre-COVID times.2 Work-life boundaries are blurrier than ever, creating significant challenges for both employees and leaders. Today’s managers need to learn how to manage these boundaries — for themselves and for their teams.
Leaders face a workforce flexibility paradox: People require both flexibility and boundaries. While 96% of U.S. professionals say they need some degree of flexibility in where and when they get their work done, they also say that unwarranted off-hours interruptions affect their ability to detach and recharge.3 That can compromise career satisfaction, which is bad news both for employees and the leaders trying to retain them.4 Against this backdrop, California recently considered a “right to disconnect” bill that was ultimately shelved — with those opposing it arguing that a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely optimal. But the proposed legislation highlighted the zeitgeist of grappling with boundaries in a flexible work environment.
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The upside of certain off-hours interruptions may be obvious: For example, your company may sometimes need to provide clients with an immediate response. But our research revealed that when leaders underestimate the employee costs, this hurts employee satisfaction and engagement and, ultimately, risks attrition. What’s more, because each employee is unique, and hybrid work is now commonplace, people’s definitions of “off-work time” and “justifiable interruption” vary greatly.5
So managers must become masters at intentionally navigating boundaries for — and with — their employees.
Three Strategies for Managing Boundaries
What is an off-hours interruption? It’s not as easy to define as you might think. Our research found that 44% of the time, employees disagree on whether an off-hours interruption is a violation of their personal boundaries. These experiences are highly subjective and variable: Even for an individual employee, there is a 1 in 3 chance that they will react differently from one interruption to the next.
References
1. A.R. Grotto and M.J. Mills, “Crossing the Line: The Violating Effects of Illegitimate Interruptions From Work and Differential Impact on Work-Family Conflict by Gender,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 44, no. 4 (May 2023): 700-716.
2. A.R. Grotto, M.J. Mills, and E.M. Eatough, “Switching Gears: A Self-Regulatory Approach and Measure of Nonwork Role Re-Engagement Following After-Hours Work Intrusions,” Journal of Business and Psychology 37, no. 3 (June 2022): 491-507.
3. A. Dean and A. Auerbach, “96% of U.S. Professionals Say They Need Flexibility, but Only 47% Have It,” Harvard Business Review, June 5, 2018, https://hbr.org; and Grotto and Mills, “Crossing the Line,” 700-716.
4. Grotto and Mills, “Crossing the Line,” 700-716.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Grotto and Mills, “Crossing the Line,” 700-716; and Grotto, Mills, and Eatough, “Switching Gears,” 491-507.
8. C.S. Reina, M.J. Mills, and D.M. Sumpter, “A Mindful Relating Framework for Understanding the Trajectory of Work Relationships,” Personnel Psychology 76, no. 4 (winter 2023): 1187-1215; and M.J. Mills, C.S. Reina, and D.M. Sumpter, “Bringing Our Humanness to the Workplace: Fostering Reflection and Reflexivity via Mindful Relating,” Industrial and Organizational Psychology 16, no. 1 (March 2003): 105-107.
9. E.M. Minei, E.M. Eatough, and Y. Cohen-Charash, “Managing Illegitimate Task Requests Through Explanation and Acknowledgment: A Discursive Leadership Approach,” Management Communication Quarterly 32, no. 3 (August 2018): 374-397.
10. Grotto and Mills, “Crossing the Line,” 700-716.
11. P.M. Bal and A.H. De Lange, “From Flexibility Human Resource Management to Employee Engagement and Perceived Job Performance Across the Lifespan: A Multisample Study,” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 88, no. 1 (March 2015): 126-154.
12. F. Antunes, L.F. Pereira, Á.L. Dias, et al., “Flexible Labour Policies as Competitive Advantage,” Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management 24, no. 4 (December 2023): 563-590.
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