why this topic is important
Official figures last week showed that since the start of the pandemic in 2020, nearly a quarter of a million Britons aged between 50 and 65 have left paid work altogether and are not actively seeking new jobs. What is driving this exodus of over-50s? Much of it appears to be psychological and emotional burnout, thanks to the immense stresses of middle-age life under Covid.
The Times, February 19 2022,
1. The pandemic has destroyed a number of the boundaries that helped us separate work from non-work, e.g. time of work, place of work, families and work, and there is a growing body of research that is showing the adverse impact of this on people’s sense of wellbeing and their mental health e.g. global 100 quarterly pulse survey 1yr into pandemic showed this to be a major issue
“Midlifers are the group that had the most challenging of times,” says Ben Harrison, the director of the Work Foundation, a think tank for improving work in the UK. “They are more likely to have had additional caring responsibilities, combining work with home schooling and supporting their own parents, so they faced the greatest stress and anxiety.”
The Times, February 19 2022
2. “If you don't learn to set boundaries in your life, other people will superimpose their priorities and values on you.” [Kris Vallotton 2016]
“Boundary predators are easy to find at work”[1]
Source: Set Better Boundaries - HBR - Priscilla Claman 2021
3. WHAT IS A BOUNDARY? “A boundary is simply a choice about how far either you will go, or you will let others go, in a domain of your life. Setting a boundary is a way of accepting that you have the power to make choices, and if you don’t make healthy choices about what you will and won’t do, other people will make those choices for you.”
How this issue/ problem manifests and affects people – examples, stats
4. This is important for your sense of well-being which feeds your resilience charge. If you don’t have times when you know you are not at work it reduces your capacity to recharge. Additionally, if people are taking liberties with you, your resilience charge will be constantly depleted.
What these intensive home-based ways of working are revealing with absolute clarity is something psychologists have known for some time — that boundaries matter.
Lynda Gratton, MIT Sloan April 27, 2020
5. Furthermore, we normally get a sense of whether someone is able to say no. If they don’t, we normally respect them less than people that can say no (skillfully) – “They are a soft touch” versus “You can’t take any liberties with them.”
6. Boundaries have two primary purposes: to protect us from the outside world and to protect the outside world from us. In other words, they allow us to not be harmed by or do harm to others.
7. Robert Frost famously said in a poem, “Good Fences Make Good Neighbours.” He’s making the point that boundaries between people in close proximity help them to get along better.
8. “The people who hate the fact that you're setting boundaries are the very ones who need them the most!” [Kris Vallotton 2016]
How to tackle the issue/ problem – share our view on it, and the research to back it up
“Boundary predators rely on their power and authority — and your passivity — to get what they want. It’s up to you to push back by understanding how to create boundaries and maintain them”
Source: Set Better Boundaries - HBR - Priscilla Claman 2021
1]Recognize that you have the power to set boundaries, albeit some may require negotiation
Setting and communicating boundaries
You can set some boundaries unila
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