This episode is part of the Happiness Reset at Work campaign, where Klaudia introduces you to 5 drivers that contribute to building more satisfaction in our careers so that you can reconnect and re-energise with your work in 2025. 

The 2nd driver of happiness at work is: Fairness.

This podcast episode focuses on the importance of setting boundaries at work to enhance our sense of fairness and satisfaction in our careers. Tune in for valuable insights that can help you navigate workplace dynamics and advocate for your needs effectively.

Hello happiness seekers. Welcome back to the Happiness Reset at Work campaign, part of the Happiness Challenge Podcast.

Also visit happinesschallenge.co.uk courses to learn more about my new online program to help you create an action plan for more fulfillment and impact. And in this short episode 137I share some practical hacks to strengthen our sense of fairness at work.

And one aspect that helps us to increase our sense of fairness at work is our ability to set boundaries.

Now, when I bring up the topic of boundaries at work, people often express that they feel instantly a bit uneasy, maybe a bit selfish, maybe a bit guilty. And I think it's absolutely understandable that we feel that because we want to be liked and we want to be seen as team players.

And when we think about boundaries, we think, well, I'll say no to people, someone's expectations may be not met, but I think we really need to remember that the boundaries in themselves are not mean. They are here to protect our relationships, not to end them in any way.

And if we communicate our boundaries from a place of kindness, from a place of respect, we can definitely be on a track to build healthy and balanced and more fair working relationships.

And often when I'm communicating a boundary, it does help me to remind myself that I deserve to say this boundary because it protects me and it protects this specific working relationship. So I'm going to share with you some tips for setting boundaries at work to increase that sense of fairness.

It might be that you have a specific working relationship that you may think, oh, this is quite unbalanced. I would like things to be more fair. So three top tips for you to consider when setting some boundaries.

Tip number one is about communicating your expectations. And this is about starting with assertive language such as I want, I need, I expect. And the idea here is that you truly indicate what you want.

Really.

So, for example, you could say things like, to make this project successful, I really need your sponsorship or I need your commitment to help me with X, Y and Z by the end of the next month. What do you think? Tip number two is putting the right conditions in place.

Because let's be realistic, there will be plenty of situations when we cannot just say no, I cannot do this.

And when we end up such a tricky spot, what's very useful is to try I can if statements to create the right conditions to fulfill other people's requests. So for example, we can say things like I can complete this by today if I'm not required to attend the meeting this afternoon. What do you think?

So we're putting a boundary, putting a condition and if that condition is met, great. If that condition is not met, we cannot fulfill someone request. And the final tip is issue a consequence when boundaries are broken.

And that will be, I really think that is the most challenging aspect of healthy boundaries.

But we, we have to be brave enough to issue some kind of consequence when boundaries are overstepped because otherwise those boundaries won't mean nothing.

So for example, if let's say you had numerous boundary setting conversation and let's say your manager is not supporting your work in a way that you very much expected, you may say, what I need right now is a consistency. So I'm going to get a mentor or a different leader to help me with this particular project.

And it's important that we do communicate that in some way we might be let down. I think ghosting someone or ignoring them or gossiping behind people bugs, it's really not a healthy boundary.

And clarity in those situations is very much kindness. So communicating it clearly, it's very important and really protects that working relationship. So that's all for today.

Thank you for listening to the Happiness Reset at Work campaign. I would love you to share this episode with other people, especially maybe with someone who is struggling with work life balance.

Things maybe are not 100% fair and they need a little bit boundary setting. I hope to see you at the next episode.

Ask the expert where I'll be talking to Michelle Hartley from PeopleSorted about her experiences of challenging the status quo at work. Remember to subscribe to my podcast and newsletter so you don't miss out on any future content.

But in meantime, thank you again for listening and I dare you to be happy. Bye.