MIT Sloan Management Review Article on 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.

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.

About the Author

Angela R. Grotto is an associate professor of human resource analytics at Montclair State University and an author on employee work-life management, including a chapter in Gender and the Work-Family Experience: An Intersection of Two Domains (Springer, 2015). Maura J. Mills is an associate professor of management at the University of Alabama and editor of Gender and the Work-Family Experience. Erin M. Eatough is chief science officer at the consulting, advisory, and research firm Fractional Insights and a former academic and psychologist.

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