Here's how you can maintain a healthy work-life balance by establishing clear boundaries with your boss.

The first thing to do in this situation is to know your limits. Please talk with your Boss about your work time, emergency time, and personal commitments you are not willing to compromise on, as this will help you understand your work-life balance.

Communicate your availability and preferred hours, ensuring they understand when you are off-limits for work-related matters. Prioritize and manage your workload efficiently during office hours to avoid spillover into personal time. Politely decline after-hours requests that are not urgent, offering to address them during regular working hours. It's essential to lead by example, demonstrating dedication and productivity while at work, which reinforces your commitment without compromising your personal life.

Understanding your limits often comes through lessons learned the hard way. Consider what internal/external actions contributed, during the last time you crossed your limits and entered 'burnout'. Are you saying yes to too much? Are you capable of assessing what 'is' too much in advance of? If you work for multiple manager, are they communicating about personnel workload? Are they even aware of your capacity? Etc I agree with LinkedIn's response that establishing a work/life balance requires one to think deeply about how much time and effort they are willing to commit to career pursuits.

Boundaries are often misunderstood, as more restrictive settings. In fact, boundary setting creates a container for expansion. Just like we would in a coach-coachee relationship, setting up a boundary box or set of limits early days in your boss-employee relationship will do wonders for the work-life balance. In the majority of cases, this type of conversation is never had and expecatations (un-communicated) creep in. Think about limits in terms of what the Core Values of you are - for exmaple do you value Family and therefore Family time = no work calls after 7pm when its dinner and family time or weekend work when its family activities. Setting non-compromisable items up front will helo your boss navigate their job better too.

You have to be able to notice and realize certain limits.. not to just point then out.. but to be able to place the correct people in the correct spots.. and find away to make them better

Be Assertive but Respectful: If you’re asked to take on additional work outside your regular hours, it’s okay to say no. Politely explain your boundaries and suggest alternative solutions or timelines.

Expectations vs. Communication. Too often, we set our expectations internally and never communicate them. Being specific with language and boudnary items will ensure communication of expectations is effective. You can do this verbally, following up on email or text and also setting reminders in calendars. Embrace your expectations and give context on why they are importnant to you. Empathy is extremtly powerful in allowing you to understand where the other person comes from; give your boss the chance to show their empathy.

Work-life and personal-life is always changing and evolving. Just becuase things worked one way for some time, doesnt mean they have to stay the same. A regular life evaluation with yourself will help in knowing where you are at. Importnantly too, its not your boss' ultime job to know where you are at - this needs to be communicated regularly and openly, withour fear of judgement. Being open and honest with yourself will drive honesty with your boundaries and boss. A great way evaluate a boundary or where you are at vs. where you were is to use tap into the Emotions behind your boundaries and where that shows up for you in the body and what Thoughts show up in the mind. Working = feel positive. If its not, your body may well speak to you.