Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Work and Boundaries II

So how did I do yesterday, you might ask? Did I start to set the boundaries between work and home?

Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that I got to work, worked with purpose most of the day, and was able to focus.

No in the sense that I almost got sucked back in.

Sure enough, the project I spent the the morning working on had a meeting called in the afternoon. More appropriately, there was a meeting called about the project I worked on yesterday. I was not invited.

I lingered after my predetermined departure time. Would I be called in? How would it look if my boss came looking for me and I was gone?

And then I realized that the non-invitation was the choice of the meeting organizer, not myself. I was going to linger based on an impression that may or may not happen? I was going to assume the mantle of a project which had not been given to me?

And so, 45 minutes (but not the usual hour or hour and a half) after the fact, I headed home. Not great, but earlier than I had left in a long time.

The morale of the story: don't assume the mantle of responsibility for those things that you are not responsible for.

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