WHAT GETS IN THE WAY OF WORK LIFE BALANCE?
The student union space is vibrant and exciting. But it’s always on the move and dealing with an onslaught of challenges such as funding, student mental health needs, political targeting and the yearly turnover of personnel. With so much to contend with, you and your student leaders probably find it hard to set boundaries. This means you end up wearing yourselves down and not being able to serve the student body as effectively as you like. It’s a real catch 22.
Keep reading to better understand why setting boundaries is difficult in the SU space, why it matters so much and how to start taking small steps towards putting better boundaries in place.
WHY IS BOUNDARY SETTING HARD IN SUS?
If you want to foster a culture of healthy boundaries in your SU, then the first step is to better understand the struggles that your staff and students are grappling with. Whilst some of the barriers to boundaries apply to all individuals and workplaces, student unions are unconventional workplaces which come with their unique challenges.
- High student needs – your core roles in the SU are to represent students, advocate for their needs and provide them with a high-quality student experience. Which is becoming ever trickier in a landscape of rising mental health needs, political polarising, funding challenges in HE, cost of living crisis, climate anxiety and geopolitical concerns. You’ve probably had a rise in caseloads in your advice service, more students asking for support or demanding political action. When there are so many students needing so much help, it becomes ever harder to literally and metaphorically put the work down.
- Funding challenges – whilst student needs go up, your funding has probably plateaued or dropped. When you are faced with the challenge of doing more for less, a common ‘solution’ is for staff to push themselves to work harder and longer to plug those gaps.
- A young workforce – when you consider the number of recent graduates as staff co-ordinators, undergrads as student officers, committee chairs and volunteers, SU staff teams are most definitely younger than the average workforce. This is brilliant for harnessing passion, optimism and relevant lived experiences. However, a young workforce may be less skilled at setting boundaries and there could be fewer experienced role models who can promote healthy norms.
- Keen beans – you tear your hair out trying to get students to engage with the SU, but when they do – they really go for it. Officers, society leaders and campaigners are usually ambitious, keen to impress and eager to make an impact. All of which are excellent, unless they burn themselves out in the process of going above and beyond.
- Self-doubt and impostor syndrome – if you are 18-24 and find yourself the trustee of a charity, chairing meetings with prestigious university staff or handling large groups of students, a bit of self-doubt is bound to creep in. Can I do this? Do I deserve to be here? What if people think I’m no good? Your student leaders may double down and work extra hard to earn a place at the table. Which means that they become physically drained by the extra hours and mentally worn down just trying to feel adequate.
- Multiple roles – with so much to do in SUs, it’s not uncommon for you to be juggling lots of different roles at once: Project managing a student event, dealing with pastoral issues and doing admin. Same goes for your student leaders who may be switching from social media influencer to reading bye-laws. When you are expected to wear so many different hats, it’s common to get worn out by the variety and feel pressure to put in extra time to do them all well.
- Blurred personal and professional – the students working in SUs have a particular challenge around their identity and when they can actually switch off. It’s tricky when your workplace is also (hopefully) the place you want to chill out with your friends, go to events and study. Imagine being out with friends and conversation sliding into ‘what are you / the SU going to do about x?’
- Flexible work environment – flexibility is only a perk when you still have the space to put work down. It’s not uncommon for part time student leaders to feel that they have to work into the evenings or over lunches because ‘that’s when students need me’. Working a late shift so that you can engage with students after their lectures may be a great strategy for meeting demand, but are they taking the morning off to compensate? Working anytime is not the same as working all the time.
- Constant connectivity – we are all more connected than ever before, but the SU workforce is young and so contains more digital natives than the average workforce. This comes with a great deal of unhelpful norms around checking emails, putting out content and responding to DMs in real time because of the pressure to be connected and available.
Empathy fatigue – any industry focused on helping others experiences a greater risk of empathy fatigue. This is the tiredness that comes from handling other’s struggles and emotional challenges on a regular basis. Those in student facing roles are likely to be hearing a lot of difficult lived experiences and worries for the world which take their toll. A common strategy people use to try and overcome this is to spend even more time helping those in need to try and make the emotional baggage go away.
- Power dynamics – navigating boundaries can be tricky for any of us, but think about that student leader role. They may be talking to students one moment, then their SU team and then a senior member of university staff. The differences in age, authority, status and norms in this wide range of relationships can be disorienting and make it harder for student leaders to know how to go about putting appropriate boundaries in place.
- Evolving workforce – student leaders change every year or two, restructures happen and staff turnover can be high as people find the only way to progress in their career is to switch union. This churn of personnel can make it hard for people to find long standing role models who are able to help with boundary setting and for SU teams to create and maintain a set of cultural norms around boundaries.
Phew. That’s a lot to be dealing with, isn’t it? It’s no wonder you and your student leaders can find it hard to say no or really put work down. And yet, it’s so important that you do…
THE BENEFITS OF SETTING GOOD BOUNDARIES
You may be tempted to keep pushing your own boundaries for the two false economies that you get from them. If I keep on saying yes / working harder:
- People will like / respect / think better of me
- I’ll get more done and then eventually workload will level out
Except, these things never really happen. There’s always more work to do. People may not be judging you as much as you think or they may even see you as a bit of a pushover for not looking after your needs.
Rather than blurring your boundaries out of fear of the ‘bad stuff’, let’s take a look at the positives of setting those healthy boundaries – stating what you want, having down time, saying no and working in ways which work for you.
- Reduced stress – Once you get over the initial worry of whether people are judging your boundaries, you’ll find that you can better manage your workload, have time to recharge and feel more at peace with yourself. This greatly mitigates the risk of burnout.
- Self-confidence – Knowing what you want and prioritising your needs publicly with others gradually grows your sense of self value and confidence.
- Greater productivity – Rather than running on fumes, you’ll actually be recharged enough to bring your best to the work you are doing and can strategically prioritise the activities which actually make a difference, as Lilly noted:
“The main things I got were how to manage time better and be assertive. After this training I want to not to take on too much and so be better able to focus on my manifesto ideas. Thanks for a great session.” Lilly Rockett, President of Inclusivity and Diversity, Hull SU
- Greater autonomy – rather than feeling like life or work is ‘happening to you’, setting your own boundaries increases the sense of control that you have over life.
- Clear expectations – when team members all get good at setting boundaries it helps everyone to understand their roles, work practices and preferences so that there is more respect and less miscommunication.
- Increased trust – the rise in autonomy and clarity between team members as well as the understanding of each other’s boundaries means that people trust in themselves and each other more.
Although getting started with boundary setting can feel like a hurdle, these benefits to the individual, team and, therefore, the organisation make it well worthwhile. It’s perhaps just a case of how.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH BOUNDARY SETTING
As you might expect, there’s no magic bullet for putting effective boundaries in place. You and your student staff will need to make slow and steady changes to gradually build confidence and create new norms. However, these five strategies are a strong start to better boundaries.
- Self-compassion – Start by giving yourself permission to have boundaries. You deserve to have your needs met. Remember that saying no to others means you are saying yes to yourself.
- Self-awareness – Reflect on your current abilities to set boundaries, what your unique challenges are and therefore what kinds of strategy will most work for you. This also includes being aware of what boundaries you want to put in place.
- Start small – It can help to start with the boundaries that you feel most able to implement. Or to gradually change your existing practices such as taking a bit more of your allocated break times than you usually would to ease into it. This slow approach helps to build your confidence.
- Be clear with others – When you do set a boundary, make sure that you are telling people what, where, when and how. It helps to use ‘I statements’ to focus on your own feelings and needs (rather than giving the impression of blame). E.g. “I focus better on documents in the mornings so I’m going to read this for you tomorrow between 9-10am”
- Training and practice – Learning to speak assertively, state your needs and be diplomatic can take time so working with professionals and practicing in a safe learning environment can help equip you for the workplace.
“I learned how to set healthy boundaries and not porous ones. I’ll be able to say no without guilt.” – Georgia Whelan, Democracy and Communities executive officer, Loughborough SU
A bonus sixth tip for you – celebrate progress. Setting great boundaries doesn’t happen overnight so it’s important to acknowledge those little wins along the way in order to keep motivated and grow in confidence.
READY FOR BETTER BOUNDARIES?
You and your student leaders are getting tired of saying yes to everything. You can see that the SU sector faces many challenges to setting boundaries:
- Increased student needs
- Underfunding
- Lack of boundary setting skills
- Juggling multiple roles
- Empathy fatigue
- Digital connectivity
… and more
But once you strengthen your culture of boundary setting then the reduction in stress, improved productivity and greater clarity in the team would actually mean you are more able to serve the student body you so passionately care for.
Want a helping hand in setting better boundaries? Download this boundary setting booklet to help you identify your boundaries and communicate them with clarity.
Give me the boundaries booklet
