A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know with the award winning hyphenated Dr. Nsenga Burton. Dr. Burton. What do we need to know?

Good afternoon. I am Dr. Nsenga Burton and welcome to Need to Know with Dr. Nsenga. Today we're going to be talking about boundaries, particularly boundaries in the workplace. You may have heard of a couple of news stories that have been going around, uh, very much viral about employees in the workplace. One of which was an employee who was found four days after. She had expired, died at work in a cubicle and people had gone to work and have been to work and no one had noticed that she was dead in her cubicle for at least four days. Uh, one person said they kind of smelled a body and then other people said, you know, they just didn't think to go and check in her area to see if anything was wrong because they didn't really have that kind of culture at work. Another incident was of a gentleman who was left on a mountain during a team building exercise for a company and. They had climbed this mountain and he got separated from them and he was able to communicate with them, but they would not give him the information that he needed to get back safely. Uh, a storm arose, he got disoriented, got lost again. Uh, the markers they had put down for people to find their way up the mountain, they had taken them down. Uh, and so he was literally stuck on this mountain, had fallen 20 times by the time he was found. Luckily he was able to get a cell phone signal and was able to notify police and they came to look for him. Not his colleagues. So I say this to say, um, as we have just celebrated another labor day, uh, weekend that when we think about the workplace, there should be boundaries that are put into place. And you should also consider what you need out of said workplaces boundaries. For example. I'm sure the person who went to work and didn't come home never thought that they would be at work and they would never be found, you know, you know, for four days, at least that they would not be found. Sometimes you have to really think about yourself, which your needs are. Um, and what is required of you in your job. So, you know, we always want to aim for the stars and we always want to do the best that we can. We want to put our best foot forward and we want to be team players. But you also have to think about the workplace and the environment in which you work. And you have to really ask yourself, is it really worth me? Is it really worth me having this pain in my chest or in my arm or in my leg every time I come to work and not taking the time to just go see the doctor? You know, sometimes we have benefits. Sometimes we don't have benefits. Sometimes they are not great. But, you know, the number of people who are keep waiting and waiting and waiting. You know, to go to the doctor, to take the vacation, to take the day off on Labor Day. I can't tell you how many emails I got on Labor Day, um, yesterday. And I purposely, uh, did not check email, uh, because I wanted to explore it. I wanted to enjoy the day with my child, my daughter, my family, and my friends. Uh, and so I think about that when I think about boundaries in the workplace, we have to have them. Um, when you think about the gentleman who's on the mountains, And he probably didn't know, you know, but when you deduce that the people that you are supposed to be working with and you are in a team building exercise and they are not functioning as a team because anyone who has ever been in a team building exercise or if you pledge a sorority or fraternity or what have you, if one person is out of the group, the whole group is out. There is no team. So the fact that one person was left behind initially, um, and then eventually, and they never went back to get the person, uh, states very clearly that there was no team involved and there's no teamwork involved. If teamwork is important to you, if collaboration is important to you, when you start getting those flags, uh, you know, those signs. Uh, you know, getting left out of important meetings, uh, maybe, you know, working in the team and having your work presented by others, but not getting, uh, any credit for that work or the person that I'd be saying, Hey, Adrian, help me with this presentation. We did this that the other, even if you're making the presentation or they can say at the end of the presentation, thank you, Adrian, for your help in getting this presentation together. We worked long and hard to get this, uh, together. So if you really liked this presentation, make sure you share some of that love with Adrian. It doesn't take a lot to give people their attribution and their respect. And so in closing, what I want to say is that boundaries in the workplace are important. If you know the real history of Labor Day, you know that it wasn't a benevolent thing. We think about it in a benevolent way, but it really was over Pullman, uh, workers who wanted to have, Better pay, better benefits, sharing the profits, all the things that we're still fighting for now. Uh, and actually the president at the time, Grover Cleveland, uh, unleashed the military on them and a lot of people were killed during the protest. And two days later, Labor Day was enacted in order to quell those issues. Um, and really as a PR move for President Cleveland who had, uh, grossly overstepped and had harmed people who were really just fighting for their rights in our democracy. All right. So if you know the true history of Labor Day, then you understand the importance of boundaries. Um, the importance of taking a day off if you need it, the importance of going to check on yourself or saying, Hey, listen, I have to go to the doctor or no, I cannot come in because I just got over COVID and I'm still exhausted. Or yeah, I did have this procedure and I was off for two weeks, but you know, I'm still moving around a little. So is it okay if I work from home for a couple of days until I get my bearings? Right? You have to put those boundaries in and stand up for yourself in the workplace. Because at the end of the day, if you end up dying on a mountain or dying in a cubicle, they're going to sanitize your office, send your stuff home to your family. And start to search for a new person. All right, so find your boundaries stand up for yourself in a respectful way And make sure you are taking care of yourself so that you can be The best that you can be and then finally look out for others look out for others, you know Um, if you are a true colleague if you are a collaborator if you believe in the team vision and identity, you know that One person can't be left out of the team look out for your colleagues, you know Do that so that everyone can have a safe and prosperous work environment. So tune in next week to a black executive perspective podcast Have a wonderful day. Stay black. Stay happy

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