Maintaining healthy boundaries (whatever those are for you) is hard work no matter how you look at it. When the time you give to your employer ends and the time

Maintaining healthy boundaries (whatever those are for you) is hard work no matter how you look at it. When the time you give to your employer ends and the time you give to yourself begins is one such boundary. I think of it that way because work and life aren't two separate things—work exists within life—and neither do they balance equally. Work always demands a greater chunk of your time, whether it warrants it or not. If such a boundary is crossed and it is one that you find important, then you might recognise that much sooner than if you're thinking about balance, because you can start getting into specifics and where exactly you do draw the line instead of attempting to rationalise something you might not like. At that point, it's not just work asking for longer hours, or flexibility on weekends; it's also stuff like your colleagues sending you messages and emails at 11pm or 2am, eating lunch at your desk, not taking holidays, hackathons (if those even happen any more!), being expected to be on call, leaving the office at 7pm instead of 5.30pm as the contract states, etc. And after that, if you find work to becoming ever more intrusive, then the boundary system gives you enough info to recognise that this isn't really a 'work' problem, it's the same kind of shit you get in any unhealthy relationship and your working relationships are no exception.