Boundaries should be respected by default by people you report to and work with, but that’s not always the case.

Sometimes you need to stand your ground to enforce those boundaries. It can be awkward, but it’s necessary for your physical and mental health.

Read this post to see how this employee indicated to her manager that she isn’t a pushover.

Don’t you respect my schedule? OK.

At my work, we have rotating schedules, so if we have activities outside of work we have to notify them in advance so they can adjust our schedule.

This was a smart move. Advanced notice is best.

It turns out that this is not the first time that they have told me that I should give more notice, so a week before the next week’s schedules were made I informed my leader about all my activities for the month.

Having a written record is best to cover yourself, anyway.

He clearly didn’t like this so he told me to send it to him in writing so he could remember and consider it for the schedules, well if it had happened like that I wouldn’t be here.

I needed to rest on a Sunday because that day I had baking classes and to come in the morning on Tuesday, when I saw the schedules I got angry, as always she did what she wanted.

She gave me my rest on Tuesday and on Sunday she left me in the afternoon, from 2:30 to 11:00 pm, my baking class was from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, so it was literally making me choose between my class and coming to work.

This sounds stressful, on top of the frustration of this blatant entitlement and disrespect.

I was upset because it wasn’t the first time it had happened and I always ended up trying to convince other classmates to change my schedule or break so I could do my activities.

I was tired of always looking for solutions for the things she did wrong, and she also had the impudence to take her rest on Sunday.

I sent her a screenshot of the conversation in which I told her in detail about my activities, then she tried to justify herself to me by saying that my boss had not approved the schedule, but it is evident that is a lie.

Good! So valuable to have an ally higher up in the chain of command.

Wondering why I missed work, I told the manager of my area that I didn’t know that I should work because I had already spoken with the leader.

I also told her that I had sent it to her in writing as she had requested and I attached the evidence.

Her actions probably made life a lot better for everyone who works under the leader.

The next day I found out that the leader was reprimanded by my area manager for not paying attention to those details.

Now my manager is in charge of talking to her whenever I need a specific time so that my free time is respected.

Let’s see what people had to say in the comments.

I don’t think I agree with this one. Going over people’s heads can lead to issues.

I imagine some people would get fired for this. I’m glad it worked out, but there are probably safer ways to assert your boundaries.

I like this way of doing it. Might be hard to keep a variety of records organized and easy to find, though.

Comments like this one are so sad, to me because so many people can’t imagine anything different because this is all they know.

Lots of employers are fantastic. Keep looking for them!

Very true. It may not do anything for you, but at least you can prove you weren’t lying.

Work is only part of your life.

There are lots of employers and clients who understand this and see the importance of work/life balance on productivity as well.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.