5 Ways to Promote Boundaries & Prevent Burnout in a Remote Workplace

While it’s the dream to swap the daily commute for a stroll to the kitchen, leading a remote team comes with its own set of unique challenges. You’ve got to keep your team energized, motivated, engaged, and far away from burnout. But when your office is also your home, how do you create boundaries that actually stick? Here are 5 actionable strategies that you can apply immediately to keep yourself and your team feeling energized, balanced, motivated and empowered to do their best work. 

1. Encourage Clear Boundaries

First things first, let’s talk about boundaries. Remote work can blur the lines between home and office, so it’s your job to help your team keep things crystal clear.

Define Team Work Hours: Encourage your team to set active work hours and stick to them. I recommend introducing “core hours”, where the whole team is actively working – this is especially effective if your team spans different time zones! And yes, that means no midnight emails or weekend messages unless, of course, there’s an alien invasion.

Create Work Zones: Suggest your team members carve out a workspace at home that screams “office.” Maybe even throw in a plant or two. It helps them mentally clock in and out each day.

Smart Tech Use: Use tech to your advantage! Set up tools that help your team manage their time and stay on track, while also protecting their personal time. Use Google Calendar to encourage your team to take ownership of their calendar, time-blocking for project focus time, and blocking out non-working hours.

2. Prioritize Employee Well-Being

Your team’s well-being is the secret sauce to avoiding burnout. Let’s make it a top priority.

Break It Up: Encourage regular breaks to stretch, walk, or grab a snack. No one needs to be glued to their screen for hours. Breaks = fresh minds. Send a repeating “movement time” calendar invite to your team as a reminder! This sets clear expectations, and takes away the feeling of “guilt” for stepping away.

Get Moving: Host fun fitness challenges that the whole team can get into (my company used to do a 1-minute plank challenge daily!) or offer your team a fitness subscription. Fun fact: A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that just 20 minutes of physical activity can improve executive function, which includes skills like decision-making and problem-solving, by up to 20% immediately following the workout.

Mindfulness Moments: Offer access to a mindfulness platform, like Calm or Headspace, and feature a meditation of the week for the team to practice. Or, my personal favorite, start weekly team meetings with one-minute of eyes-closed deep breathing (and have them turn cameras off!). It’s an incredibly powerful way to help the team take a break, remove themselves of the stressors that happened before the meeting, arrive to the space, and build team connection.

3. Foster Open Communication

Communication is key, especially when you’re not all in the same room. Remote communication calls for more intentionality than in-person communication.

Check-In Chats: Set up regular one-on-one check-ins to chat about work, life, and everything in between. These sessions are your chance to catch up and see how your team’s doing.

Choose Your Channels: Align with your team on when to use what communication methods. For example, email could be for more long-form and thorough communications that aren’t as urgent, where Slack could be for short messages needing a quick, easy response. 

Keep It Real: Create a culture where team members feel safe to speak up about their workload or any stress they’re facing. The more open the convo, the better.

4. Establish Routine and Structure

Without the structure of an office and fixed work hours, it becomes the individual’s responsibility to provide structure for themself. So less structure requires well…more structure! 

Routine Rules: Encourage your team to develop daily routines that set their day up for success. Having a morning routine that feeds their body and mind before opening up their laptop can be incredibly impactful in productivity and overall well-being.

Task Trackers: Use project management tools that allows the team to organize their tasks and priorities! This gives your team clear direction, while giving you visibility into their progress without actually having to check-in. 

5. Build a Supportive Work Culture

A positive work culture is like a big, cozy blanket for your team—let’s make sure they’re wrapped up in it.

Celebrate Wins: Regularly shout out team accomplishments, no matter how big or small. A little recognition goes a long way in boosting morale.

Promote Time Off: Encourage everyone to use their vacation days and take time to recharge. And lead by example here – if you tell them to take their PTO but you never do, they will get a conflicting message.Take time off yourself, feel rested and recharged, and have you team do the same. It’s a win-win!

Mental Health Resources: Make sure your team knows about any mental health support or counseling services available to them. I’ve seen so many orgs offer resources, but employee’s don’t use them because they don’t even know they exist! Make sure your team knows what’s available to them, and how to use it.

Ready to lead?

With a bit of play and fun, some clear boundaries, and support from their fearless leader (yes, that’s you!), you can keep burnout at bay and create a remote workplace that everyone thrives in. The question is, which strategy will you bring to your team first?