On a larger level, it suggests that employers' increasing efforts to cut their health care costs are on a collision course with employees' boundaries about medical privacy.
Try saying, "What's going on?" or "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" "You don't need to be a therapist," says Sanchez-Burks, "you just need to be available". At the same time, respect your employees' boundaries.
If the employer requires learning after work hours or during lunch ("Learn at Lunch" programs), the perception may be that employers don't respect employees' boundaries or their need for personal time.
Employees should feel free to approach their managers and speak openly with them without intimidation, while still respecting employer-employee boundaries.
In particular, online social networks present employees with boundary management and identity negotiation opportunities and challenges because they invite nontailored self-disclosure to broad audiences while offering few of the physical and social cues that normally guide social interactions.
They should also clearly define this non-work time, and not leave it to their employees to set boundaries.
Most organizations leave it to their employees to set boundaries between their work and their nonwork lives often with the best intentions.
Conduct a network audit to determine how employees across role boundaries connect to each other in person, via email, etc., and what implications this network structure has for feelings of power.
As a venture starts to formalize its functions and reporting chains, identifying with the larger organization helps employees work across boundaries and engage in the spontaneous collaboration and exchange of ideas the company needs to innovate.
How and why do employees manage the boundaries between their professional and personal identities in online social networks, and how do these behaviors impact the way they are regarded by professional contacts?
