Navigating Workplace Culture: Balancing Boundaries and Work Ethic

BEP Narrator: 00:00:02

A black executive perspective now presents need to know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton, what do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good afternoon.

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I'm Dr.

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Nsenga Burton and welcome

to need to know with Nsenga.

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Today I am talking about this idea

of workplace culture and In the last

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episode, I talked about boundaries at

work, and I think it really is important.

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One of the things I love about Gen Z and

millennials, um, is that they are willing

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to say, Hey, listen, not today, Linda.

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I have been working overtime.

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I was supposed to be doing ABCD and E.

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You have me doing.

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Z, F, G, K.

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I really need to get some clarity

on where it is, where we are.

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Um, I need some clarity

on my job description.

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No, I cannot come in on weekends because

I've been in every other weekend.

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I need some time to myself.

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So those are some of the things

that we really actually like or

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people like me who manage others.

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Um, in certain, uh, capacities.

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I do appreciate, I'm also someone who is

a proponent of self care and of setting

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and establishing boundaries for your,

uh, your self health, um, and worth, uh,

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and identity outside of the workplace.

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So, um, not everybody

loves that, but I do.

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But there is a video that's going around,

um, and it is It's an interesting video.

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It's a viral video, and I'm not

sure if it's really, if it's

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an enactment or if it's real.

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Some people think it's real.

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Some people think it's an enactment, but,

um, there's a young lady, uh, who looks

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to be about 20, you know, early twenties

or what have you, um, who's getting

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fired from her job and she records it.

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And one of the things that she

gets fired for is because she

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was chronically late to work.

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Um, and chronically late, meaning

I think in one instance she said,

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I mean, I was only 21 minutes late.

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Um, and then she didn't show up to work

and, um, didn't call and the supervisor

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was like, yeah, you didn't call.

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And this, and this is after we

had already sat down and we've

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talked to you multiple times.

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I just talked to you last Friday

about this type of behavior and

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then you do a no show and, and the

person said, well, it's my birthday.

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So I say all of that to say, while we

appreciate you having your personal

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boundaries and you choosing self help.

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Choosing self care in order to maintain

your health and your personal happiness.

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Those are all important things.

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There is still such a thing as a work

ethic and a necessity to show up and

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to be present while you are at work.

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There's also such a thing as

professional communication, right?

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Um, a professional communication

meaning when someone Calls you

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into an office and gives you a

list of things you need to work on.

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That's them initiating steps It

means that they have been documenting

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what you haven't been doing to their

satisfaction And they're now making

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you aware of not only what you haven't

been doing But also setting those

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expectations in place and we'll be

measuring you against those expectations.

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And so we love You know, when

I say we, I'm not talking

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about me cause I'm, I'm Gen X.

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So I'm a little bit older.

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We weren't abused in the workplace

and continue to be abused.

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That's kind of our culture.

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So we're working on getting our, uh,

getting ourselves together saying, no,

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I've worked 80 hours a week for 15 years.

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I haven't worked, uh, had

any weekends or breaks.

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I'm taking one.

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That's a big deal for us.

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Um, but we also have to be clear that,

um, even though there's a shift in

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culture and there's an understanding by

HR and other people who are leaders and

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managers, that there needs to be clear

lines, uh, and that people do have the

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right to have a personal autonomy and,

um, to be able to have access to their

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personal lives outside of the workplace.

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Um, You know, you still do have to

understand that there are basic things you

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have to do and coming to work is on time.

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Um coming to work on time

is one of them, right?

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So chronic, uh, tiredness or lateness

is something you can get fired for.

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Your birthday.

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Now as black and brown people,

we celebrate our birthdays.

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It's important, you know, it's culturally

important, but it's also because many of

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us are not supposed to be here based on

the history of the world in which we live.

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You know, um, so every time we get

a year we Especially some of us

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who've grown up in some precarious

situations, some tough neighborhoods.

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Um, you know, you're very aware of

your relatives who are no longer with

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us for lots of different reasons.

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Relatives you can't celebrate with

for lots of different reasons.

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Um, we celebrate, we party.

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You know, it's our birthday, you know,

some people, you know, Make fun of it.

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Oh, we're going to celebrate

for the whole month.

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I'm turning 21, 21 days of Nisinga, you

know, all the things, but ultimately,

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if you have a job, you actually

have to come to work, even on your

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birthday, you should be coming to work.

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You had a plan to celebrate your birthday,

either earlier or later, or like plan

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in advance and take the day off and make

sure you don't take so much time off

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that you don't have time to take one

day off when your birthday comes around.

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And I say all of that to say

that I think this, um, generation

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just needs to be mindful.

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And I used to say this in my classroom

too, that yeah, you're a new generation.

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You have wonderful ideas.

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You have different ways of doing

things, thinking about things, um,

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and things that are important to you.

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And you are very clear and okay

with communicating that to us.

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You also have to be cleared.

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Okay, for people in my generation, many

of whom are in leadership positions

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now, um, in this point of our careers,

um, you also have to be clear that

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you have to understand who we are.

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What our backgrounds are and what our

expectations are and we actually do

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clearly articulate them and document

everything because we had to do that

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When we were coming up, we didn't

have all this electronic stuff.

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Even me, you know, I had a telephone

with a rotary Part to it, uh, but

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we didn't have all this electronics.

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So we had to sign everything We

had to write things we had to write

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down the notes Uh in the meeting

you had to keep track of them.

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You had to make photocopies

you had to share Okay, so

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that's kind of our practice.

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So we do that in our sleep So,

please note if you're engaging

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with anybody who looks like me in

my age group Middle age and above.

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I'm 51.

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They are taking notes.

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They are paying attention and

they are grading you against

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the criteria against which.

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Your job is either in play or in jeopardy.

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So don't lose your job over a birthday

don't lose your job because you

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want to Uh, push the boundaries.

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I talked about this with my daughter

like you got to have a boundary You can't

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push it as far as you can you have a b

c d and e today, that's it Don't keep

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pushing all the time, especially over

frivolous things when you got mostly what

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you wanted You get to work from home.

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You get as much paid time off as you want.

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You have benefits, healthcare, you

have a decent salary that allows

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you to do what you want, right?

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So you can, and many of you are living at

home, so you actually can go on vacation

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and go hang out with your friends and go

turn up in the club and do all the things,

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um, that a lot of people just weren't able

to do in my generation because we were

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actually paying for our own stuff, right?

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So I know that that's complicated.

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And why are you living at home?

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Because the job market and all that.

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That's another discussion.

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But what I'm saying to you

is take advantage of that.

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Um, but don't take advantage of people

who give you a lot of space So that you

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can have the boundaries that you need

Um, and you can have the life that you

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need and the and the fun that you want.

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So I say all of that to say Be mindful

of what you elevate In your life as

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important, especially as it relates

to your job, because now this young

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woman, whether it's true or not, and

if it's not true is a great example of

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what you should not do is out of a job.

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Perhaps doesn't have benefits.

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Maybe the work environment was

toxic and she didn't really care.

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She was looking for a way out

anyway, you know, but ultimately.

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People have expectations in the

same way that you want us to learn

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how your generation moves or rocks

or whatever verb you want to use.

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Um, you need to understand how we

move and that's the generation that's

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typically in the leadership roles.

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Uh, and we actually have to engage

with you cause you're our children.

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So we are very familiar with

who you are, but you also have

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to be familiar with who we are.

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And there are just basic workplace

practices that you have to participate in.

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If you want to have.

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A successful time or tenure in your job.

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And if you want to remain in your job, so

this is probably not the right audience

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for that, but I felt like it needed to

be said just in case there are people who

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are graduating from college, you know,

that flexibility that your professors

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have with you workplaces don't really

have that your ability to kind of, uh,

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You know, move the way that you want to

move and, and, and cite this and that for

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why you need to not come in and you need

a mental health day and all of that, a

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lot of workplaces are adjusting to that,

but many of them still are coming to it.

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So you do have to communicate and

give people advanced notice for

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everything, uh, whether you celebrate

your birthday or whether you

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really do need a mental health day.

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Uh, so at any rate, that's it, uh, tune

in next week for, uh, Another episode of

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A Black Executive's Perspective Podcast.

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I'm Nsenga Burton.

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Have a wonderful day.

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BEP Narrator: A Black

Executive Perspective.