Working from home, when your professional and personal worlds collide, can become rather chaotic. But in the case of Reddit user Wary_Marzipan2294‘s spouse, it was the employee themselves who made it weird.

In a post on the subreddit ‘Petty Revenge,’ the person explained that their partner developed a rather peculiar habit: they started mysteriously popping up next to the Redditor whenever they were on a business call, reacting to the smallest sound and demanding silence.

Eventually, it got to the point where Wary_Marzipan2294 felt like they needed to do something about it and put an end to this. Continue scrolling to read how they managed to pull it off; hopefully, the story will serve as a reminder that boundaries matter.

People who work from home have to be careful about their job “spilling out” into their personal lives

Image credits: Wavebreakmedia (not the actual photo)

Which is something that happened to this person’s spouse

Image credits: Image-Source (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Wary_Marzipan2294

As this story shows, we need to be mindful of boundaries

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Some of the main points of this story can be reaffirmed by research from the University of Turku in Finland, which also analyzed the blurred boundaries between work and family responsibilities during the lockdown in the country back in 2020.

The researchers found that women, in particular, were struggling to effectively draw lines between the two domains, especially if they were unable to negotiate an equitable distribution of work and responsibilities with partners.

An interesting study from the University of Jyväskylä, also in Finland, explored whether this blurring of boundaries between our personal and professional lives was the “new normal.” Our digital devices are fueling this shift, since long gone are the days when they would “just” allow calls and texts and we can now transfer files, work on documents, have video conferences, and so on.

But some employers understand that having balance is still important and have attempted to restrict access to work systems outside of office hours. They fear that people are burning out, and not getting the rest their mind needs to function effectively.

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But some suggest there are better strategies available. A paper from Baylor University describes how researchers worked with around 400 couples to examine how they managed remote working, particularly in terms of striking a balance between personal and professional lives.

They believe that taking regular breaks is crucial, not least as they help people to buffer the negative consequences of the various unintentional interruptions that can plague our day.

Preventing our work-life boundaries from eroding entirely remains a challenge, but at least Wary_Marzipan2294 found a way to put a muzzle on it in their household.

People who read the original post were eager to share their thoughts on it

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