I've been reflecting a lot lately about the most recent 4th Quarter.  I've talked to countless colleagues from around the country who are at their wit's end with, let's call it for what it is: abusive clients, ill-mannered employees of clients, overworked staff, and personal exhaustion.  In our office, we did a postmortem earlier this month and vowed that "we aren't doing things that way EVER again." But the thing is, we didn't change anything from years prior – the change came from the people and personalities of those we encountered.  This is making us take a step back and figure out which systems, policies and procedures we can put in place so we don't have a repeat in 2024.  

But one word keeps coming up:  boundaries.

Now, I know many of us pride ourselves on our lightning-fast response time, but the expectations of instant gratification in all aspects of our life seems to be reaching a whole new level.  I can't tell you how many times our office gets an email after 8pm from someone, only to have them "follow up" again by 7 the next morning.  If the tables were turned, do you think they would want one of their clients treating them this way?