Help me with this boundary

[Anonymous]

Our admin (an women in her 50s) and a workoholic is very close to the younger (early 40s male) boss who is new to the org. She has worked at the company for many years, knows everything and has connections. She is generous with time and advice with a select few. She has taken a fondness to me and now calls me
non-stop during the day and in the evening with all sorts of office news and information and gossip. Some of it is useful but I am starting to get fried. How do I set a boundary?

[Anonymous]

Don’t pick up the phone outside of work hours. During work hours, tell her you need focus time and will be setting your phone to silent and only checking your messages every hour or so and then do that. Continue to be super nice to her and appreciate her hard work; never offend the admin!

[Anonymous]

Tell her you'll come by once in the mornings and once in the afternoons for a gossip session and then cut it off after 2-5 minutes saying you wish you could chat longer but have to get that TPS report edited. Then also tell her you're trying to cut down on screen time so you won't be looking at your phone as much anymore after work. Then never respond to her texts outside of work hours.

[Anonymous]

Just do all the gossip while at the office like everyone else. Don't pick up at night, tell her you go to bed early.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thanks for all these tips. I need some sort of strategy so I don’t go cold turkey on her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do all the gossip while at the office like everyone else. Don't pick up at night, tell her you go to bed early.

I LOVE gossip but this is a During Work Hours Only activity, even with my close work friends.

[Anonymous]

In the evening, don't answer your phone. You can email her every morning and thank her for the great scoop.

When she calls during the day, put her on speaker and go about your duties. After 5 minutes, you can say "Oops, Marketing just walked in, I gotta run, so great to hear this scoop from you..."

Don't sour this.

[Anonymous]

Tell her how it’s so nice that the weather is so wonderful. Say you’re going to start taking advantage of that by leaving the office at the end of the day to get outside and recharge. Then stop answering the phone at night.

During the day, block “desk time” and don’t answer the phone. Wear headphones and say you’re listening to podcasts or recorded books. Take sporadic calls to wean her down.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thanks for the dialing down strategies.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a Teams setting where you can go Red, Green, or Yellow to let people know you are working and don't want to take calls?