One of the ways leaders can demonstrate that work/life/family balance is valued and encouraged in the workplace is the practice of “leaving loudly”. By leaving loudly, or otherwise communicating our work-life boundaries, leaders signal that having family commitments outside of work is encouraged, accepted, and welcomed. Leaving loudly doesn’t mean always leaving work early, but it does mean setting the tone for an accepting, positive culture in your organization.

In a previous role, where I traveled to an office every day, I made sure my team and peers knew that I kept a 4:30 pm hard stop each day to go pick up my son at daycare. Communicating this boundary not only helped me to stick to it (often my colleagues would be shooing me out the door if they saw me at 4:35), but it established that drawing this boundary is not just acceptable, but an important aspect of the culture of our team and organization. The hard stop at the end of the day was paired with quite a few early mornings, but this was the non-negotiable that worked for me and my family — my version of leaving loudly.

As virtual work has made our non-work lives more visible and blurred the lines between work and home, the message is the same, but the medium is often different.

How do we leave loudly when there is no physical office to leave?

How do we signal that it is acceptable to sign off and live your non-work life when these boundaries have blurred?

I think this is where we need to revisit the “why” around leaving loudly. The key piece here is setting an example to show what is okay. By modeling these boundaries, you’re giving permission; by pulling the curtain back a bit, we’re making it okay to have a life outside of work. And conversely, by hiding our family life, we create an unnecessary taboo that encourages others to do the same, creating stress and shame for those balancing work with their commitments — as caregivers, partners, parents, or just people with obligations external to their career.

What are the things you can model that give permission for others to draw boundaries? Maybe it’s communicating a hard stop at the end of the day, blocking off time on the calendar, or something else. Showing some of your cards in this way isn’t a vulnerability — it’s a strength. We build a positive work culture with the things we do and what we show. This is how we, as leaders, can change the narrative that having a life outside of work is a vulnerability, and make it a strength within our teams and organizations.

 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels