It’s not unreasonable to have boundaries between work and personal life.

In fact, many would argue that it is a necessity. Having a job can be stressful enough without feeling like it is encroaching on other areas of existence as well. Unless they work in a role that specifies a responsibility for being on-call, employees have the right to keep their work strictly within their working hours.

Despite this indisputable truth, there are companies and managers out there who will try to work around it. They come up with excuses and methods of making sure that their workers are plugged into the workspace even when they have clocked off. Not all of them make direct demands for this, and sometimes it can be so subtle that you do not realize what is happening until you’re doing it. This means that it is important to be vigilant and maintain strong boundaries.

As a general rule, any job that pushes you to be available in ways that you do not agree to is one that it is better to leave sooner rather than later. At the same time, developing the tactics to deal with in the moment is also an essential coping mechanism.