It looks like, you have rigid boundaries at work!​​
Rigid Boundaries are overly stringent boundaries that prioritize safety at all costs. I often think of rigid boundaries as a brick wall that you built around yourself to help keep yourself safe, and protect you from bad energy and stressful or hurtful interactions.
While rigid boundaries are great at protecting you, keeping you safe and making you feel in control, they come at the cost of connection with others, and are not always the healthiest choice. You may feel isolated and miss out on deeper, more meaningful relationships.
Rigid boundaries at work may result in:
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Never asking for help. You may find it hard to trust other people to follow through or do a good enough job, so you tend to take everything on yourself, even when it's too much.
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Keeping an emotional distance from your clients so that you don’t have to fully feel your empathetic responses to their struggles. It feels safer to not get too close.
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Cutting colleagues out completely if they treat you badly, without giving them a chance to change their behaviour.
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Communicating your boundaries in a blunt or harsh way to ensure people know not to ask you for things and to keep their distance.
Check out the mini-training below for my tips on how to work through this!
Nervous System Regulation Resources mentioned in the mini-lesson:
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Article that outlines 4 grounding practices: How To Stay Grounded As Sensitive Social Worker
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Simple Grounding Practice Audio Recording from Managing Difficult Emotions in the Workplace: A Mini-Course for Highly Sensitive Professionals, Helpers, & Healers.