The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 81

Work/Life Boundary Integration

Discussion Questions
1. Where do you find yourself on the scale between segmentation (complete separation between work
and personal life) and integration (the overlapping of work and personal life)? How do your
department's culture and expectations support this? How do they make this challenging?
2. What strategies can be used to find balance between work and personal life? Why is it so difficult to do?
3. How do we establish boundaries with direct supports early on to help minimize the consequences of
living in an integrative environment? How is that boundary truly defined?
4. Of the three boundaries-interpersonal, time management, and space-discussed in the article, which
one is more important to you? Explain.
5. What strategies have you or your peers utilized to help maintain boundaries with supervisors, peers,
and students in your role as a residence life professional?
6. Discuss the practice, if any exist, that your department has implemented when it comes to helping
professional staff maintain a stronger work/life balance. Is it effective? If there isn't one, what would
you offer as a solution, and how do you present that recommendation?
7. Discuss how departmental culture can influence work/life balance for residence life professionals.
8. How do professionals educate our direct reports on this topic? Should we make this a priority to teach
our direct reports and practice ourselves? Why or why not?
9. How can residence life professionals support and hold one another accountable in achieving a stronger
work/life balance?
10. The study speaks about the crossover of work with personal and home life. If you want to eliminate
that crossover, how do you create more of a wall than a boundary line?
11. Overall, would it be beneficial to you or your staff member/student if that wall were established? What
do you think the overall impact would be on the community you oversee?
12. Viewing Table 3, reflect on where you fall on the scale from full integrator to integrative segmentor for
each section. How does your self-assessment align with the participant responses in Table 4? How do
you feel yours may align with those of colleagues? Are there some areas where you feel comfortable
with where you fall? What areas would you like to improve on and set clearer boundaries for?
13. How have you seen the Fair Labor Standards Act potentially influence you in your workplace and your
ability to set clearer, more defined boundaries for yourself and your direct report staff?
Discussion questions were developed by a team of community educators at Oklahoma State University:
Jessica Crabaugh, Atonbara Alagoa, Jessie Spencer, and Mark Moultrup.

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2