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Boundaries – The Real Talent Edge · Edan Haddock - Total Talent

• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Eden Haddock, Head of Talent and People Experience, Professional Overthinker, Chronic Doer, and Proud Member of the Sleep When It's Done Club.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about something we all pretend we're good at, but deep down, most of us absolutely suck at boundaries.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that word.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: The one that makes people roll their eyes while secretly sweating.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to get real about what happens when we don't draw the line.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: When the job you love starts eating into the life you need.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is about the ups, downs, and time zone tornado that is modern talent work.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So buckle up, charge your coffee, and let's get into it.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The hidden cost of always on.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Talent people, recruiters, HR pros, people experienced nerds.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We are professional caregivers.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're built to say yes.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Built to help.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Built to jump in.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the kicker.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're also burnt to built to burn out if we don't watch it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You finish work, you finally close the laptop, then ding, slack lights up.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then ping, LinkedIn whispers, hey, someone awesome just messaged you.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I'll just check one thing.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that one thing turns into another hour.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've normalized being permanently available as if it's a badge of honor for doing meaningful work.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's exhaustion.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Exhaustion is not a flex, it's a red flag.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was at a HR conference the week before last.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And apologies for missing a week.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to set a boundary and not record that week, and I took that time at the conference as me time.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I met a number of folk.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and these folk are all struggling with the same thing.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: The global grind.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about global roles.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds sexy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I work across regions.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also code for I exist in no time zone at all.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: The sun never sets on a global talent gig.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Melbourne signs off just as London wakes up.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: By the time the US joins the party, you've done two shifts.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We juggle calls at midnight.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: We wake up to 87 new messages and an email thread older than our breakfast.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere between, can you jump on a quick call and just a five-minute sync?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: We lose track of what off even feels like.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not hustle.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's slow motion collapsed, wrapped in corporate language.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it's fabulous that we are working in global roles.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I, for one, love it.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a huge highlight.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I need to set my boundaries.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to make sure that I'm not available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really hard.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there are many people that aren't in global roles that find this hard as well.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about LinkedIn.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The blessing and the beast.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Our LinkedIn.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The platform that built our careers and stole our weekends.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I love it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's our shop front, our community, our megaphone.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: But man, it's a noisy neighborhood.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Messages at midnight, connection requests from bots, people pitching AI sourcing tools when all you want is a Sunday scroll through memes.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever caught yourself replying to an in mail at 10 p.m.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: with one eye closed, you know the addiction.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when your brand is you, when your reputation is built on showing up, switching off feels like disappearing.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, silence is an absence.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's self-respect.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your time is your currency, and we need to stop giving it away like confetti.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the talent trap and caring too much.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: People in talent care too much.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's our gift and our curse.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: We see potential in everyone.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want to fix broken processes, broken teams, broken systems, and sometimes broken people.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But caring doesn't mean that you need to be constantly available.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Boundaries aren't walls.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're the safety rails that keep your impact sustainable.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Without them, your empathy runs dry.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your intuition dulls.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that bright, loud, creative version of you, well, it starts whispering.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then one morning you'll wake up and you'll think, I love what I do, but I don't love doing it anymore.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's burnout whispering.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not failure talking.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about some real world fixes that don't sound like a TED talk.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's kill the fluffy advice.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need more platitudes about self-care.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: You need tactics that work.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I've learned, and in all honesty, often the hard way.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, define your hours and mean it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're global, set overlap zones.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Outside those, you're offline.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: If someone needs you, they'll wait.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: They always survive.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, silent Sundays.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one day.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: No Slack, no email, no LinkedIn dopamine.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your nervous system will thank you.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now I haven't mastered this.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I am on LinkedIn and I'm on Slack every single day.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm learning to be kinder to myself and I'm learning to adjust.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, micro breaks versus big breakdowns.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait for a holiday to heal.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Five minutes of breathing or sunlight, it actually beats two weeks of burnout rehab, right?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just take those micro breaks, shorten your meetings, and take that time for you.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, control your feed.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we look at LinkedIn, we celebrate who's got the most followers, who's following the most people.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Unfollow chaos.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about volume.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mute the drama and curate what fuels you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because your brain's algorithm is as fragile as the LinkedIn one.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number four.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, we covered four.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for help before you crumble.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a superhero.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Real leadership is vulnerability dressed as honesty.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're at capacity, say it.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: It builds trust, not weakness.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the human cost of constant motion.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I use that term because I'm going mad cycling at the moment.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So motion must be on my brain.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But let's call it out.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Burnout is quiet.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't hit like a crash.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's more like a leak.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Slow, steady, invisible.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: You stop celebrating wins, you start scrolling more and sleeping less.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything starts to feel beige.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's when you know it's time to hit pause.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not quit, not implode.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just pause.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Talent work is beautiful chaos.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: We get to shape people's lives, influence culture, design futures.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: But none of that matters if you're too tired to feel it.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't pour from an empty cup.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And no, believe it or not, topping it up with coffee doesn't count.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: AI, automation, and meaningful work.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the shiny stuff.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: AI and automation.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much, and we had a whole episode about do more than less.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every TA team on the planet is using that term.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I hate that phrase.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's toxic productivity dressed in innovation drag.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: At Movember, and honestly, in every progressive people team I've seen, we're not chasing more with less.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're chasing more meaningful with better tooling.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, AI is not an enemy, it's an amplifier.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It can screen faster, schedule smarter, analyze trends.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that us humans can do what humans are good at.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Connect.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're freeing up time for conversations that matter, the strategies that breathes, the design that actually feels human.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: The goal isn't to automate talent out of the picture, it's to automate the noise so the music gets louder.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: When the machine does the admin, the human gets to do the art.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So please, if you haven't already started investing in AI, do it because it is going to help with burnout and it is going to help with boundaries.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to give you that opportunity to do the work that will fill your cup.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this isn't about subscribing to prompt libraries.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is really focusing on what I can take away to amplify what I do as a human.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And how can those human experiences be more meaningful for me, for my team, and for the communities that we serve?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So closing, I I want to say draw the line, but don't cross it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing about boundaries.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're not about keeping others out.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're about keeping yourself in.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: In control, in balance, in the damn game.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're not robots.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've got them.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're investing in them.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're creative, emotional, passionate humans who build workplaces that breathe.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And to do that, we've got to stop running on empty.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your challenge.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, don't open LinkedIn.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't check slack.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Go outside, touch grass.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, touch your guitar if that's your thing.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what silence sounds like.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's where your best ideas live.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you want longevity in this space, if you want to love this craft ten years from now, you've got to build walls strong enough to hold the weight of your own ambition.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because boundaries aren't weakness, they're wisdom.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is Eden Haddock, Total Talent.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Eden Haddock.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Stay bold.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Stay grounded.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And please, I'm begging you, log off once in a while.