Listen to this episode
On this episode
We’re not just service providers – we’re carers and helpers. This can make it hard to set boundaries and prioritise our workload. What we need is air cover.
By working together with your colleagues, you can create agreements about what to say yes and no to, and hold each-other accountable.
And you can also seek out peers outside of work, so you can share your dilemmas and feel less alone. If we keep silently struggling with saying no or setting boundaries, we can start feeling burnout, which can affect our judgement.
In this quick dip, Rachel explains how we can get some protection at work, and ask our peers outside of work for support.
Show links
More episodes of You Are Not a Frog:
Sign up to receive a link to the episode workbook and CPD form downloads for each podcast. You can use them for reflection and to submit for your appraisal.
Reasons to listen
- To understand the concept of air cover and how it can help with setting boundaries and prioritising workload
- To learn about how shared accountability and informal networks can help give us air cover
- To get actionable steps for finding and using air cover to make saying no easier
Episode highlights
We’re trying to solve the wrong problem
What happens when we want to say “no”
Legal air cover
Finding air cover in accountability
Air cover from informal networks
How air cover helps to cope with fear
Air cover against complaints
Action points
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] Rachel: I want to talk to you today about air cover, how to get it and why it’s one of the number one things that will help you say no. One of my favorite programs is Only Fools and Horses, which I guess shows my age, but Only Fools and Horses is about these three chaps who are constantly trying to make money. And in one of my favorite episodes, they end up going to a stately home and managed to persuade the owner to pay them a lot of money to clean their chandelier. So they have to…
