Territory and Territorial Markers to Guard Privacy Boundaries. Privacy is the right to control your own body; to control your own living space; to control your own identity; the right to control information about yourself; the right to prevent disclosure of private facts; of being free from the observations of others at times; of limiting visual access and exposure which leads to unwarranted penetrations and thus, information. In our modern world, this control takes place in the territory we call home.
Territory Provides Security and a Defence Against Outsiders. It provides us with a social structure and it enables us to establish and maintain relative status i.e. standing, position and rights.
If Possible, Separate your Business and Home Premises on your Property. The most satisfying arrangement for a home-based business is a complete separation of work premises from your home life – either using outbuildings for work or making use of adjoining rooms with a separate entrance. When this is not possible, we can set up physical boundaries or we can use procedures, which prevent invasion of privacy. The problem does not seem to be so much one of setting up the boundaries but in not realising that we need to set up boundaries.
Environments, Roles and Behaviour Expectations as Territorial Markers. We associate certain environments with specific roles and these include certain expectations of behaviour. In a home-based business, we take on multiple additional roles which can easily lead to confusion. For example, your husband becomes employer, supplier and client in addition to partner, husband and father. You, as wife, become employee, wife of boss and receptionist to clients in addition to partner, wife and mother (or vice versa if you are the business owner). If you have children, they are also affected. Children in a home-based situation will be written about in a separate article.
When boundaries marking off the physical business premises have not been set up; when conditions and hours of business have not been laid down; these numerous roles might intrude inappropriately. For example, your husband might assume the role of “boss” with respect to you even when you go out together, “Did so and so pay his account?” he often asks in the middle of dinner at a restaurant. The warmth and intimacy of a personal relationship should not be disturbed during dinner by business conversations. Or, you might address your husband unthinkingly in front of your staff in the role of “wife” instead of receptionist, “Don’t be silly” you say to him – and he loses face in front of the staff! Some people in home-based have said the following,
I feel it is important to keep business and private life separate. There must be a degree of formality and respect in the workplace between you and your partner. I am essentially a private person and would dislike staff members to be aware of details of my private life.
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We need a door to divide the business premises from our house where the family live. I’m not involved in the business and people come into our house to ask me all sorts of questions when my husband is out
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I do the accounts for my husband’s home-based business. I used to work in one of the rooms in our house. One day I realised that if I did any personal work in this room I would immediately feel guilty and would look for something to do which related to his business! It seemed to have something to do with the room I was in. I just could not break through the barrier. The solution I eventually came up with was to take absolutely everything that was of a personal nature out of this room and I then called this room “the office.” When I walked out of this room, I was “at home” and lived out my personal life.
Markers Label and Define Territories. Markers protect us and our way of life. They tend to be recognised and honoured by others. We can use a variety of signs and procedures as markers. Asthana, 1989 wrote the following,
“…roles are claimed labels, from behind which people present themselves to others and partially in terms of which they conceive, gauge and judge their past, current and projected action … studies suggest that markers are important factors in human territorial behaviour. They are employed to label and define a territory and tend to be recognised and honoured by others.’
“People can be controlled by means of territoriality. E.g. Women relegated to kitchens, ‘deviants’ to prisons, [marginalised people] to ghettos, etc. Territory is an instrument for achieving control over a subject people.”
“By exerting control over a particular segment of space we experience a sense of freedom of choice within our environment. And we achieve a sense of identity a feeling of being separate and distinct from others.”
Besides labelling and defining a territory, markers,
- Preserve, conserve and protect us and our way of life by prohibitions, specifying,
selecting, marking out, and setting apart. - Dignify and ennoble each human being by distinguishing our right to privacy through advancing, promoting and designating those things which are important to us.
- Single out those behaviours and intrusions which need to be screened off, excluded and set apart.
Signs as Markers. Some examples of defining territory are,
- Gates can have one bell for “The Office” and another bell for “The House.” If bells are not possible, put up a sign on the driveway saying, “Entrance to Office This way.” Parking bays can be marked out for clients and private parking can be marked with signs such as, “Private Parking” or “No Parking Here”. We could put pot plants across areas where client and supplier cars should not drive.
- Put a sign on your office door handle that can be flipped around according to your availability for the staff – one side saying “ENTER” and the other side saying “AVAILABLE AFTER 1PM” or “PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB.”
- If your staff are giving you continuous or unwanted advice when you are out gardening, you could put up a sign something like,
- FOR WORKING IN MY GARDEN – COST R100.00
- FOR GIVING ME ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO IN MY GARDEN – COST: R50.00
- FOR ADMIRING MY GARDEN IN SILENCE – COST: FREE
Procedures as Markers. Procedures and systems can also act as territorial markers. Think of different situations that are likely to arise in your home-business or, if something has already happened and you felt invaded in some way, visualise how you would like it to happen the next time. There will always be some contingencies for which you have not planned but if most of those important to you have been catered for, you will not mind the occasional inconvenience.
For example, a client arrives to see your husband/partner. The client rings the front door bell and one of your children or the maid invites the client into your lounge. Or, the front door is open and he/she walks into your lounge and sits down. Your husband is out and the client starts talking. He admires your lounge, starts talking about your home, garden and children. He looks settled and seems to have no intention of moving until your husband/partner gets back home.
You are in the middle of a book, some work, cooking, were about to out… You might feel awkward leaving him/her alone in your lounge. You don’t know him… you feel it’s bad-mannered… what will he do with his time? Should you offer him some tea or coffee? You are not quite sure what to do – what is the protocol? You are used to entertaining friends or family in your home – not business people.
Discuss the problem with your husband/partner and then, as territorial markers, you can both try out the following procedures to deal with this kind of situation,
- Decide where you would like to receive clients and delivery people. Instruct your children, maid and staff accordingly.
- If appropriate, have some magazines handy for the client so that you don’t have to entertain him/her while they wait for your husband
- Spend a few minutes talking to the client and then invite him/her to wait in the designated place and excuse yourself.
- If you need to lock up your house because you are going out, offer the client some tea or water and invite the client to wait in the garden or his/her car until your husband returns.
- Or, if you need to go out, phone your husband & inform him about the situation. Let him talk to the client to organize another appointment or that the client waits a little longer.
Staff and Markers. If you have an electrical power point where the staff work, set up a tray with kettle, mugs, tea, coffee and so on in the staff office. This is a diplomatic way of saying, “Please keep out of my kitchen.”
Physical Environments Regulate the Flow of Information. Your physical environment can be used to balance and regulate the flow of information between yourselves and the people in your home-based business so that you and your family are neither overexposed nor underexposed.
For example, if you arrange your office so that the first time you become aware of another person is when they suddenly knock on the door and walk in or, when they just walk in, you may find that you have had insufficient warning to prepare yourself to receive the person. You are startled and find that your privacy has been invaded. If on the other hand you are over-exposed, you might reveal more information about yourself than you desire.
How we arrange and organise our physical environment and which markers we use will regulate and define many of our privacy boundaries. For example,
- our needs for self-definition
- our boundaries
- our couple boundaries
- prevention of the penetration of eyes
- he intrusion of unwanted sounds and behaviour
- the means of escaping from the demands of social interaction when we need to
- creating an environment where we might withdraw into ourselves and where we can drop our masks
We each need to balance the regulation and flow of information according to our own specific requirements and environments. Once we acquaint ourselves with the importance and effectiveness of markers, we will invent and create exactly what we need for our own individual privacy requirements.
Telephones – Necessary and Problematic in a Home-Based Business. Telephones are vital because phone calls bring in business. But telephone calls can also be problematic for your family. Clients are tempted to phone home-based businesses at all hours because, unlike offices and public businesses, you are available and your clients usually have your phone number. For this reason, home-based business owners need to set boundaries to limit business calls to normal office hours.
Although many of us use mobile phones almost exclusively today, landlines are still in use. Some of the following comments were made by home-business owners,
Our house and office are in separate buildings on our property – customers don’t get our home number and we are not listed.
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Our phone is in the kitchen. When my husband receives business calls, I have to stop cooking and see that the kitchen is quiet until he has finished his call. I am getting more and more frustrated and angry with this requirement.
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We use our mobile phones mainly. If it’s after business hours, we don’t answer if it’s a business call. We return business-related calls the next day.
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People used to phone us at night – even after 10pm at night and over the weekends!
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As the researcher, Altman said, “It seems that the ability to regulate interaction is necessary for individual and cultural survival, and unless people have figured out ways to control interaction, their status as intact human beings can well be in Jeopardy.” To read more about the need for privacy in today’s world and the effects of privacy invasion in Home-Based Businesses, read my Blog on privacy in the Home-based business written on 12 Feb 2011
Leslie Zimmermann, a Jungian Analyst based in Johannesburg, offers a range of services, which she integrates, to meet the needs and aspirations of people. In a word, her work is in the service of wholeness. Wholeness includes both our vulnerabilities and our strengths, becoming conscious of our own unique mix of these, honouring our own unique way of functioning and with this knowledge and confidence, contributing as only we each can in our own way, to this evolving world we find ourselves to be a part of.
Leslie specializes in Analytical Psychology, Voice Dialogue, Coaching solutions for business executives. Consulting and coaching for family owned and home-based business
For an appointment Leslie Zimmermann can be contacted on:
+27 (0)83 384 9812