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By:

Rahul Kulkarni

30 March 2025 at 3:32:54 pm

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is...

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is allowed… but not really. This is boundary collapse… when a leader’s good intentions unintentionally blur the limits that protect autonomy and rest. When care quietly turns into control Founders rarely intend to micromanage.   What looks like control from the outside often starts as care from the inside. “Let me help before something breaks.” “Let me stay involved so we don’t lose time.” “Loop me in… I don’t want you stressed.” Supportive tone.   Good intentions.   But one invisible truth defines workplace psychology: When power says “optional,” it never feels optional.
So when a client requested a revision, Rohit gently pinged:   “If you’re free, could you take a look?” Of course she logged in.   Of course she handled it.   And by Monday, the cultural shift was complete: Leave = location change, not a boundary.   A founder’s instinct had quietly become a system. Pattern 1: The Generous Micromanager Modern micromanagement rarely looks aggressive. It looks thoughtful :   “Let me refine this so you’re not stuck.” “I’ll review it quickly.”   “Share drafts so we stay aligned.”   Leaders believe they’re being helpful. Teams hear:   “You don’t fully trust me.” “I should check with you before finishing anything.”   “My decisions aren’t final.” Gentle micromanagement shrinks ownership faster than harsh micromanagement ever did because people can’t challenge kindness. Pattern 2: Cultural conditioning around availability In many Indian workplaces, “time off” has an unspoken footnote: Be reachable. Just in case. No one says it directly.   No one pushes back openly.   The expectation survives through habit: Leave… but monitor messages. Rest… but don’t disconnect. Recover… but stay alert. Contrast this with a global team we worked with: A designer wrote,   “I’ll be off Friday, but available if needed.” Her manager replied:   “If you’re working on your off-day, we mismanaged the workload… not the boundary.”   One conversation.   Two cultural philosophies.   Two completely different emotional outcomes.   Pattern 3: The override reflex Every founder has a version of this reflex.   Whenever Rohit sensed risk, real or imagined, he stepped in: Rewriting copy.   Adjusting a design.   Rescoping a task.   Reframing an email. Always fast.   Always polite.   Always “just helping.” But each override delivered one message:   “Your autonomy is conditional.” You own decisions…   until the founder feels uneasy.   You take initiative…   until instinct replaces delegation.   No confrontation.   No drama.   Just quiet erosion of confidence.   The family-business amplification Boundary collapse becomes extreme in family-managed companies.   We worked with one firm where four family members… founder, spouse, father, cousin… all had informal authority. Everyone cared.   Everyone meant well.   But for employees, decision-making became a maze: Strategy approved by the founder.   Aesthetics by the spouse.   Finance by the father. Tone by the cousin.   They didn’t need leadership.   They needed clarity.   Good intentions without boundaries create internal anarchy. The global contrast A European product team offered a striking counterexample.   There, the founder rarely intervened mid-stream… not because of distance, but because of design:   “If you own the decision, you own the consequences.” Decision rights were clear.   Escalation paths were explicit.   Authority didn’t shift with mood or urgency. No late-night edits.   No surprise rewrites.   No “quick checks.”   No emotional overrides. As one designer put it:   “If my boss wants to intervene, he has to call a decision review. That friction protects my autonomy.” The result:   Faster execution, higher ownership and zero emotional whiplash. Boundaries weren’t personal.   They were structural .   That difference changes everything. Why boundary collapse is so costly Its damage is not dramatic.   It’s cumulative.   People stop resting → you get presence, not energy.   People stop taking initiative → decisions freeze.   People stop trusting empowerment → autonomy becomes theatre.   People start anticipating the boss → performance becomes emotional labour.   People burn out silently → not from work, but from vigilance.   Boundary collapse doesn’t create chaos.   It creates hyper-alertness, the heaviest tax on any team. The real paradox Leaders think they’re being supportive. Teams experience supervision.   Leaders assume boundaries are obvious. Teams see boundaries as fluid. Leaders think autonomy is granted. Teams act as though autonomy can be revoked at any moment. This is the Boundary Collapse → a misunderstanding born not from intent, but from the invisible weight of power. Micromanagement today rarely looks like anger.   More often,   it looks like kindness without limits. (Rahul Kulkarni is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He patterns the human mechanics of scaling where workplace behavior quietly shapes business outcomes. Views personal.)

Focus on Yugendra; Rohit busy in proving Pawar credentials

Pawar credentials

Mumbai: In February 2024, when Rohit Pawar was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a money laundering probe concerning the alleged Maharashtra Cooperative Bank scam, the young NCP (SP) leader was accompanied by his wife Kunti and his cousin Revati Sule, who is Sharad Pawar’s granddaughter. The senior Pawar’s wife Pratibha was also around, sitting in the party office near the ED headquarters in Mumbai’s Ballard Estate. The family’s public support was a message to political allies and opponents—that Rohit has the favour and backing of his great uncle.


Pawar senior has never shied from expressing support for Rohit. He acknowledged his efforts in undertaking the Yuva Sangharsh Yatra and more recently, hinted at a “big role” for Rohit after these elections. The statement could be a ploy to consolidate votes in his favour in Karjat-Jamkhed but it also reflects his great uncle's inclination towards grooming him for big roles in the party.


When Ajit split the NCP and walked away with legislators, Rohit stood firm with Pawar and aunt Supriya Sule, vowing to work with them to build the party again. Ajit’s departure, party insiders point out, was a blessing for Rohit. There was a void in the leadership for politics in the state which Rohit could fill. Sule was focussed on Delhi and Parliament. Rohit jumped in to shoulder new responsibilities. He travelled across Baramati campaigning for his aunt, addressing multiple public meetings, garnering support and overseeing the backend electioneering work. A press conference with Pawar seated next to him was another recent reminder of his growing stature within the party.


His fast-increasing role within the party is evident in how he is campaigning across the state, leaving his own constituency for party workers, his team and his mother and wife to handle. His mother Sunanda Pawar has been a familiar and well-respected face in Karjat-Jamkhed. She works with women, offering training and employment, sanitation and even joined a clean-up movement in 2020. Wife Kunti undertakes social obligations and visits on his behalf. The Pawar family’s presence is in-tact while he’s campaigning outside.


Over the past one year, Rohit has been doing the groundwork for his party’s spread and strengthening. Before Sharad Pawar holds a public rally, Rohit is the one who travels there, works with local party workers and holds multiple smaller meetings. He is seen as the emissary who carries his great uncle's message. Party workers recall how during an NCP(SP) meeting in Beed last year, Jayant Patil had to defer his speech because the crowd chanted Rohit’s name.


At 39, Rohit is a few years older than his cousin Yugendra who is making his electoral debut now. Be it on social media or on Baramati’s roads, Rohit is seen supporting Yugendra. He uses his wide social media presence to showcase his cousin. “The next generation of the Pawars are ready to take the legacy ahead. The way Rohit has been assigned the responsibility of campaigning for party candidates and hand holding Yugendra shows Pawar senior’s faith in him. He is being groomed for a big role,” says a party member. “He is ambitious and is shrewd to try and gain some of the ground left vacant by Ajit Pawar and a few other party leaders,” says a person from Karjat.


It works well for both, Rohit gets a chance to establish his influence in the party and for the NCP (SP), there is a new leadership being groomed. Recent developments in his constituency such as the departure of his close team members, threaten to cause Rohit some discomfort. But Rohit’s ace is that he has his great uncle's unwavering support.

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