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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.)

Power Cuts Shortens Power

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Power Cuts Shortens Power

Few areas of Maharashtra are regularly facing power cuts as the demand has exceeded the supply. Rural Nashik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, and other parts of Marathwada are the areas facing power cuts of up to eight hours, sometimes even more. What has added to the woes of power-deficit in the state, a shortfall in supply by private power producers has led to the state electricity distribution utility restarting load-shedding to overcome the gap between demand and supply. The government has left with no option but to accept the grim situation. But at the same time one more factor which is responsible for the power cuts is the union government. Disruptions in the supply of coal which is seen as one of the reasons for the significant demand-supply gap in electricity.


The growth in electricity demand due to the soaring heat, rise in consumption by industrial and agricultural consumers and the nationwide coal crisis has affected coal inventories at state-owned Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited’s (MahaGenco) thermal power stations. The surge in demand for electricity has led to a deficit of around 2,500 to 3,000 megawatts (MW) in power. The state needs 25,000 MW of electricity. However, only 21,000 to 22,000 MW of electricity is being supplied. Maharashtra faces fear of power outage.


Significantly, the budget presented by the Mahayuti government gave some sigh of relief to the agrarian community with the announcements of various schemes. The Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar presented the state budget with the theme “Self-reliant Farmers, Prosperous Farmers”. Budget included schemes for direct seed subsidies, irrigation facilities, modern tech, ancillary industries, value addition to produce, and improved storage and market availability. The provision for free electricity for farmers, milk subsidy and solar power project for uninterrupted daytime electricity was highlighted in the budget.


Ajit Pawar announced a significant relief measure for the state’s farmers. Under the Mukhya Mantri Baliraja Vij Savlat Yojana, the government has made the provision to waive off electricity bill dues for a total of 44.06 lakh farmers. Additionally, the government also declared to bear the cost of agriculture pumps up to 7.5 horsepower capacity, providing a massive subsidy of Rs. 14,761 crore. This decision was taken in response to the recent drastic changes in seasonal weather patterns and global climate change, which have had a significant impact on the state’s agricultural sector. A Rs. 15,000 crore project has been undertaken to separate and solarize agricultural electricity grids, aiming to provide uninterrupted daytime electricity to farmers. The “Magel Tyala Solar Power Pump” scheme will provide solar power pumps to 8.50 lakh farmers, offering free electricity.


The power cut has directly affected the farmers and workers and labourers working in small industrial units. Due to power cut some of the industrial units pulled down the shutter as a result many casual workers rendered jobless.

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