153. When Work Follows You To the Shops: Boundaries In Small Towns

In this episode of Ways to Change the Workplace, Prina Shah is joined by Simone Pickering as part of the series Rethinking Regional Workplaces with Simone Pickering.

In When Work Follows You to The Shops, they explore what boundaries really look like when you live and work in a regional community or small town – where colleagues are neighbours, clients are parents at the school gate, and confidentiality is constantly tested.

This conversation moves beyond theory and into lived experience. It unpacks the emotional load of being “always on”, the complexity of dual relationships, and why boundary-setting in small towns is often misunderstood as being difficult rather than responsible.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why boundaries feel different in regional communities
• Dual relationships and blurred personal-professional lines
• Being approached about work everywhere
• Confidentiality and trust in small ecosystems
• Digital and after-hours boundaries
• Boundary-setting as leadership behaviour

Reflection questions

• Where has work quietly followed you into your personal life?
• Which boundaries have become blurred because “that’s just how it is here”?
• What would change if boundaries were treated as leadership, not attitude?

Simone Pickering is a Kalgoorlie local and the founder of The People & Culture Office, a consultancy she launched in 2018 to make HR easier for regional businesses. Her career began in local government before she spent almost a decade in the mining industry, later stepping into the not-for-profit sector where the human impact of good HR became impossible to ignore. Today, Simone partners with organisations across regional WA, helping leaders strengthen culture, lift capability and build workplaces people actually want to be part of. With deep experience, a human-centred approach and a clear lens on the reality of small-town workplaces, she brings insight, honesty and a steady hand to conversations about work in the regions.

Her amazing The Real Work Magazines https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vufxc-KkAAmYUIVOrxITSdUaZxrvZyVV?usp=share_link

Simone’s People and Culture Office https://thepeopleandcu