A tough balancing act I have been a corporate trainer and coach for the past 20 years working with Fortune 500 companies developing team and leadership programs. Twelve years ago, I started my own business, My Pivotal Point so I could focus my work more locally on small to mid-size businesses. Just two years into starting my company, my father died, and a year later I had to move my mother to be closer to me here in Virginia. She was 89. I had just officially become her caregiver. Although the year prior I had been going to check on her in Tennessee every month, I did not identify as her caregiver. It was what you did as the daughter. Like many adult children, I was thrust into this role totally unexpected, unprepared, not knowing a thing. Naively I thought she would do fine in her semiindependent assisted living apartment. Over the years we had some good times while she was physically able. However, as her health declined more of my time was spent caring for her needs, managing her health, making tough decisions.
GUEST commentary By Robin Weeks Executive Summary: Working while being a Family Caregiver is a challenge that is also a growing problem; but you don’t have to do it alone.
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Through delivering my Foundational Learning for Leaders© courses to groups of managers, I would walk into class and ask everyone to please turn off their cell phones. I then would let them know that I had to keep mine on. I never knew when a call would come that she had been sent to the ER or some other thing that would require my immediate attention. Frequently, a manager would come up to me and tell me of their challenges becoming a Family Caregiver for an aging relative. The stresses, worries, lack of knowledge of available resources was very common. Also, we all felt so alone and isolated, as if we were the only one going through this challenging experience. And, juggling work with caregiving was extremely difficult, tiring and created a financial loss of some sort. • • • • •
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Researchers at Harvard Business School found that 73% of employees in the U.S. are caring for a child, parent or friend. An AARP study says that even though 73 percent of millennial caregivers are employed, more than any other generation of caregivers, they also spend on average 21 hours a week caring for loved ones. About one-fifth of millennial caregivers devote 40 hours a week or more to such service. The study found that only 46 percent of millennial caregivers tell a supervisor about this commitment, compared with 60 percent of older family caregivers. The challenges of family caregivers in the workplace impeding their careers: o 33% have unplanned absences o 28% have late arrivals at work o 17% have early departures from work The Hidden Costs to Employers:
