Choosing Between Work and Caring for Elderly Parents

Pamela D. Wilson - Caregiving Expert

Caring for My Elderly Mother is Killing Me

Solutions for Caregiver Discrimination in the Workplace

GOLDEN, COLORADO, UNITED STATES, February 3, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Caregiving expert Pamela D. Wilson highlights the importance of digital support programs for working caregivers in a new Caring for Aging Parents Blog Post about Digital Caregiver Support Tools.

Working caregivers are burned out and exhausted due to a lack of family and workplace support. Elderly children present as responsible caregivers. These caregivers lack the support of siblings or other family members who are relieved that they are managing stressful elderly parent care situations.

Managers and supervisors have little insight into the daily struggles of working caregivers. This lack of knowledge unwittingly has the potential to result in caregiver discrimination in the workplace.

Working Caregivers Fear Being Forced to Leave a Job

Research identifies levels of concern and a lack of trust by caregivers to share their stories and the effects of being a caregiver. Caregivers fear disclosing personal information. Many working caregivers at the end of their rope find themselves unable to identify options to change exhausting and stressful caregiving situations.

Caring for My Elderly Mother Is Killing Me

According to Wilson,

“Caregivers are fearful of sharing their true feelings with anyone who may shame them or make them feel guilty. The workplace holds a negative stigma toward caregiving for elderly parents. Being a professional caregiver for more than twenty years makes it easy for me to talk about uncomfortable subjects. A recent Caring Generation radio program called 'Caring for my Elderly Mother is Killing Me' was the result of conversations with working caregivers from age 25 to 65 who are working, going to school, raising young children, and caring for elderly mothers.“

Unexpected Caregivers

Adult children don’t expect to become caregivers for elderly parents. The absence of discussions about caregiving in society leads to caregiving roles and responsibilities quickly growing into time-consuming second jobs. Caregivers fail to realize the importance of setting boundaries and asking for help. Instead, they struggle to do it all until their health fails or a mental breakdown occurs.

Workplace conversations fail to occur because managers and supervisors feel that caregiving is a personal issue. Crossing a boundary to learn about an employee’s struggles may result in bias and unintentional workplace family responsibility discrimination.

Having open conversations about changes in work schedules, coming in late, leaving early, or taking time off is essential to manage expectations for the employer and the employee. Workplaces who offer digital and other caregiver support programs are perceived to be empathetic to the predicament of working caregivers. Offering programs opens up conversations and minimizes concerns of workplace caregiver discrimination.

Under-Resourced Human Resource Departments

Human resource managers are beginning to realize the economic effects of elder caregiving in the workplace. Hidden costs to the workplace include:

• Decreases in productivity due to caregivers juggling work and caregiving responsibilities.
• Increased absenteeism happens when caregivers come in late, leave early, or take time off to care for elderly parents.
• Costs resulting from employees leaving the workplace that includes recruiting and retaining talent. This sunken cost alone for a high-value employee is sufficient to fund digital caregiver support programming.
• Physical illness and a lack of self-care result from caregiving stress increasing workplace healthcare costs.
• Caregiving is emotional. Supervisors who lack experience or sensitivity training around caregiving may unintentionally create situations where caregivers leave a position or claim caregiver discrimination.

Human resource departments may struggle to quantify the need for caregiver programs financially. Complications include working family caregivers who may not want to self-identify. This lack of self-identification crosses into family life.

Adult children who are helping an elderly parent or grandparent with grocery shopping and everyday tasks around the home may not identify themselves as caregivers. This lack of self-identification means that this employee will be missed in a workplace survey.

Removing the Barriers to Workplace Caregiver Support

Human resource managers can remove barriers to workplace caregiver support. The use of digital caregiver support programs can meet the caregiver support needs of employees. Surveys to create initial programs and data resulting from digital caregiver support program utilization will help identify opportunities for creating ongoing programs.

When managers in the workplace who have experience with family caregiving issues share their stories, employees who are caregivers will be more likely to share their concerns and stories. It’s time for corporations to make talking about eldercare as acceptable as talking about childbirth, maternity leave, and child care.

The growth in the aging population and hidden caregiving costs for corporations support caregiving conversations happening sooner rather than later. Pamela D. Wilson is available at 303-810-1816 to discuss digital caregiver support programs for an organization.

Visit Pamela’s website for more information and make plans to join The Caring Generation^® radio program for caregivers and aging adults at 6 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central, and 9 p.m. Eastern every Wednesday night. Replays of the weekly programs are available in podcast format with transcripts on Pamela’s website and all major podcast sites.
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Pamela D. Wilson
Pamela D. Wilson, Inc.
+1 303-810-1816
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