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Have You Read The New Issue Of Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Newsletter?

Have You Read The New Issue Of Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Newsletter?

by Selma Archer and Zack Demopoulos of ieadvocates

ieadvocates
October 07, 2024

Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Newsletter

Brought to you by ieadvocates (invisible employee advocates)

Welcome and how is your day going?

Thank you for being here! Our newsletter is written to shed light on employees who juggle professional responsibilities with the demanding role of caring for family members. This employee segment, although large in numbers, has remained silent and hidden in the workplace. We need to help them be more visible and supported.

Whether you’re an employer, business manager, HR, or a working caregiver, this newsletter offers valuable insights along with win-win-win simple solutions to help implement meaningful change for organizations, employees who are caregivers, and their care recipients.

Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Newslet …
Working While Caring. Rosalyn Carter Institute F …
- Order Our Book Here

In the news:

Latest research, events, and articles that are making an impact for working caregivers and their employers.

How employers are providing caregiving employees support — and why they should

This is a Metlife sponsored article by Missy Plohr-Memming, Senior Vice President, MetLife Group Benefits. In the article, she refers to Metlife’s 2024 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study to reveal that the significant portion of today’s workforce (73% of employees say they hold some caregiving responsibilities) is challenged with the many demands of working a job during work hours and caring for others during off work hours. She shared, of the caregivers surveyed in the study:

44% of caregivers are stressed
43% are overwhelmed
42% are burned out at work

Employers who support their caregiving employees are more likely to benefit from increases in employee happiness, productivity and loyalty.

In this article, the author includes ways employers can support their employees who are caregivers with traditional and not so traditional benefits as well as help managers be more comfortable in supporting their teams. Worklife, July 29, 2024

_{Read the article here}

Caregiving Responsibilities Leave Half of American Women Lacking Confidence in their Ability to Save for the Future, Edward Jones Research Reveals

This article reports out on research from Edward Jones, in partnership with NEXT360 and Morning Consult. The article states that the purpose of the research was “to explore women's roles in their families and their finances, and the challenges that come from balancing both”. This research supports other claims that there is a negative impact financially on women who want to be caregivers, want careers, and be the “CFO”’s of their families. In particular, the research found:

“Half (48%) of American women in what's known as the "sandwich generation," or people who are caring for both children and parents or relatives, report feeling under financial strain.”
“Nearly two-thirds of women (64%) in the sandwich generation report that caregiving duties have negatively impacted their ability to save for their financial goals.”
“More than half (57%) of women have had to take on fewer professional responsibilities due to caregiving, resulting in a loss of potential income.”

The article suggests that working with financial professionals can help women build their financial confidence and overcome the challenges that family caregiving has on the ability to invest and save. Yahoo Finance, September 16, 2024

Read the article here

Did you know? (Read our blog):

Our blog brings you knowledge, (personal and researched), to raise your awareness and empathy about working caregivers and caregiving.

Zack’s Story: Drafted into Caregiving After A Three Minute Phone Call Blog 10/8/24

In the middle of a meeting with my relatively new boss on the morning of December 14th, 2006, not even a couple of months into the biggest job of my HR career, I received a phone call from my brother. I sent it to voicemail. He called back seconds later. I knew something was wrong. I stepped out of the meeting and heard words from my panicking brother that would change my present and future life, both personal and professional. I heard in a very emotional voice, “Dad had a stroke and is in the hospital!” To say that I and my family were completely unprepared for this event is an understatement. My father, at 78 years old, was healthy in our eyes. He never went to the doctors. Outside of one blood pressure medication, he never took any other medications. He did smoke quite a bit. And we learned later that he did have a family history of heart issues. We should have been prepared. But we weren’t. Read blog here

People and companies in the spotlight:

Our podcast puts a spotlight on guests who are making a significant difference in the working caregiver space.

Episode 3: Our guest is the brilliant author Kate Washington who takes us through her incredible journey of caregiving and the profound insights she gained from it. Kate shares the inspiration behind her book, Already Toast, a raw and honest account of her experience as a caregiver for her husband during his battle with cancer. We highlight the challenges caregivers face, how caregiving is often undervalued in society, and how her writing serves as a voice for caregivers everywhere. We also discuss the emotional toll caregiving takes, why setting boundaries is essential, and how caregivers can seek the support they need. Kate also opens up about her next project, focusing on self-rediscovery through swimming holes and finding joy in midlife. This episode offers not just empathy for anyone on the caregiving path, but also a call for systemic change to better support caregivers.

If you enjoy our podcast, please continue to tune in every other Tuesday, subscribe and write a review, and please share our podcast information with others you think might find it helpful. We are very grateful for our audience!

Stories From real working caregivers:

Actual working caregivers share their stories.

Christina Keys went from career woman to caregiver when her mother had a life changing stroke in 2013. She cared for her for 10 years. Turning a mess into a message, she is now a National Speaker and Advocate as well as the Founder and CEO of Keys For Caregiving where she is connecting businesses and Family Caregivers to collectively transform the Care Space community and amplify our voices for change. Ways to reach Christina: National Text Line: 360-230-7736 Linkedin FB: Keys For Caregiving YouTube TikTok: @keysforcaregiving

Our interview with Christina:

❝

If you looked at my resume today on LinkedIn, you'd see that I proudly display “family caregiver.” Because the skills I learned as a family caregiver….my research skills, better than any job I was at. My multitasking skills, my crisis management skills, my time management skills, all of those.

And I've worked for companies where I've had three computer screens going at one time … I've worked at high demand jobs and nothing prepared me for the things I had to do as a family caregiver. … I think I can handle anything your job throws at me. …As a family caregiver, you are doing med management, case management, you're managing the caregivers that are there. So, you're a leader there too. You're a manager there too…. But you're also doing it in a high stress situation. Why would you not want to put that down?

They're going to make an even better candidate than they could possibly be. Because they've gone through things that have been highly emotional, highly stressful. They had to learn things without being… taught anything. They had to learn on the go. I mean, these are probably going to be some of your best candidates because they've been thrown into the fire. They figured it out, and they came out like a champion. Now they're sitting in front of you saying, I'm ready to work.

❝

I would say you need to speak up (about your caregiving challenges)… at least to your peers because what I can tell you is whether you're speaking up to management or not, for whatever reason, if they don't have something in their care stack (resources), if you're speaking up to your coworkers (it will help); remember, there are 17 to 23 percent of those coworkers are caregivers, you'll be surprised that the person in the cubicle that you're sitting next to might be a family caregiver also. And if it's not the one right next to you, it's the one three cubicles down.

Read the entire interview here

Working While Caring. Rosalyn Carter Institute For Caregivers’ Working While Caring (WWC) initiative seeks to fill critical knowledge gaps in the caregiver employee experience through research, communications, and employer engagement. This video is full of valuable statistics to share with your employer.

BOOKS

Already Toast-Caregiving and Burnout In America

Already Toast-Caregiving and Burnout In America by Kate Washington. The story of one woman’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband—and a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Already Toast shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles. Through it all, Kate Washington felt profoundly alone, but, as she later learned, she was in fact one of millions: an invisible army of family caregivers working every day in America, their unpaid labor keeping our troubled healthcare system afloat. Because our culture both romanticizes and erases the realities of care work, few caregivers have shared their stories publicly. As the baby-boom generation ages, the number of family caregivers will continue to grow. Readable, relatable, timely, and often raw, Already Toast—with its clear call for paying and supporting family caregivers—is a crucial intervention in that conversation, bringing together personal experience with deep research to give voice to those tasked with the overlooked, vital work of caring for the seriously ill.

With gratitude, we share a book review:

We want to thank emiller who took the time to read our book and provide a thoughtful review!

5.0 out of 5 stars: “I’ve lived it and wish I had more support from work”

Order your copy of Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees book here. If you want to order a quantity of books for your leadership team and employees, contact us directly about discount pricing.

Order Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Book here

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