Season 1 Episode 5
The Caregiver Trending podcast features discussions on caregiving topics, interviews with thought leaders, and provides expert advice for caregivers from Homethrive’s in-house Care Guides. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
This topic of this episode is the office politics of caregiving.
There are over 50 million caregivers in the United States today, responsible for the care of an aging adult or a child with complex medical needs. But many of them, despite the added stress and pressure of the role, will not inform their team at work.
Of course, this is only logical. After all, it is no secret that the “Motherhood Penalty”–that is, the sometimes permanent drop in income for a woman that gives birth–directly contributes to the gender pay gap.
That being the case, why would anyone admit to spending an average of 20-30 hours per week caring for their parents, grandparents, or even their children? Add to this the fact that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without federal paid leave. So, who’s to say that a caregiver’s honesty won’t negatively affect them when it comes time for promotion, or for layoffs.
So, caregivers play their selfless role close to the chest, hiding the fact that they may need more flexibility or time off to take care of their loved one. As a result, Forbes reports that nearly one third of caregivers voluntarily decide to leave their job due primarily to emotional exhaustion. And this isn’t just a shame for the caregivers, it’s a shame for the companies and the families involved too. This secrecy and emotional weight has ripple effects you may not even notice until years later.
Now, you might think that someone distracted with a challenge like caregiving may not be a very successful employee. But, you’d be surprised.
The Harvard Business Review designed a survey at the Rutgers Center for Women in Business to study the advantages of employing caregivers. They found that caregivers possessed improved empathy, emotional intelligence, and collaboration skills that made them better coworkers, kinder managers, and understanding leaders. These characteristics are known to result in increased retention, engagement, and innovation.
The findings go on to report that caregivers are “problem-solvers who excel at time management, and can prioritize, persevere, and make decisions with imperfect information.” In short, they are very productive. Caregiving means less time, which means every second counts, at home and at work.
These workers are also used to shouldering the mental load by now. This ability to anticipate needs and put measures in place to avoid future issues help make operations flow smoothly. These individuals have the initiative to complete tasks with little to no direction.
It would make sense then, for companies to retain these valuable employees. But, how can employers ensure that the caregivers among them feel comfortable enough to be transparent about their needs, before they quit the workforce entirely?
There are plenty of strategies that an employer can use to make sure that the caregivers on their team feel seen and supported. This type of environment can make all the difference when it comes to trust, transparency, and ultimately the decision between continuing to work or to becoming a fulltime caregiver.
Research from MIT shows that employees who trust their employers are 260% more motivated to work, so it stands to reason that organizations strive to earn that trust.
Aspects of a job–like the level of support from a supervisor or the amount of autonomy in their role–can significantly impact not only a employee’s stress level and overall mental and physical health, but their caregiving as well. The Harvard Business Review states that “How employees spend their time at work can have substantial spillover effects on their friends, partners, and perhaps most critically, their children.”
The Harvard Business Review actually conducted a study for over 10 years on this subject, specifically in regards to the impact of parent’s work on their children’s development. The researchers focussed on low-income families and followed their progress from pregnancy through their first several years as parents.
The results revealed that parents who experienced more autonomy along with more supportive supervisors and coworkers were warmer and more engaged when interacting with their young children. These behaviors have major long-term implications for children’s development, and can boost emotional regulation, social skills, and academic achievement
The Harvard Business Review found that, when they checked back in with these families even years later, they saw that the children of employees with more positive work experiences in their first years as parents had better reading and math skills, better social skills, and fewer behavioral problems in the first grade.
These results were true for both mothers and fathers.
Setting the obvious corporate social responsibilities of these results aside for a moment, it is in a company’s best financial interest to provide a better work experience as well. Let me explain.
If a company is negatively impacting an employee, and therefore indirectly responsible for the negative impacts as experienced by the family, children, friends, or care recipient of the employee, then what we begin to see is a cycle: workplace isn’t supportive, employee isn’t as attentive at home, employee faces challenges with their family as a result, and that stress from home inevitably spills back into the workplace. Full circle. The Harvard Business Review points out that this leads to lower productivity, more sick days and personal time off, and an unhappier, less motivated workforce.
Luckily, providing employees with autonomy and a supportive environment at work is neither very difficult, nor very expensive for the employer themself. The simple ability for a worker to respond to a family crisis can make all the difference, and providing some amount of flexibility and understanding to employees, especially those responsible for someone else’s care, can help you retain a loyal, trusting, and content workforce.
While high-level policy changes like flexible scheduling options and more paid leave are important, the research from The Harvard Business Review suggests that ensuring workers feel respected and supported in their role is just as important.
Organizations can empower their supervisors to delegate tasks to give workers more autonomy, better the communication between teams and among team members, and make it clear from the get-go that their loved ones come first. Bake that trust into the company culture. Make sure that every employee knows that they can communicate when they have an emergency, or a caregiving situation att home.
To quote The Harvard Business Review one last time, “Ultimately, to build a truly healthy and sustainable workplace, employers must expand their definition of ROI to include returns not just for themselves or their employees, but for employees’ children, families, neighborhoods, and entire communities.”
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