Balancing Caregiving and Employment

At LTS, we understand how caregiving responsibilities can impact careers. The nature of caregiving responsibilities can change from day to day, and, often times, caregivers find themselves doing a variety of tasks for their loved ones. Sometimes, employers aren’t aware of the different challenges caregivers face.

Here are some of the things that caregivers regularly find themselves helping with:

• Managing medications
• Communicating with their loved one’s physicians
• Scheduling doctors’ appointments
• Transporting their ailing or aging loved one to these appointments
• Grocery shopping for their ailing or aging loved one
• Cooking meals
• Managing finances
• Providing social interaction
• Providing emotional support

These are just some of the tasks that caregivers are involved in. Furthermore, their caregiving responsibilities are dependent upon the health of their ailing or aging loved ones, and the responsibilities increase if their loved one’s health begins to fail. With that in mind, let’s discuss some possible ways caregivers can help to balance some of the responsibilities involved with caregiving and their career.  
 
Communication is perhaps one of the most important things that a working caregiver can do to achieve balance. The communication works in two ways. First, working caregivers should keep their employers informed. This way, the employer will know what is going on and will not be blindsided or upset if the working caregiver has to step out for a family emergency. One important thing to note is that employers need to be open to this information, and employers need to be willing to help their employees through this difficult time. Secondly, working caregivers need to communicate their needs. Working caregivers can express what they need from the employer, whether it be more flexible scheduling, some time off, or a lighter workload. In addition to communicating with employers, working caregivers can find solace and, often, a helping hand if they keep their friends and family informed.   

The second most important tool in working to achieve caregiver work life balance is having time off. Any working caregiver will immediately say this is next to impossible, but it is truly a necessity for balance. A week-long vacation may be hard to schedule, but working caregivers must block out at least 15 minutes a day to themselves. This 15 minutes will allow the working caregivers time to get everything off of their mind, and, also, to avoid burnout. 

Lastly, working caregivers should ask for help. This is another form of communication, but it is usually more difficult for some caregivers to do than simply talking about what they’re going through. However, working caregivers need to ask for help when feeling overwhelmed. This help can come in a variety of ways and doesn’t necessarily have to be related to their caregiving responsibilities. Perhaps it is making a meal for them, running some errands around town, or picking up their children from school. All of these things help to reduce some of the burden put on working caregivers, and it will keep the caregivers from become burnt out.

Using these three tools can help working caregivers achieve balance with their careers and caregiving responsibilities.