Working Caregivers, the Silent Population

When reading articles about working family caregivers, we are often times called The Silent Population. Makes me think why are we silent? You'd think with juggling all that we do, we'd be screaming for help! But we don't. So then that makes me wonder if that's why there such a thing as Caregiver Stress? Or how about Caregiver Burnout?

It reminds me of a woman (I'll call her Jane to keep this blog easy to follow) in my office who's in the Sandwich Generation - not only does Jane belong to the Silent Generation but she's labeled Sandwich too! Anyway, Jane has children who are ages 10 and 14, very active in school and sport activities. She also has a mom living with her who's had several strokes and is confined to a wheel chair. Jane supposedly works full-time but is rarely on the job "full-time." Now, I'm not telling you this to be critical but instead to talk about the truth and what really happens in the work place.

Jane, along with several others, arrive late and leave early. Not because they're goofing off... instead they're running errands, shuffling kids to activities, taking mom to the doctor, checking on mom, etc. You understand if you fall in the sandwich generation. All of this makes you wonder how much productivity gets done on the job?

This is a growing issues now that boomers are aging... what are some doable options for us? There are some good companies that are looking at ways to help increase our time on the job.. but there are many who ignore this hard and fast-growing dilemma.

My next topic will address what the employee or working family caregivers can do to be more productive at work. Please visit our website http://www.workiingcaregiver.com and sign up for our free CareBuzz Newsletter - loaded with good tips and solutions.