What managers should know (and can do) about caregiving in the workplace
Caregiving pressures affect employee productivity directly. As the Portland State study documents, close to one-third (31%) of the working wives that were surveyed reported having reduced the number of hours they worked, and 27% said they had refused to travel on business or limited the times when they did. Some 21% elected not to work toward a promotion. Close to one-fourth of the husbands (23%) had restricted business travel and close to one-fifth (17%) had reduced working hours.
What can an employer do?
Options and insights have been distilled into a
Sourcebook for Employers.
This is an excellent and practical guide.
The Sourcebook includes an overview of the many workplace strategies being tried (along with the potential pros and cons of each) as well as a survey instrument for measuring caregiving within your organization.
About the Principal Authors
Dr. Margaret Neal conducts research at the Institute on Aging at Portland State University, where she is a Professor of Urban Studies, teaching graduate courses in survey research methods and in gerontology.
Dr. Leslie Hammer is Associate Professor, Department of Psychology at Portland State University in Oregon. Her most recent work is based on a three-year grant to study of dual-earner couples in the sandwiched generation, as mentioned above.
Drs. Hammer and Neal continue to earn national recognition for their research into the ways in which organizations can help reduce work-family stress by implementing "family-friendly" programs and policies such as alternative work schedules, leave programs, dependent care programs, and employee assistance programs.
Click here for additional bio information on these authors.