If you’re an employee and caregiver, you’re one of more than 14 million people in the United States trying to stay afloat in a tumultuous sea of shifting personal and professional responsibilities. It is estimated that one in seven employees is caring for a chronically ill or elderly loved one. If you are a caregiver and have a job, how do you make it work? How do you care about work, your loved one, and yourself without strangling yourself with the three-way lifeline?
Regardless of whether you’re providing hands-on care, paying for the assistance of a professional caregiver, or a combination of both, managing someone else’s chronic illness takes its toll. There are many facets to consider: the illness itself, the prognosis, changing the plan of care based on the prognosis, the personality type and communication styles of the loved one and yourself, grief, and acceptance during the experience care and role reversal between parent and child. In addition, variable sibling support, financial management, caregiver and/or family sleep deprivation, actual hands-on care delivery, medication management, and outsourced care assistance care supervision all add up. to the challenge. In some cases, extended family members and friends become estranged creating additional emotional stress on the caregiver. Somewhere in the middle is keeping a job to support your own financial obligations and career. You still have to show up for work on time and perform to meet job expectations and often go the extra mile in tough economic times.
People who volunteer or take on the challenge of life as caregivers for a family member take on significant changes that affect their work-life balance and family. Caregiver fatigue can easily arise if precautions are not taken to care for the caregiver and the caregiver’s family. Job performance may insidiously decline or the caregiver may have difficulty maintaining performance, but burnout and potentially compassion fatigue may occur. Many times these changes can occur without the caregiver realizing it.
What can you do?
Be aware of the signs and symptoms of exhaustion and fatigue. Many caregivers begin the caregiving process with enthusiasm and great enthusiasm. They believe in their herculean effort to care, solve problems, and manage the discretionary effort it takes to care for others in extraordinary circumstances. Over time, as personal and professional demands outstrip perceived resources, caregivers may begin to feel irritable, cut corners, avoid contact, or become very distant with friends, family, and colleagues.
Accept your humanity as a caregiver. Provide self-compassion for yourself. Give yourself that much-needed mental break to empower yourself, fill your own cup at least halfway so you can continue to help others and complete your feedback loop. Think about it. We live in a world that requires us to meet specific expectations, quietly prefers that we exceed expectations, values perfection and zero defects. However, we are imperfect human beings. Think of being a fly on the wall of the universe and see how difficult it must be for imperfect humans to try to exist in a world that requires perfection.
Let others help. Ask for. Delegate. To accept. Caregivers often feel that they can do it all by themselves and see using the help of others as a sign of weakness. In reality, we may be denying the spiritual opportunity for others to express their compassion by reaching out and giving.
Maintain open communication with your direct supervisor or manager. Many people are afraid to share personal information at work for fear of discrimination, that is, being sought out for promotion opportunities or difficult tasks for professional growth. However, open communication is the path to flexible work schedules and other strategies to provide relief at home and restore productivity at work.
