Why We Wrote Our Book
Welcome to our blog! We are glad you’re here!
We thought it only appropriate that our first blog should share with you our reasons for writing the book: Working Caregivers – The Invisible Employees, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNVFJDMP. Whether you have had an opportunity to read our book, or even if you have not, it might be helpful to give some of the background regarding how this book came about, and our goals for wanting to offer our insights around the working caregiver journey.
If you don’t mind, we’ll go first and tell you why we are here and why this work is so important to us. Let us start by telling you how we teamed up to write this book in the first place. Our story is one with several surprises.
Well, we met years ago when we both worked for the same company. Over the years, after mergers and job changes, we lost touch and then later reconnected through LinkedIn. In our first conversation after over 10 years, we were surprised that our responses to the typical questions, “How are you doing? How have you been?” evoked very similar responses from both of us. We were both surprised to learn that we each had experienced our own working caregiver journeys. Journeys that lasted for many years. We discovered that we both were long-term working caregivers, having spent many years helping care for disabled, aging parents while holding down jobs to help support our families.
During our subsequent conversations, we exchanged stories about our working caregiver journeys and were surprised at how similar our experiences had been. We discussed the constant
challenges of trying to work through the often conflicting priorities of our family responsibilities and our work demands. Again, to our surprise, during those subsequent conversations, we found out that we were both on the same page regarding our decision to do something to advocate for working caregivers. To lessen their struggles around working while caring.
Our book is a first step on our path to help alleviate the often overwhelming conflict that exists between the dual roles of working while taking care of a loved one. In a way, you could say our book is a testament to empathy and even more so to love. Love between working caregivers and the loved ones they sacrifice for and care for. Love that many working caregivers have for the work they do that helps them support their families. And love between working caregivers who stumble across each other while on the dangerous road leading to isolation and loneliness.
Our own personal working caregiver journeys, along with our real life experiences in leadership positions in large, global organizations, have given us a deep understanding of the underlying pressures involved. The difficulties for the employee who identifies themself as a working caregiver (or who doesn’t realize they are in that role yet). We are fully capable of being able to empathize with working caregivers. We “get them.” We get them because we are them. We are well aware of how these two responsibilities of employee and family caregiver can collide into a stressful dilemma that often forces choices between one role and the other. The question then is: Can these two roles of employee and caregiver amicably co-exist, or must they always be in battle with each other until one inevitably emerges triumphant? In other words, is it possible that we can love being there to fill in the gap for our family members and love doing good work for our employers without feeling like we are slighting one to support the other?
Sadly, when love is lost like in any relationship, both sides lose. The working caregiver loses (or walks away from) a satisfying job that they many times worked long and hard to get. And the company loses a valued contributor to the organization, often difficult to find and expensive to replace. We wrote this book because we know that this does not have to be the case. No one has to lose. Both the company and the working caregiver can win. We have seen it in our research. We have heard from testimonials. We have seen the evidence. By enlightening and educating employers, people managers, and employees around these issues, companies can better prepare themselves to support the needs of their working caregiver populations.
Throughout the book, we discuss at least six strategies that companies can implement to help direct them through the impending fallout of the working caregiver storm. Whether we like it or not, and whether we are ready or not, this crisis is real, it is here, and it is impacting the business environment on a national level. And from the research that we detailed in our book, we know that this is a storm that will not pass through quickly, but will be around for years to come.
In our book, we utilized two characters to represent working caregivers. We tell their stories. Though fictional, they do personify the life of unpaid family caregivers caring for a family loved one and trying to hold down a job. Their trials and tribulations are based on our research, many caregiver stories, and our own personal experiences of caregiver journeys. We hope you not only find it interesting, but perhaps you also can relate parts of the book to your own caregiver journey. If not currently on a journey, it may help you start thinking and preparing for one down the road.
Shortly after sharing the book with some of our friends and colleagues, we received many endearing and powerful reviews. For example, one reader provided us with the following thought-provoking comments:
“Selma and Zack have addressed and responded to what may be the most critical workforce productivity issues of this time and going forward. Their book discusses a collection of caregiver issues with options, strategies and solutions that span the employment spectrum from individual policies to company cultures, thus, uplifting working caregivers.” - Dede Major, Human Resources Compliance Specialist.
Thank you Dede! And thank you to everyone for your reviews on Amazon! We truly appreciate you! If you haven’t read the book, we humbly invite you to do so. And please let us know what you think. We really do want to hear your feedback both positive and constructive.
In case you haven’t read the book yet, don’t worry, no spoiler alerts. But, let’s just say that in the end our two main characters learn a valuable lesson (just as we did) about the importance of sharing their caregiver stories with others. You have no idea who may be struggling with the same issues of trying to be a good employee and a good family caregiver at the same time. Caregiving is a journey best accomplished with help from those around you.
Our book is a message of hope, of uplifting and encouragement for those of you who are on your own caregiver journeys, or who may be at some point during your career. And just as important, our goal is to inspire and call to action those of you who are employers and people leaders to engage around working caregiver challenges. We encourage and guide you in ways to provide support to assist your employees who are trying to navigate the thin line between working while caring. How their caregiver stories turn out will have a lot to do with the support they receive (or don’t receive) at work.
We leave you with the following questions:
Caregivers, have you shared your working caregiver status with anyone at work?
If not, why not?
Employers, have you created a work environment where your working caregivers feel comfortable coming forward? If not, do you know how? If you have, great! How do your working caregivers feel about it?
What strategies have you implemented to help attract and retain this valuable employee segment? If none, it’s okay, but what is one strategy you can implement today?
And caregivers, while you’re caring, don’t forget to take care of you!
Until the next blog. Thank you for stopping by, reading, and for caring!
Now it’s your turn. Let us know why you are here!