With a lovely family long Easter weekend over, for many families the next few weeks intensify the juggle between kids and work commitments. School holidays are yearned for; to have everyone home and have a break from the routine of school and extra-curricula commitments. However, the reality for many is that managing 3 months of school holidays per year can be a logistical nightmare.
My husband and I chose to work in roles with great flexibility (our own businesses) to manage our daughters’ 15 weeks of school holidays per year. However, for many full time carers, juggling work and caring responsibilities becomes mission impossible. It is a very real reason some choose to drop out of the workforce.
Caring responsibilities are not limited to children. An estimated 2.3 million UK workers have given up work at some point as carers for older or disabled loved ones, and 3 million have cut working hours. Mid-career, I took a career break to care full-time for a family member diagnosed with a terminal illness. My workplace was very supportive, enabling me to take extended compassionate leave. That was fine until i had a change of manager- who gave me a deadline date to get back to work full-time irrespective of circumstance.
Latest research from the UK shows that 7 in 10 working carers have felt excluded or isolated in the workplace as a result of their caring responsibilities. Over 4 out of 10 working carers felt that colleagues and managers did not understand the impact of caring and 38% had not felt comfortable talking about their caring responsibilities at work. Half of the UK’s 6.5 million carers juggle work and care with 1 in 9 people in the workforce combining paid work with unpaid care for an older, ill or disabled relative or friend.
This number is set to rise to 9 million by 2037. 37 % of research respondents indicated that consistent manager awareness of caring issues and more flexible/special leave arrangements were the top priority for supporting workers with caring responsibilities.
In Australia, less than 15% of the 11,000 organisations who report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) have a strategy in place for flexible work. Last year, a Regus survey found that 60% of Australians would rule out a job if they couldn’t work flexibly. Australia’s results were comparable with those in the rest of the world. Unless workplaces provide better support for carers, they will continue to see growing numbers of their most experienced staff leaving employment.
Originally published on Mitchell Services blog.