Taking care of the elderly keeps one on their toes, and it is an overwhelming task in itself. In addition, the pandemic has forced caregiving homes and centers to close doors, leaving many aged people solely in the care of working employees at home.
Now, for people working from home, as if having to manage daily work duties isn’t enough, they’re also standing supportless when it comes to caring for kids and their aged family member(s).
This means, from a productivity point-of-view, workplace distraction is more rampant than ever! So how do you juggle the two equally vital aspects of your life — caring for your loved ones and your job? We answer this question with seven tips.
Seven Tips to Juggle Caregiving and Remote Work
If you’re having trouble finding balance in your new home office, you’re not alone. Our team’s best suggestions, recommendations, and tactics for finding balance in this unpredictable circumstance are listed below:
1. Set Up a Workspace at Home
Setting up an organized workplace at your home will keep you focused. For example, create a mini workspace in the corner of your room or allocate an entire room for it. Make the setup very systematic.
See that the desk is big enough to hold your laptop and other essential requirements for work. Use a comfortable chair for good posture. If there is a video conference involved, make sure the lighting is proper.
Having a dedicated workspace that is aloof from the rest of the home is essential to ensure there’s enough seclusion needed to concentrate and avoid distraction.
2. Use Sticky Notes to Remind for Essentials
Dedicate different colored sticky notes for work and caregiving-related information. Stick the notes on the table you are working on or next to your laptop screen.
These notes can also help you recollect the medicines and vitamins to the elderly as prescribed by their doctors or any other vital to-dos.
3. Compartmentalize
Keep work and caregiving separate. You don’t want to lose concentration and work and annoy your boss and coworkers. But, on the other hand, you also don’t want to ‘presenteeism — physically present but not mind.
You can create a timetable for better time management while working remotely. Sit with your seniors and make a routine. This way, both of you will know what to expect from the day.
Allow time to have meals together. Then, even your elder will know your schedule and not disturb you while attending a meeting or working on a substantial project. Due to weak memory or loss of memory, elders may forget and are dependent on their caregivers. It can also help them remember their activities.
4. Communicate Boundaries of Work
Remote working is a concept that is not well introduced to the unyoung. Let your loved ones know more about your work so that they understand your boundaries. Tell them not to interrupt when you are on an important call or working. Let them know the timings when you are available.
Convey to them how important it is to stay focused and ask them to keep the volume of the television or music system low. Even communicate with your company manager so that the company can help you with the rights of a caregiver.
5. Pre-Work Checklist
Before beginning your work, make sure you have done the things that can bother you while working. Make a checklist, complete them, and then switch to your work mode.
Your checklist can include breakfast (what to have), medicines, bills, etc. Also, make sure that your elderly are comfortable. If the senior lives in another household, call and check on them before work, during breaks, and after work. The checklist will help you remember and stay organized.
6. Ask for Help
Being attentive to the elder while working remotely can be difficult. No matter if you are working on-site or remotely, your job needs immense concentration and hard work.
There can be days when you will need an extra helping hand. Do not hesitate to ask for help from another family member or a friend. Ask for home care assistance when needed.
In the same way, you can also talk to your boss or managers to see if they can help you in some way with your daily duties if need be.
Helping yourself before others is also important as a caregiver. Seek counseling too; it helps to reduce frustration while juggling between work and home.
7. Prioritize Self-Care
Do not get too anxious while trying to fulfill your work responsibilities and providing care to elders or any loved ones.
The American Psychiatric Association Foundation – Center for Workplace Mental Health reveals that anxiety is the most common mental health issue in the United States.
- It affects 18%, i.e. 0.18 of adults and 33% of people at any point in their lifetime.
- A study in 2007 relays that anxiety disorders lead to poor job productivity and short-term and long-term work disability.
- In indirect workplace costs, it results in more than $4.1 billion.
- The workers experience a loss of on average 4.6 workdays per month and 18.1 workdays per 3 months.
Read Anxiety: why they matter and what employers can do, written in 2017, but even in 2020, it can help you to understand anxiety and the measures you can take to get better.
Also, every 20 – 30% of adults suffer from at least one psychiatric disorder. So, it is essential to be in a good place of mind while taking care of others and working. Therefore, make sure you do regular exercises. For example, you may go for a walk or do yoga.
Meditation can also help a lot with mindfulness. Make your health your priority; it will, in turn, aid in balancing work and caregiving.
Energy is consumed while working. Eating healthy can refresh you and keep you active. Make sure you are having the proper nutrition and most importantly, don’t forget to give yourself some credit. You deserve it!
Importance of Employee Engagement
Even when you work remotely, you should maintain your engagement rate.
Dale Carnegie training center has done a study on 1500 employees to determine what drives their engagement and why is it important. The results reveal the following details.
- Engaged workers outperform others by up to 202%.
- More than seventy percent, to be precise 71% of workers are not engaged. In fact, 29% of the workforce is fully engaged, 45% are partially engaged and 26% of them are actively disengaged.
- 80% of disengaged employees are not satisfied with their supervisor or manager.
- 70% of employees who are not confident in senior leadership are also disengaged.
- Within a year 40% of poorly trained employees leave the company.
- In the US alone, employee turnover costs almost $11 billion every year.
Mercer, a global consultant company estimated that employees spend approximately 150 hours annually (i.e. on average 3 hours a week) worrying about money issues.
As per Forbes, the Workplace Research Foundation states that just by increasing the employee engagement investment by 10%, a company can profit by $2400 per employee.
So, make sure to fulfill your work responsibility while taking care of your loved ones.
Conclusion
With HomeJobsHub, you can find jobs that help you work remotely. You can provide customer support from home and earn a living. HomeJobsHub has different work-from-home job categories like virtual phone support, virtual live chat support, virtual email support, and even virtual outbound phone support.
All you have to do is fill out their AI-enabled form with all the required details. Their team will then custom match your skills with the jobs available and help you get work!
