Many top corporations talk about how much they want their employees involved in doing good deeds in their communities. Xerox Corp., based in Stamford, Conn., means it: It has had a social service leave program since 1971, and in the past 34 years, more than 460 leaves for up to one year have been granted–with pay.
To be eligible to apply for volunteer work, you have to have been an employee for at least three years.
Among the eight employees nationwide selected for the 2005 program is Bill Walsh, a senior sales executive at the Schaumburg office of Xerox.
Walsh is now serving as a full-time volunteer with the Humanitarian Service Project in West Chicago, which delivers food and goods to needy families. His job is to sell the agency’s current building, find larger space, work to get local companies to make donations and update the project’s grant-writing process.
And why does the sales executive want to spend this year in this way? “You just want to give back,” he said.
Caring for elders: “Elder caregivers often devote up to 70 hours a week caring for family members and loved ones,” said Susan Heinz, founder of Agate Associates in Mason, Ohio, which specializes in empowering family caregivers. “Therefore, it comes as no surprise that caring can wreak havoc with the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of caregivers.”
And as challenging as it is for at-home caregivers, when you also are trying to hold a job it’s even more stressful.
According to Heinz, a recent study published by Ohio AARP shows that 37 percent of 403 employed caregivers surveyed say their biggest problem is “finding time for themselves.” Also high on the list of serious problems are managing stress and guilt and balancing responsibilities.
And that’s why Agate has introduced a program it calls “Caregivers in the Workplace,” to help employers and employees cope with this situation.
According to Heinz, employers can play a big role in reducing stress for employees with such demanding family responsibilities. She urges business to identify the caregiving issues of their workers, analyze their needs and develop affordable solutions.
The payoff to employers: Employees’ concerns about caregiving, according to the executive, “impacts their employer’s bottom line and can threaten the company’s most valuable resource–its people.”
It trickles down: “How parents work has profound repercussions for families and children.” That’s a conclusion of Shelley Waters Boots, policy research director for the Work and Family program of the New America Foundation in Washington.
Another conclusion: “Americans’ children are paying a heavy price for the ways in which their parents are required to work.”
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Boots bases her analysis on the findings of a recent in-depth study of workplace issues she did for the foundation entitled “The Way We Work: How Children and Their Families Fare in a 21st Century Workplace.”
What affects children most directly are such things as the number of hours their parents work, schedules and the availability of and the stress and demands of a job.
Among the findings: Lack of flexibility in the workplace has been linked to depression among women, which directly and adversely affects children. But 60 percent of employees do not have the option of flexible hours.
Compared with 30 years ago, parents work an additional one month of full-time work–and long hours often produce negative attitudes in the workers and negative behavior in their children. Also, 20 percent of all U.S. employees work evenings and weekends, which might lead to higher rates of divorce and disruption for their children.
“Workplaces and public policy have yet to catch up in giving parents some flexibility when trying to navigate work and family responsibilities,” Boots observed.
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Monday’s and Thursday’s Business sections. Hear her on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays. Watch her “Career Coach” segments on CLTV.