Three-quarters of US employees are balancing caregiving with their careers. If companies could prevent five of them from quitting, they could save $200,000. Joseph Fuller offers a seven-point plan for supporting the sandwich generation and beyond.
In December 2023, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah made headlines with a blunt company-wide email: “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from … There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.”
The missive followed a series of layoffs. Ostensibly, Shah was trying to refocus employees.
New research from Harvard Business School Professor Joseph B. Fuller offers a different take. When workers feel tension between their work and private lives, they’re likely to quit or be less productive.
Fuller’s latest Managing the Future of Work report guides organizations in supporting work-life balance for caregivers. Fuller finds that there are strong incentives to support these employees with benefits; payoffs include lower turnover and less absenteeism.
More here: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-to-support-your-best-employees-who-are-probably-caregivers
