Have you ever thought: “I wish I knew how to have a constructive conversation with my manager about how to align my work responsibilities and my caregiving responsibilities.”? Today we’re sharing strategies to help working family caregivers thrive at both work and at home. We’re sharing four tips.

We are Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster. As caregivers for our loved ones with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, we understand how caregivers often feel torn between their professional responsibilities and their responsibilities at home – which they’re constantly juggling – often without the support they need.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, of the estimated 12 million family caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, approximately 7.2 million are working in paid employment outside the home.

Sue was on family caregiving journeys for many years. Her own experiences working full time while also navigating roles of caregiving taught her how challenging this is. She never self-identified at work because the company she worked for was not supportive of this. Sue knows completely what this feels like. If you feel this way too, you’re not alone!

Today we’re sharing four essential tips for working family caregivers.

Tip 1: Self-Identify and Strategically Disclose

It’s important to learn how to explore self-identifying safely, sharing what we’re navigating, and being able to advocate without fear.

This is very important. We can’t get support if the company doesn’t know we need it, and we need to feel safe sharing. — Sue Ryan

The challenge with disclosure:

• According to the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and AARP, fewer than 20% of employees who are also family caregivers actually self-identify in the workplace
• 67% of family caregivers have difficulty balancing their jobs with caregiving duties.
• 27% of working caregivers have shifted from full-time to part-time work or have reduced hours, 16% have turned down a promotion.
• 16% have stopped working entirely for a period of time — and 13% have changed employers — in order to meet caregiving responsibilities.
• Common fears include job security concerns, privacy issues, and potential stigma
• These fears prevent people from getting much-needed support.

Assess your company culture first:

• Learn how the company already addresses temporary seasons in employees’ lives (e.g.: maternity/paternity/parental, bereavement, military, short-term disability)
• Review policies around Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Talk with other employees to see if anyone shares openly about caregiving responsibilities.

Examples of supportive company policies:

• Deloitte: Implemented a family leave program providing up to 16 weeks of fully paid leave for caregiving purposes, including elder care
• Microsoft: Offers family caregiver leave policy providing up to four weeks of paid leave for employees caring for immediate family members with serious health conditions.

Here are several ways to approach strategic disclosure.

Disclose early in the journey:

• By default, caregiving won’t be affecting your job as much yet
• You can start building a collaborative path with your organization and management team
• As caregiving demands increase, you’ll already have established support systems
• This is counter to what many people have historically done (waiting until the diagnosis has advanced to where there is more and more urgent need).

Nancy explains:

Unlike Sue’s experiences, the company I worked for did support family caregiving and I did share my husband’s diagnosis early in our journey. We worked together throughout the advancement of his diagnosis to determine how to best navigate the demands of my caregiving and the demands of my professional responsibilities.

Plan your conversation:

• Think through what the conversation might look like beforehand
• Consider all components before meeting with your direct manager or HR representative
• Practice it with trusted colleagues and family members
• Choose whoever you feel most comfortable with for the initial conversation.

Frame it collaboratively:

• Express your commitment: “I’m navigating this caregiving season. I am fully committed to staying here and continuing to work. Let’s explore together how we do this and how we make it work.”
• Focus on solutions by thinking through potential accommodations beforehand
• Come prepared with ideas from support groups or other caregivers’ experiences to help your leaders with ideas of options to implement.

Document everything:

• Record conversations, boundaries, accommodations, and agreements
• This isn’t to protect yourself — it’s so everyone can be on the same page
• Write down what was discussed and send it back to whoever you had the conversation with
• Frame it as transparency: “I’m making sure I correctly understand what we agreed to, so it’s easiest for us to support each other.”.

Tip 2: Build Flexibility

Dementia caregiving has no consistent pattern — it’s consistently inconsistent. Unfortunately, your loved one is not going to follow your schedule the way you would like them to, because dementia is on its own timeframe and its own path.

The reality of working while caregiving:

• According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 57% of dementia family caregivers report having to go into work late, leave work early, take time off, or reduce their hours
• The more flexibility you and your professional colleagues can build in, the better off you’ll be.

Explore flexibility options in your organization:

• Remote working: Can you work from home some or all days?
• Flex hours: Can you adjust your start and end times?
• Shortened work weeks: Can you compress your schedule into four days instead of five?
• Job sharing: Can you split responsibilities with another employee/other employees?

Propose pilot arrangements:

• Present flexibility options as pilot solutions to try before making permanent changes
• Give arrangements a trial period to see how they work
• Observe and adjust as you go through the process
• When everyone’s bought into it being a pilot, everyone can be part of the solution.

Consider team involvement:

• Discuss with your manager about talking to your team about your arrangement
• Help team members create better solutions through offering job-sharing and schedule flexibility
• Some colleagues may have been wanting to make changes and this creates an opportunity
• Set expectations with team members about how you’ll be working in the near future and collaborate together on schedules.

Create backup plans:

• Emergencies are the nature of dementia family caregiving
• Having your situation out in the open helps create better backup plans
• Plan with your manager and team members for what happens when something goes wrong.

Leverage technology:

• Collaboration tools: Use existing remote working tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Slack, etc.
• Telehealth appointments: Not every doctor appointment requires in-person visits — use video calls when possible
• Care plan technology: Use apps to update family members about care changes instead of making individual calls. Several of these include ElePlan, Lotsa Helping Hands, and AARP Care Connect.

Consider career flexibility:

• Caregiving isn’t a permanent situation — consider temporary role changes. For example: An outside salesperson who travels might temporarily become an inside salesperson
• Consider what roles within your company might accommodate your current needs
• Plan ahead: Talk with management — for example — “I’m not sure when my caregiving responsibilities are going to change. Let’s talk now about what this could look like and how we can be ready.”.

Tip 3: Leverage Your Resources

We strongly encourage you not to manage dementia care alone. Include others on this journey and find support both in your community and at work.

Connect with colleagues who are also caregivers:

• Fellow caregivers can provide practical advice and emotional support
• Caregivers often help each other and can swap assistance when one has more time
• Building these relationships creates mutual support systems.

Explore Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs):

• Almost every business has EAPs, but many employees don’t know about them
• HR leaders report that fewer than 10% of employees know what their EAPs offer
• EAPs typically provide counseling and various support services
• These are resources you’re already paying for through your benefits.

Look for community resources:

• Local respite programs: Provide temporary relief from caregiving responsibilities
• Support groups: Connect with others facing similar challenges
• Community organizations: Many offer caregiver-specific services.

Take things off your plate:

You don’t have to do everything yourself. Evaluate what is most important for you to do and what things someone else can do.

• Hire paid caregivers: Even earlier in the journey to handle some responsibilities and give you more capacity
• Professional care management: Individual care managers or companies that help with appointments, insurance navigation, and other time-consuming tasks
• Corporate partnerships: Companies like Best Buy, Hilton, and Salesforce have incorporated technology enabled care services to help employees with care management.

Examples of what you can delegate:

• Making doctor appointments
• Navigating insurance issues
• Coordinating care between multiple providers
• Managing medications
• Communications with team members
• Transportation to appointments.

Tip 4: Plan for the Unplanned

We know planning for unpredictability is required when it comes to dementia. This tip focuses on protecting your finances because caring for someone living with dementia is expensive and unpredictable.

Understand your benefits and protections:

• Know what your benefits package covers
• Understand what insurance will pay for
• Know what kind of paid leave you can take
• Research what accommodations your company legally must provide.

Create a caregiving budget:

Understand what you expect to spend money on. Look at your salary and where financial pressures may come from in the future.

• Identify where that income will come from — it doesn’t always have to be you
• Consider other family members who might pitch in financially
• Look into your loved one’s resources like long-term care insurance, Social Security, disability benefits.

Explore financial resources:

• Employer offered savings plans: There are a variety of options based on the size and type of company you work for including Defined Contribution Plans and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Social Security disability: Apply if your loved one isn’t taking it yet
• Tax deductions: Paying caregivers counts as medical expenses — consult your tax advisor
• Financial advisors specializing in elder care: They can help you understand options and plan appropriately.

Build an emergency fund:

• Start early in the journey when costs aren’t as high yet
• Plan for potential income disruption (reduced hours, different role, leaving workforce)
• Consider making finances more conservative if needed
• Save specifically to help with future caregiving costs.

Prepare for career transitions:

• You may need to go part-time at some point
• You might need to take a different role that pays less
• You may need to leave the workforce to become a full-time caregiver
• The more you can plan ahead financially, the more options you’ll have.

Real-world examples:

• Nancy went from full-time in an office to working from home when her husband couldn’t be alone, then to part-time, and eventually retired.
• Sue planned ahead financially and shifted to more conservative investments, which allowed her to temporarily step away from her professional career when that became the wisest choice.

Making It Work Long-Term

The key to successfully balancing work and caregiving is recognizing this is a journey with changing needs. What works in early-stage caregiving may not work later, and that’s okay. The important thing is to:

• Start conversations early before you’re in crisis mode
• Build collaborative relationships with your employer and colleagues
• Create flexible arrangements that can evolve as needs change
• Use all available resources rather than trying to do everything alone
• Plan financially for an unpredictable but expensive journey.

Being a working caregiver doesn’t make you less committed to either role — it makes you someone managing an incredibly challenging situation that deserves support and understanding.

Let’s summarize. We’ve shared strategies to help you thrive at both work and at home through four tips:

1 . Self-identify and have a strategic plan for disclosure.

2. Build in flexibility — don’t be caught up in the way things are, but think about all the different options you could possibly have.

3. Leverage your resources and understand what’s all around you that you can take advantage of. Don’t feel like you have to do it all yourself.

4. Plan for the unplanned and protect your finances.

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We’re all on this journey together.