Work-life balance

The stress of caring for elderly relatives is being recognised, but more can be done

In this contribution, we investigate the relationships between paid and unpaid work in the lifeworlds of employed informal carers against the background of the Austrian long-term care regime. We pursue a twofold argument: On the one hand, we emphasize that combining paid and unpaid work currently poses serious difficulties for employed family carers in their everyday lives and impacts their current and future financial and social security.

The term sandwich generation refers to the middle-aged generation who are responsible for caring elderly parents and dependent children. This situation is worse in case of working women who have job obligations along with family responsibilities. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate level of the four-dimensional work-family conflict among working women of the sandwich generation. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 Malaysian working women using self-reported data.

Findings – Details specific policies in areas such as work‐life balance, caring for carers, diversity, employee development, employee health, employees with school‐age children, employee engagement and community involvement. 

In the United Kingdom, informal carers look after relatives or friends who need extra support because of age, physical or learning disability, or illness. The burden of informal care work falls on women, who often care for longer hours and durations than men. This paper considers the impact that caring responsibilities have on women's employment. The research is based on a dedicated questionnaire and in-depth interviews with informal caregivers.