Baby Boomers balancing demands of a full-time job while caring for an injured or ill family member find it a major source of stress that hurts their productivity and their health, says a survey funded by The Hartford.
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and ComPsych Corp. announced the survey’s findings Thursday at the Behavioral Risk in the Workplace Conference organized by the Disability Management Employer Coalition in Minneapolis.
“Our research found a troubling trend of Baby Boomer caregivers being pushed to their limits. They are worried about their ability to manage both their work and home life,” said Barbara Campbell, regional vice president in The Hartford’s Group Benefits Division. “We hope to raise awareness among employers about this risk to their employees’ health and productivity because they play a key role in bringing workers’ lives back into balance.”
A majority of Baby Boomers said they are stressed out about caregiving and, at the same time, are worried about how their caregiving is impacting their job, according to survey of Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who accessed ComPsych’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
The survey also found younger Boomers, ages 45 to 54, are carrying the largest burden of family care responsibilities, with more than half saying they’ve taken time off from work to due to their caregiving responsibilities.
More than 80 percent of Baby Boomers said they feel moderate to high levels of stress related to the care or support they are giving to children, spouses and/or parents.
In addition, nearly half of young Baby Boomers surveyed (46.6 percent) reported feeling worried about how caregiving is impacting their job. It was their No. 1 concern, while older Baby Boomers, who are 55 and older, were most concerned about postponing retirement as a result of their role as caregiver.
Younger Baby Boomers’ worries could be linked to the fact that more than half of this group (68 percent) said they have missed work or left early from work due to their caregiving duties in the last six months. Half of those workers said they missed eight to 16 hours of work in the previous six months.
More than three-quarters of Baby Boomers reported taking up to 16 hours of paid vacation time to care for another person.
Campbell said The Hartford’s analysis of leave data on 91,080 employees at 171 employers that are its customers found that Baby Boomers take more leaves due to their illness than any other age group of workers.
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