Work
and Caregiving: Cope with Double Demands
Part 2 in a 2-Part Series
by AARP
Balancing work and family
is never easy. Each working caregiver's job is different,
and even within the same company,different managers
may be more or less supportive of you. But there are
effective things to do that can help you better manage
your caregiving and work responsibilities. Consider
the following suggestions, and adapt those that might
work for you:
Learn your company's policy
about caregiving and whether there is an employee assistance
program. If you are uncomfortable talking with your
supervisor, look in the company's personnel manual or
other human resources publications.
Ask your human resources
or personnel department to give you information on the
Family and Medical Leave Act. If appropriate, ask that
a copy be sent to your supervisor.
Take advantage of flextime
policies. Ask for a flexible schedule if a formal policy
is not in
place. Offer to work a less desirable shift to get flextime,
or be willing to make up time
taken for caregiving by working days or shifts when
most people want to be off. This
flexibility on your part shows your employer that you
are committed to the company and to your job.
Consider job sharing
or working part-time if it could work for you.
Whenever possible, avoid
mixing work with
caregiving. If you have to make phone calls or search
the Internet for information related to your parent's
needs, do it on your lunch break.
Manage your time well
at home and at work. Set priorities, and then accomplish
the most important items on your list first. Delegate
responsibilities at work and at home; others can almost
always take some of the burden. Pace yourself, and don't
do so much in one area that you can't be effective in
another.
Get all the support
you can from community resources.
Take care of your own
needs. Pay attention to your health. Eat right, get
enough sleep, and exercise regularly. Try to make time
to enjoy yourself even when your schedule is packed.
Fun is important. Take a break when the pressure gets
too great; even a short walk or hot bath can help relieve
the stress. Talk to someone about your feelings and
needs: an employee assistance counselor, a professional
counselor or a member of the clergy.
Consider talking to your
supervisor or manager at work about your caregiving
issues. It's better for your boss to understand the
reasons you're coming in late or seem preoccupied than
to let him draw his own conclusions. Chances are that
your company will appreciate your honesty and sense
of responsibility toward your family and your job.
Be sure to thank those
at work for the consideration and assistance you receive.
To
help someone else who has heavy family or other responsibilities,
perhaps you could
agree to take on an extra assignment or special project
when you do have time.
Support for employee caregivers
is becoming more widely available from employers and
other community sources. Take advantage of whatever
is available. It's a way to bring balance to a hectic
time of life.
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Piedmont Staffing
Executives
for Hire
by John Rossheim
Monster Senior Contributing Writer
Temporary work -- that's
for those lost souls who scratch out a meager living
with an anonymous series of assignments making copies,
right? Not exactly, says the growing cadre of corporate
cowboys who alternate
between $2,000-a-day interim executive assignments and
multimonth stints on the golf course.
Indeed, for many hotshot
managers, temporary assignments have enabled their ideal
ways of life. Here's the executive summary on limited-time
gigs for highfliers.
Who Wants to Hire
a Temporary Exec?
There are two common situations
in which a company president or board of directors seeks
interim executive help. In the first scenario, "there's
an unexpected opening; for example, the board fires
a CEO," says
David Kinley, a managing director at executive recruiter
Christian & Timbers in Toronto. "Typically,
one of the board members is conned into doing it, but
often they don't want to do it," in which case
the company abbreviates the crisis by doing a relatively
quick search for an interim chief, he explains.
In the second scenario,
"a startup is looking for someone to come in and
help the company strategize," says David Woodall,
CIO of CXO Media, the Framingham, Massachusetts, publisher
of CIO and Darwin.
Companies "can get
the talent when they need it," says Dennis Powers,
a manager director at Executive Interim Management (EIM)
in New York City. "When they don't
need it, they can turn it off."
Recruiting costs are also
much lower. EIM typically charges a $10,000-to-$20,000
up-front fee to identify at least one qualified interim
manager, then a day rate until the project is completed.
By contrast, agencies
that place executives in permanent positions typically
charge six figures.
Why Do Executives
Want to Temp?
Sometimes the key motivation
for executives seeking interim assignments is the boredom
that follows fast on the heels of a meteoric career
and early retirement. Powers says his clients are "typically
45-to-60-year-old
empty nesters with significant operating experience
that can parachute into any culture. They tell us, 'I
don't need the money, but I'm going nuts on the golf
course. What have you got for me?'" Of course,
sometimes top managers take a temporary spot out of
necessity when they're between permanent jobs.
CFO Paul Cattermole likes
the temping life, because it lets him concentrate on
practicing his discipline rather than playing games.
"Since I'm there to accomplish specific goals,
politics is not part of this," says Cattermole,
who's now working for a Massachusetts medical laser
company whose president wants to retire and cash out.
"I'm not trying to befriend the president
so that he gives me a bonus in two years."
On the other hand, if
an executive parachutes into a company, the interpersonal
challenges can be daunting. "You're going to get
some resentment," says Woodall, especially from
up-and-coming managers who seek the job the temp has
filled.
Woodall says that CIOs
who relish interim assignments usually share certain
personal traits. "Some people really love problem
solving, troubleshooting, acting as the knight on a
white horse," he says. "They love to come
into a brand-new or hurting organization and craft a
plan."
What
About the Money?
The cash compensation
is attractive to many executives; EIM, for example,
pays its temp CEOs $1,000 to $2,000 per day for an assignment
that might run six to 18 months. But the upside potential
is limited, because executives for hire typically don't
accumulate the equity that can make gazillionaires of
their permanent counterparts.
So how do you land one
of these sweet gigs? Many aspiring temporary execs work
with a recruiting firm. But that's not the only way,
says Cattermole, who has lent his financial prowess
to 20 or more companies over the last 10 years. "To
make this into a career, you can't rely on other people;
you have to develop a network," he says. If you
keep in touch and visible, "you don't automatically
cruise from one assignment to the next, but your downtime
is minimized." On the flip side, where your golf
game is concerned, regular stretches of unemployment
might not be a bad thing.
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