caring_workAs a member of the Sandwich Generation, I’m all too familiar with the dilemma of having to take care of an aging or ill parent while caring for your own family as well as maintaining a job. When my mother was ill, I missed a great deal of work. While I was fortunate enough to be able to work it out with my employer, many workers aren’t as lucky as I was, and are penalized for work time lost.

A unique program at the Fred Weber Construction Company in Maryland Heights, MO, called Caring Workplace, allows employees to continue working while caring for an elderly relative.

The employer pays $2 a month to the program for each enrolled worker and the benefits are many:

When employees enroll in the program, they get unlimited free counseling — face-to-face, phone or e-mail — and referral services from an elder care specialist. The program also entitles an employee to a 10 percent discount for an in-home assessment and home health care services given to the relative.

While there is no way around senior care being expensive, sometimes part of the battle is knowing where to start and how to obtain services. The search for care and services can further take away from work productivity when you have to do the legwork yourself. The free counseling can be invaluable as the elder care process can really take a lot out of a caregiver. To have that support in the workplace is a very rare gift.

Does your employer offer a caregiver-friendly program? Tell us about it, or share your thoughts for what you’d like to see.