I can only speak for myself but I missed far less work time when my children were small than I do now caring for an elderly parent... I have to laugh when managers still get concerned if a prospective employee has small children. I want to yell " who cares about that??? how old are their parents & how is their health???" I'm still 10 years from retirement so thats not an option. I have 3 weeks vacation & 5 sick days. I did use 11 vacation days personally this year but the remainder of my "paid time off" has been used on my 87 year old mother's doctor's appts; hospital stays etc. There are services that can drive her to/from but she needs someone with her who can go in to the exam room with her to take notes, ask questions etc. as she doesn't remember what the dr says . She actually had 7 different drs appts in the past 2 months! . My brother & I try and split them but she's not comfortable w/ him in the room if she has to undress or lower her gown etc. plus he has the same issues missing work as I do. I really hope someone starts to raise this issue on a national level as I know I can't be alone. Wondering what others thoughts on this are...
i had a little skirmish with the law 3 yrs ago . a lot of angst , vandalized a butthole customers property when i left the job . obviously not the proper way to deal with the problem . of course i got thrown in the slam but interestingly enough the court appointed attorney and both judges involved , completely behind my back and over my head , took into consideration that i was stressed to the gills from dementia caregiving . to me this indicates that govts are beginning to take notice of caregiver burden ..
I also had to into the exam room with either Mom or Dad, or both... otherwise afterwards I would hear them talking in the backseat of the car and I was thinking we were in the same exam room??? Mom has very poor hearing now so she doesn't pick up everything the doctor says, and Dad is too busy thinking about what needs fixing at home to listen to the doctor. Usually the conversations are between the doctor and myself :P
At least my current boss is very understanding as his wife had Alzheimer's, and there were days when he couldn't come to the office, thus I understood what he's going through.
I stopped all of them. She has a primary who comes to the house. I have faith in him; so does mom.
Gotsta' do what one's gotsta' do.