The bittersweet nature of adult family caregiving on workplace behaviors and attitudes

Abstract

Family caregivers, who are managing the demands of work while simultaneously giving care to an adult family member, are a growing segment of the workforce. The current paper explores the struggle and joys of family caregiving employees, who manage work demands while simultaneously caring for an adult family member. We developed and tested a theoretical model of 311 family caregivers in the U.S. workforce that considered the simultaneous demands (burdens) and resources (gains) paths using the theoretical framework of the work-home resources model (ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012). Further, we consider the role that these play as the family domain spilled over into the work domain and had both behavioral and affective outcomes. We found that family caregiving operated on simultaneous separate paths, confirming the bittersweet nature of the phenomenon. Through a demands path we found caregiving burdens contributed to experiences of family-work conflict and required greater work concessions (job and career) while also reducing job satisfaction. At the same time, through a resources path we found caregiving gains contributed to experiences of family-work enrichment and contributed to satisfaction (job and life) but did not reduce the need for work concessions. As such, considering caregiving burdens and gains simultaneously helps us to understand that, although caregiving results in more work concessions, it also improves employees' overall satisfaction.