Jayne: Hello, Heather.
Heather: Hi Jayne.
Jayne: Hello friends, and welcome to People in The Squeeze.
 Heather, new day.
Heather: New day. 
Beautiful day.
Jayne: It is a beautiful day and thank goodness, warmer temps. Very happy with this new progression. Comes every year and every year. I'm grateful. Anything new today?
Heather: Oh my goodness. What is new? You know, I continue to be amazed by the stories that people are sharing with us. One listening to the podcast and things that are resonating with them. Stories of connection, of finding the language and being able to feel affirmed and empowered. And so it, it's been really powerful.
Jayne: I get so energized even though they're hard stories to hear. They're important stories. 
Heather: Well, and the other part is, is the learning, [00:01:00] right? With every story, we are learning more. And through the sharing and through the insights and that generative conversation. There's the connection. We're sneaking a couple veggies around what we have learned and what we are learning, and then they share back, and then we get to share here on our podcast.
And that's what's so beautiful about these conversations as well.
Jayne: Well, today on the podcast I got something a little bit fun for us. We've played these trivia games before and I thought we'd given another go today. Heather, are you game for a little game?
Heather: I am game for game. Let's go
Jayne: Let's go game on. That's awesome. Well, today we're gonna play a game of true or false.
And today's topic is going to be about caregiving and our career. So a lot of these true false questions are gonna help us lay the groundwork for what that looks like for people living in the [00:02:00] squeeze.
All right, so this might be a softball. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna put it that this might be an easy start. Nearly half adults in their forties and fifties are currently in the sandwich generation.
True or false?
Heather: 40 and 50, right? Is that what you said? Between 40 and 50 years old?
Jayne: Nearly half of adults that are in their forties and fifties are currently in the sandwich generation.
Heather: Oh my gosh, Jayne, I should know this, but I'm thinking it's false. Is it true?
Jayne: It is true.
Heather: It's true. Wow. I didn't know it went down to forties. Okay. Wow. Okay.
Jayne: About 47% of adults age 40 to 59 are simultaneously supporting children and aging parents. 
Heather: Yeah. I think it's the 40 to 45 part of that that I'm surprised by. I guess in my mind I was always thinking like 45 to 65, so that's [00:03:00] fascinating. It's younger than I thought.
Jayne: So did you expect that number to be higher?
Heather: No, no, I expected that number to be lower for the 40 to 45. That younger demographic. That really, I mean, and it again gives language to what we're experiencing. And I mean, me, in my forties, it was like a hurricane. There was just no stopping. 'cause you're so, I was so busy with career, so busy with kids and I'm trying to think back and I mean, that's probably right.
Wow. That, that's it's surprising to me. Mm-hmm.
Jayne: Yeah. It's stunning.
Heather: It is. It is. Yeah. Right, right. 'cause we've got a lot in your forties. You've got so much going on. And then to have this on top of it. Oh, okay.
Jayne: All right, well, so much for a softball. Let's, all right, question number two. The adult child who is caring for an aging parent spends about $1,000 annually on [00:04:00] caregiving expenses. True or false?
Heather: False. I think it's more than that.
Jayne: It is absolutely. It is, it is more than that. The AARP reports that the average family caregiver spends about $7,200 per year out of pocket 
Heather: yes. 
Jayne: expenses. 
Heather: I wonder if that includes lost wages, like the time that you have to step away.
Hmm.
Jayne: is not, that's just out of pocket. That is not productivity, that's not lost wages, that is just out of pocket cost. So yeah, including travel, you know, I. I, I think all the, all the flights we had back and forth to Michigan, absolutely all travel out of pocket.
Heather: Okay. 
Yeah. 
Jayne: Whew, here we go. Quite the dire picture we're painting here.
So this is true or false, right? Do people who are caring for their aging parents, most of them say they feel adequately prepared when they begin the caregiving process.
Heather: So the answer is, [00:05:00] do most people feel prepared? And the answer is false. People do not feel prepared.
Jayne: Ding, ding, ding. You are right!
Heather: I had to it out loud. 
Jayne: I'm yes. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, about 80% of adult children who are caring for aging parents felt completely unprepared for the responsibilities involved when they first started caregiving.
Heather: Eight in 10. Eight in 10.
Jayne: Shocking, isn't it? Stunning. Another stunning fact. Part of why we're here is to start these conversations early and to encourage people to think about this as a life stage. And remember that as part of your human development, we are going to enter into the adolescence of aging and we should understand and, and know what it is when it happens and be prepared for it.
Heather: Have a plan. 
Jayne: Have a plan.
Heather: Even a forecast, to know that it's on the horizon.
Jayne: [00:06:00] And, and knowing what's happening. How many conversations do we had where people are like, I don't know where to start, so you know, and here we are. All right, next question. The sandwich generation caregivers, all right, so those are people who are caring for their kids and caring for their aging parents typically spend more than 20 hours per week caring for their parents, just caring for their parents. 
The sandwich generation caregivers typically spend more than 20 hours per week caring for their parents. Is that true or false?
Heather: Gosh. That's, you know, for me that was true in my experience, but I don't know what the average is.
Jayne: So true or false?
Heather: I would say that's true.
Jayne: It is true. 
Heather: Oh, it is true. Wow.
Jayne: So yes. Many of the adult caregivers are averaging around 20 to [00:07:00] 24 hours per week providing direct care an aging parents. So when we talk about the squeeze and we talk about doing, being able to do really only three things well at any one time, right?
You think, okay, well you're in the sandwich generation, so we've got the kids, and then we've got the parents, and then we probably have a. A job maybe, and if 
Heather: passion project. Yeah. 
Jayne: Or something. 
Heather: Mm-hmm. 
Jayne: squeeze, there's something I'll think of then. All the things that fall off. Anything that
Heather: right. Like, self care, right. Mental health. 
Yeah. All those things. Right, right. Physical care. Yeah. Okay.
Jayne: all the things. No, but it's true. Your household, you know, just. All of it. That's the stress of it. So, and this is where we land in what we call cognitive clutter, responsibility overload, task burden, all that language we've used to describe the squeeze.
All of those things.
Heather: Well, and, and [00:08:00] then guilt. Right? Guilt comes into play. Yeah. Guilt and shame, because you cannot do it all. You are making choices. You have to make choices. Yeah.
Jayne: Yeah. So frustrating. 
All right. Whew. Boy,
Heather: We're getting fired up!
Jayne: Are we having fun today? All right, so let us talk about the next question. True or false caregiving duties rarely affect a caregiver's employment.
Heather: Caregiving duties rarely impact your employment. That's, that's false. They always, it, in my experience, greatly impact.
Jayne: Well, that is correct,
Heather: Pause for a second. I was like, oh my gosh, no. Yes.
Jayne: That is correct. The National Alliance for Caregiving Reports that 70% of caregivers report work related. [00:09:00] Work related difficulties including taking leave, reducing hours, or having to leave their job entirely.
Heather: 70%. Jayne, terrible.
Jayne: I keep, it's just stunning. 70% . Yeah. So think about that holistically, you have an individual who is, you know, satisfied or not satisfied with the job.
Doesn't matter, but they're, they, they have a career or a 
Heather: it's their job. It's the way they earn income.
Jayne: It's the way they support their household and they are doing something that they, they wanna be able to take care of their aging parent, but they're having to take a leave, reduce their hours, or leave the job entirely and having to make that choice.
It's it's intense.
Heather: Mm-hmm.
Jayne: Alright, well two more questions. Do we think we 
Heather: Oh my goodness. You bet. Let's
Jayne: All right. So true or false, employers typically offer extensive support. [00:10:00] To the sandwich generation caregivers.
Heather: I am gonna say false. We've talked about outliers. Some incredible organizations that are outliers that do, but I'm gonna say most do not.
Jayne: You are correct.
Heather: Oh, yay.
Jayne: I know. Never has a correct answer felt so icky. All right, so it's. You're, you're right. It is false. This is according to the SHRM survey, only about 25% of workplaces offer specific programs or supports for caregiving employees.
Heather: Oh my gosh. I, I don't people do it, Jayne. I mean, I just, it's stressful enough to, in our world today to be earning an income and caring for your family and then add on the dynamics of the aging parent and then to have to be in this place of, do I continue, can I, can, can I [00:11:00] continue to work like that?
Is really, really stressful. Really stressful, really hard.
Jayne: And it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't have to be a choice, but here we are. It's a choice. Alright. 
Heather: Here we are.
Jayne: Last question. 
You're gonna love this one. This is a, this is, this is a good one for, this is a, this is a, this is a like, oh, Heather's gonna love this one.
True or false? Most adult children caring for their aging parents accurately estimate how long they'll provide care for their parents.
Heather: I would say that that's false. They do not accurately predict how long it's going to be.
Jayne: That is correct.
It is. You are right. But once again, 
they 
Heather: in a terrible way.
Jayne: in a terrible way. Yes. Caregiving often lasts much longer than anticipated and most adult children's initially expect short-term [00:12:00] care, but then end up providing care for several years.
Heather: Yeah. Well, you know what's so interesting about that is when things got gnarly my husband said, you should just track. So I started to track on my calendar I have a color coded process. 'cause I have four kids, six humans that I'm tracking and, and work in clients. And it was just by the color. Of the week hours and I was like, it, it brought again, I was able to see it and so that's when I started to set a timer and said, okay, today I'm only gonna give 90 minutes or three hours or whatever it was.
And that's when I was here, let alone, you know, when you are traveling it, it's all in, you're a hundred percent all in, but wow. Oh, Jayne. Those, those answers are just, they make me sad that, that, that brings a, a heaviness and, and, you know, we were kind of going around like, what should our [00:13:00] topic be? And I just thought about you know, I do consulting and I have this gift to be able to be more flexible.
There's, there's financial impacts, right? If I don't have a full caseload, I'm not earning as much for my family. But I do have that flexibility. But I think of people that don't have that and that intersection. That pressure that they must feel under. I, I'm, I'm glad we're doing this today. Good topic.
Jayne: Well, and we will explore that further, but I think we need to first take a moment.
Heather: Yes.
Jayne: Decompress and bring bring it down a notch 
Heather: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 
Jayne: Today we're gonna do a very quick meditation by simply revisiting an old favorite 
Heather: Old favorite
Mm-hmm. 
Jayne: Box breathing. And this is, if you're not familiar with box breathing, it really is just a very quick and subtle way for you to take a moment for yourself to pause. Settle your body while you're maybe feeling stress or [00:14:00] feeling like you're in a difficult situation.
Box breathing requires you simply to know how to breathe in and out and count to four and you imagine a box in your mind and creating a box with your four movements. We inhale for four. We hold for four, we exhale for four. We hold for four. And when we do that a couple times in a row, it really allows us to calm the buzz in our body, take our temperature, and bring that anxiety and tension and stress and whatever we're carrying down.
Let's take a count of four and breathe in.
We're gonna hold for four.
We're gonna exhale for four. We're gonna hold for four. We're gonna do it again. Inhale for [00:15:00] four, hold for four.
Exhale for four. Hold for four. All right. It's so lovely.
Heather: It is, you know, I'm, I use that box breathing a lot and sometimes it's also so good for grounding and if I'm in a situation where I'm, as you're talking about spiraling, not even feeling like I'm on the ground, I will tap my feet and there's such power of tapping your feet or even like tapping your hands on your lap with box breathing for me again, 'cause I move fast to be able to say be here, be, be in this place. And so I, I love box breathing. So powerful. Great tool. Thanks Jayne.
Jayne: Well today, as you may have guessed friends, we are gonna have a candid [00:16:00] conversation about caring for our aging parents and our careers. This really the inspiration for this conversation. If it wasn't clear in our true and false quiz was more personal than that as we've gone out to become more public in the world with people in the squeeze and continue to have conversations, we are getting a whole variety of stories coming back to us.
And one of them was really stunning for me personally because it was somebody that I had worked with. He shared that he had two 90-year-old parents still in their house and he also had in-laws that were also in their own homes and they could feel this pressure cooker of overcommitment.
His wife has a career, he is as well. So the two of them, both big jobs, right? And all big jobs, and also aging parents. The pressure became so intense that he stepped out [00:17:00] of his career to dedicate his time to their needs. To be able to fully be present and available to them to help support them as their age.
And he noted that the decision was coming with a great deal of angst. I can only imagine, how do you make this choice? And then in the back of your mind you're like, well, what, what is my narrative? How am I going to be judged for making this choice? I struggle to think that there is anybody out in the world of our careers who, like an HR or hiring manager, who would say like, "Ugh, you stepped outta your career to care for your aging parents. I don't know. I don't know about that." I'm thinking that he's gonna be okay because the narrative comes from such a sincere and thoughtful place. But again, the angst, the fear, the worry, the stress, and the fact that he just simply had to make that choice.
Heather: And Jayne, so many people don't [00:18:00] think they know what this is gonna look like. We hear time and time again. I had no idea. I had no idea. So even going into it, you know, what he thought it would look like, and then being in it like incredibly hard. And so for him to be able to communicate with peers or colleagues, it's hard to translate unless you have seen it. And I think that's what we're beginning to see is people are having these experiences and going back into the workforce and beginning to influence change in those organizations. You know, like pebbles and ponds. But it is really hard. 'cause again, we don't, we don't talk about this.
It's not like we're sitting around the lunchroom table at the workplace saying, oh my gosh, this weekend was so hard. I was caring for my aging parent. Like, we don't talk about it. 
Jayne: And we don't talk about it in the same way we talk about other life stages or other life changes. You know, there is all sorts of grace [00:19:00] given when you have a child, right? And, but, but even that we know is recent. We still have some stigma around that, but at least now there's grace. There are infrastructure built in for that moment where people are expecting. Employers plan for it. They recognize that people have families and that we need to give them time and we need to give them what they need to be able to introduce this new human being into their worlds.
But hey friends, your parents are aging. Geez, that's a bummer.
Heather: Well, it's kind of, it's kind of like a train. You get on this train of life and there's different stops. Oh, it's the young, young family. Stop. Ooh, it's the adolescent child. Stop. Oh, kid's going to college. Stop. And, and then it's like there's no stop until we've added the menopause stop. That's new. Like the new menopause stop.
There's no stop for the aging. Right. This huge umbrella term that we talk about, there's [00:20:00] a stop for when your parents are passing away. But there's no stop in, in between. And so folks, there's a stop. There's several stops that we are not talking about that are on your train.
Jayne: Well, a hundred percent. And people go into caring for their aging parent entirely unprepared.
Heather: Right.
Jayne: So they're feeling wholly unprepared at a young age to care for aging parents. And, only 25% of them feasibly have an employer that supports this effort. Okay, so we're going through the facts here. And that 70% of them.
Heather: Ugh.
Jayne: Are reporting that they need to take a leave or they end up reducing hours and whether they reduce hours on the DL
Heather: Right.
Jayne: Or, or they're upfront about it or they even have to take a leave.
This was a real thing that played out in our family when my in-laws got sick, you know, and we are on the tail end of a two year saga where [00:21:00] both of my in-laws got ill and we went straight into crisis. 
really. 
Heather: Yes, you did. You did.
Jayne: We went, we went straight into crisis.
I like you had a bit more flexibility in my schedule because I carry a client load. My husband did not, and these are his parents. We ended up troubleshooting it.
Heather: Yep.
Jayne: We ended up toggling tasks.
We ended up sharing the task burden not because he's not capable, he did not have time, and he had demands and he had no flexibility in his employment at all.
Heather: Jayne, we were in the same spot when my father-in-law passed away. And it's so hard when you get to that crisis stage things begin to then shift.
But that angst that, " oh, how are we going to do this?" And to have the gift of having some flexibility that some of my work can be done at 10 o'clock at night or on the weekends. To be able to say, I can do this, you can do this.
You look at what has to happen and what are the pieces that [00:22:00] I can help support. Yeah. 
Jayne: Here's the crux. There's the drag on the economy. Reduced productivity, missed hours people absenteeism, people leaving the workforce. There is drag on the employer because they have an employee who they've hired, who they consider qualified, who they want to do well in their job suddenly being absent, not maybe showing up in the same way that they have in the past. Having to use all their personal time for caregiving instead of being able to take that time to rest and relax and show up back at your job rejuvenated, they're having to use all their vacation time and their personal leave time to do the caregiving. 
Heather: To work their second job. Yeah, 
Jayne: And also that second shift on a daily basis.
Heather: Totally. Totally.
Jayne: And then you have family, right? And now you have the tension between what that person has been able to contribute to the family, either [00:23:00] financially or in terms of time and their children, and the caregiving of children and those responsibilities.
Heather: Just the Uber responsibilities.
Just the driving. Whose going to drive the children? Yes. 
Jayne: It feels wholly unrealistic for one person to take on these responsibilities. And if it isn't spread through to other children like the siblings.
Heather: Right.
Jayne: It's your spouse or your partner, or whomever and some people don't even have that like they're just simply on their own. So the, the balancing act is remarkable, but it's systematic.
It is systematic. 
Heather: I wanna go back 'cause there's such a focus on performance and retention in the workplace and your performance has to be impacted. I mean, it just has to be impacted. Retention is absolutely impacted and those are top priorities for [00:24:00] organizations.
 When someone is pulled away, so distracted so exhausted by caring for aging parents, performance goes down. How does that impact their future career? And, and maybe it's not safe to say what's going on in the home, and that's heartbreaking because you have a person who is really trying to perform at work, trying to perform in their second or third shift job of caring for aging parent and how it impacts their career long term, their journey. That's sad.
Jayne: That's exactly the point that started this whole conversation. That uncertainty of knowing how these decisions and these priorities will impact the long-term potential and trajectory of someone's career. The narrative of how do you tell that story if you are standing in front of somebody who really doesn't have a true understanding of what that experience [00:25:00] is.
If you have not been in a position of having to care for an aging parent, you really may not have, you have an appreciation, right? You understand that it's hard, but I feel like there is a sliding door moment like that you can't unsee it kind of thing, where once you have lived it, you don't even need to say anything to anybody, they're like, "oh, yes, I understand." And that gap and the uncertainty of that gap of who will understand and why it is so important that we do have these conversations. 
You know, remember there was a time as a woman, again, not so long ago, you did not talk about being pregnant.
Heather: Totally. Yep.
Jayne: You didn't even reference it. You didn't mention it to a future employer.
Heather: Or coworkers. 
Jayne: You didn't talk about it because it immediately seemed, you worried about the lame duck status and you, you immediately were like, I'm going to be [00:26:00] judged as not being able to be able to contribute fully. I feel like the same thing is true here when people don't feel like they can be vulnerable and truthful with their employers about what's happening, we miss an opportunity to really set people up for success. We miss an opportunity to give people grace. We miss an opportunity to allow them to be able to do the right thing and prioritize their family.
Heather: And, their health.
Jayne: And their health and themselves, yes, themselves. And at the very least, employers and companies should have an open door policy for these conversations. It should be something that HR and team leaders and managers and executives should be talking about with their employees and giving them permission to talk about it. Honestly, I don't feel like [00:27:00] that costs anything, somebody can tell me otherwise, i'm not an HR expert. I'm not running a p and l at that level, but, but I feel like the cost of not having that kind of open door policy for these sorts of conversations is much higher and catastrophic.
You lose an employee, the cost of losing an employee is so incredible because of that institutional knowledge and the training and the ability for them to perform. Hiring an employee is expensive. Hiring somebody to replace on training, both in time and money, you know, it just feels like the cost of not having these conversations is so much greater than just simply having the culture, if not a policy that invites them. 
Heather: Well, and imagine what that would do for retention on a positive side. Like if you're in an organization where it's safe to be more transparent [00:28:00] about what's happening when you bring your whole self to work, how beneficial that would be to performance.
Jayne: And satisfaction with your job, right. 
Heather: Let's drive up that NPS score. Let's go. 
Jayne: Let's be real. That's an important factor, right? Like people want to be known as a place where employees want to work because it helps 'em attract talent, retain talent .
Heather: Well, and and I, when I do trainings with teams and with leaders, I say we want an organization where the person can bring their whole self into work, not leave their best self in the parking lot with the window rolled down because it's not safe for the whole person to come in. When they can bring that whole person into work what a game changer that is not only for their performance, but for their team and for their organization, for those that they serve.
Jayne: If you ask people to sever themselves from their work selves, [00:29:00] you create a very different kind of space for those people. You're right, they're not allowed to be them full self. What can we do about it?
 A couple ideas. First one, know what your rights are,
Heather: That's good. 
Jayne: Thoroughly understand what your FMLA rights are. It is 12 weeks of paid leave that allows you to step out and take care of yourself and a loved one. So yes, know your rights and, and your eligibility requirements and then document those responsibilities and discuss them. 
Heather: Another piece of knowledge is power is to look at other organizations, and I wanna give a call out you shared in an earlier podcast the amazing things that Best Buy, a company here in the Twin Cities, was doing. And so being able to share what other leaders are, are doing might also be helpful.
Jayne: We talked about communication. Initiating these honest conversations. It's really beholden of an employer, of a company to create the [00:30:00] culture that allows for that because people don't feel comfortable doing that. It invites conversation about, well, am I a lame duck? Am I gonna miss that big project? Am I gonna miss a promotion? Am I gonna miss this because they're gonna feel like I'm distracted. And so initiating that conversation has to also come with an employer and a company that has a culture of saying, listen, life happens. This isn't a check mark against you.
Heather: When I coach people in transitions in corporate spaces, I wanna make sure that it's a safe conversation. So this may or may not be with your supervisor to start, but make sure that there's safety in that conversation that they might be able to help coach you how you have that conversation with your supervisor or with your manager.
It may be your supervisor, it may be someone else. And just giving people permission to trust your gut of who you can be having those initial conversations with and, and asking [00:31:00] for their support and how you move forward.
Jayne: I tell my teams, come to me with solutions. If you have ideas about what boundaries you need and where you need help and how they can help you. That's also a great place to start and saying, "I am dealing with this now and I need flexibility in these spaces."
Or, "this would be helpful if." You set yourself up to be part of the solution and have more control of the over the outcome. Again, not saying that this is how it works and that you maybe even feel comfortable in this. These are just ideas.
 One of the things that we often say to people right away when they tell us, "I don't know where to start", is build your team.
Heather: Yes, Jayne
Jayne: And this might be another place where you have an opportunity to start thinking about, okay, if I don't have flexibility in my workplace, what are my systems around me that I can build? Where are my team? Where are my advocates? Where are the people [00:32:00] that either inside my organization or even outside that can help me flexibility.
Heather: You bring a really good point because we need to be really careful not to be judging others because some people do have the ability to power up on the home front and to continue in the career. And other people power up on the career front so that they can be more in the home. And so being aware that people are building teams and it will look different just because each situation is so unique. We need to hold on that judgment 'cause that's, I've also seen that in, in places that we e each of us are really just doing the best that we can, given the circumstances and the resources that we have and it looks so different for each family.
Jayne: You can also be an advocate for others. If you are seeing others in situations that you recognize or you're starting to see [00:33:00] shifts that might be related to the demands that come with caring for an aging parent, you now have an opportunity to show that compassion and empathy and reach out and be like, " Is everything okay?" "Is there anything you wanna talk about?" Be that soft landing for somebody who might be in that situation. 
Heather: I love that.
Yeah. 
I love that. Mm-hmm.
Jayne: You may not be in the squeeze anymore.
'Cause that happens too. When we talk with people a lot of time it's a rear view mirror conversation. They've processed it. They've digested. And they've healed from it.
But they have an intuitive empathy for it, and they recognize it. So we all have an opportunity to be an advocate for somebody else.
Heather: And we keep hearing how powerful it is just to be connecting, just to, I mean, literally checking in, sending a text, sending a card. How are you doing? How can I support you? The power of [00:34:00] that connection really, really important. And all of us, all of us can, can do that.
Jayne: There are millions of professionals who are juggling this caregiving task, who are caring for their aging parents and also balancing their career, and they're doing the best they can, and they're doing it with varying degrees of success.
Heather: Right.
Jayne: You are, you know, we are, you are not alone. It doesn't take very far for you to find somebody who can connect and relate with you. And if you're on the other side of it and see this in a friend or a colleague or you know, even somebody who you maybe don't work directly with, even just a quick, "Hey, I know you're going through a hard time", can mean a lot.
Heather: You know, Jayne, I'm having a connection here because it is in the professional space. It's also in the nonprofit space, or it can also be the school board, it can be the basketball board, it can be the community association, it can be [00:35:00] the choir group. When I knew things were getting rough I had to step back. I know we're focused on careers, but I wanna make sure that we have the lens to extend grace and understanding and support for people that we might be working with and not getting paid. Because it's happening in all of these spaces.
So I just wanna make that connection 'cause we're, we're seeing it, whether we're in the workspace or just in a community life, that people need to step back and it, and it's not forever, but it's for now. Yeah, I need to step back for now. And that that can also bring angst. 'cause you know how passionate we are about the places that we're plugged into, and so being able to extend that grace in those spaces as well.
Jayne: Well, this has been quite the conversation. We would love to hear from others. How have you managed and balanced your career? What tips can you offer that might be helpful to others? How have you found the experience of providing [00:36:00] care for your aging parents in the workplace?
We have just shared what we know, what we have seen in the workplace, what we have heard and seen through others but we want to hear from others as well. And if you have something to share, please do that. We are at people in the squeeze.com. You can find us there. You can also drop into our dms at people in the squeeze on Instagram or TikTok.
Our first book, Thriving in Chaos,Navigating the Challenges of Aging Parents, is available now on Amazon. You can also ask for it in your favorite bookstores. It's a great book if I do say so myself, but it is, it is a great book, and this is why the feedback that we get from it is that people, there is a shared understanding because we lay the foundation for this life stage, the adolescence of aging where people are transitioning. We are helping our parents. Our parents are going through this life stage of independent through [00:37:00] to needing more support and that's usually when these tensions start to arise. You can recognize when it's happening and start to set yourself up, but then there's also the language for the struggle and knowing how to really talk about what's happening in this experience certainly might be something that'll help you in conversations you have with others.
So, Heather, until we meet again, we want everyone to know that these days are really big and they're really hard, but we see you and you are not alone. You are doing the impossible and it is going to be okay.
Heather: It is going to be okay. Thanks, Jayne!.
Jayne: Oh, Heather, another great conversation. We'll see you next time.