Keeping a job while caregiving is difficult, to say the least.
16 billion dollars are lost every year on caregiving by either the caregiver not being available to work or the caregiver is less productive because he or she is worried about their loved one.
Protect Yourself As A Caregiver
Knowing your laws in your state is imperative to be protected during this time of caregiving.
These laws are known as the family medical leave act in every state has them.
We know them in the medical profession as FMLA.
Your human resources Department will tell you who is in charge of the FMLA protocol and what company they use to set up your FMLA.
Companies truly don’t mind if you take FMLA.
They would rather know that you’re going to be out of work and why versus trying to work around your secretive schedule.
It is best to always be transparent with this.
You do not have to go into detail as to what your FMLA is all about.
This is private and personal.
In many states, the employer cannot ask you questions about your FMLA.
Many workers set up their FMLA just in case they could not work due to COVID-19.
Especially workers who are over 65 years old.
These workers worried about not only their loved ones but themselves getting or bringing COVID home.
Federal Law or State Law?
FMLA is a federal law but each state has its own way of describing it. During these times of COVID, it is even more complicated because of the different rules set by every state. For example, if you are over 65 years old, are you allowed to have certain protections since you are at a higher risk of a poor outcome due to COVID? What does that protection look like?
So caregivers may feel at any time that they are in jeopardy of being exposed to COVID, they use their FMLA to protect them from losing their jobs while calling off work.
For this reason, many employers saw the need to help their work environment get all the safety measures in place so no worker would be exposed to COVID or expose others.
It will protect you from losing your job depending on the state you are located in and their laws.
More importantly, it is one less thing for you to worry about.
No one likes to get fired.
Ms. Singleton of the AARP does an excellent job of explaining FMLA and other programs in detail.
You can grab it here at: Keeping Your Job While Caregiving