The Book
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The Cost of
Not Caring
Working while caring in the era of longevity
Written for CEOs, directors, managers, employees and government, it makes a compelling business case in dollars and sense for supporting people working and caring for ageing parents – and others.
About The Book
In The Cost of Not Caring: Working while caring in the era of longevity, Dr. Abby Bloom expertly examines how increased longevity has created mounting pressure on employees who must navigate caring for elderly parents and often their own children and grandchildren, as well as their partners while dealing with their own ageing. Drawing on local and international research, lived experience, and practical tools, Dr Abby Bloom delivers a powerful handbook for action—and essential reading for us all. She convincingly argues why support for unpaid caregivers is an urgent global societal challenge with far-reaching consequences if left unaddressed.
The book explains and quantifies in compelling detail how organisations and businesses are wearing the costs of “not caring.” It contains practical action plans for employees, employers, and governments – essential roadmaps for addressing an urgent societal challenge whose impacts include reduced national productivity and avoidable costs for businesses, as well as long-term financial, psychological and physical damage to those who are working while caring unpaid carers and caregivers.
The Cost of Not Caring fills a critical gap in the literature on the care crisis. It spells out exactly how employers and unpaid carers – predominantly women – lose out without the supportive measures our care economy needs and deserves. Unpaid family caregivers have increased in number in the USA by 45% over the past decade: 1 in 4 people, a total of 59 million American adults are caring for ageing loved ones. The book examines the caregiving situations of five countries and offers a comparison of how a range of nations is dealing with the challenge. It highlights how unpaid family carers prejudice their own health and financial wellbeing.
Care is a universal experience. But the blessing of longevity has dramatically changed the dynamics. The Cost of Not Caring: Working while caring in the era of longevity is essential reading for us all.
More About The Cost of Not Caring
I am an expert in longevity and its implications for business, governments and people. My latest research has been summarised in a practical, easy-to-read book, The Cost of Not Caring: Working while caring in the era of longevity. My book summarises the concepts and facts you need to understand longevity – the major social dynamic of our era. It helps you understand what longevity means for you and your organisation, and what you can do about it – whether you’re a manager, CEO, board director, HR specialist, government policy expert or worker.
The book documents in useful detail the cost of not caring, and how to address it for greater productivity, retention and engagement in a comprehensive, clear, and practical book. It includes practical steps organisations and governments can tale, and, importantly, what employees working while caregiving can do to ease their stress and remain in the workforce.
The Cost of Not Caring? We all wear it. Here’s how:
- To their disadvantage, organisations don’t look for or measure employees’ need for care and support, eroding workforce productivity
- The damage is compounded because lack of support for carers means companies also lose on their investment in employees with caregiver responsibilities
- At a personal level, the physical, emotional, and financial costs of caring sap employees of energy, trapping them between competing demands of work and their personal lives
- The cost of not caring leads to valuable employees withdrawing from full-time work, declining promotion, and avoiding work-related travel so that the investment in them is never fully realised
- The cost of not caring often leads employees to resign with little notice, sometimes after secretly planning their exit over weeks and months as the strain of working while caring becomes too great
- There are at least three critical players determining the costs and the solutions to not caring: employers, employees and, vitally, governments.
Productivity is at the heart of economic and financial sustainability for organisations and the economy at large. Every organisation is paying a price if they’re not meaningfully supporting employees who are working while caring. My work exposes fundamental future of work issues and provides a roadmap for addressing them – affordably and sustainably.
“Dr. Bloom expertly examines how increased longevity, while a remarkable achievement, creates mounting pressures on workers who must navigate their own ageing while caring for elderly parents. Her practical action plans for employees, employers, and governments offer essential roadmaps for addressing what she convincingly argues is an urgent societal challenge with far-reaching consequences if left unaddressed.”
Trevor Matthews, Actuary, Chair, Non-Executive Director
What leaders are saying about
‘The Cost of Not Caring’
If you read nothing else on Longevity’s impact on society read this book.”
