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Reconciling Employment and Caregiving: Good Workplace Practices and Arrangements

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Abstract

As the population ages in Finland, increasing efforts are required from families to secure care and support for older and disabled people. At the same time both women and men are expected to increase and lengthen their participation in paid work. In this chapter we analyse the experiences of employed carers based on both survey results (N = 225) and interviews (N = 34). We examine the ways to facilitate combining employment and caregiving. According to our results, flexible work arrangements, as well as empathy and support in the workplace are important for the well-being of working carers. There is also a need for more formal solutions, based on legislation, for combining working and family caring, which complement existing ‘family-friendly’ practices.

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Kauppinen, K., Silfver-Kuhalampi, M. (2017). Reconciling Employment and Caregiving: Good Workplace Practices and Arrangements. In: Aaltio, I., Mills, A., Mills, J. (eds) Ageing, Organisations and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58813-1_10

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