Loctober 6 is National Caregivers Day. This time of year when, suddenly, the 11 million French people who take care of one of their loved ones come back to our minds. The occasion of an article, a corporate event… 11 million, that means one in six employees in 2020, very soon one in four in 2030, according to forecasts by the Research, Studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees). A trifle.
October is the time when what I call the “care washing” at his best. In the vein of “green washing” and “pinkwashing”, many companies and institutions choose to communicate on the subject of carers, without anything changing afterwards. Give yourself a clear conscience, without evolving. The subject will then be repackaged until next year, like a Christmas tree. This year, however, we talked about it earlier, when Catherine Guillouard, president and CEO of the RATP, resigned on September 30 to become a caregiver for her parents. His departure was hailed across the country. For a few days, the professional network LinkedIn was criss-crossed with messages alternately astonishing, congratulating or envying the choice of this woman.
This unusual bubbling underlines the obvious, which nevertheless seems to escape the majority: we are all concerned. Employee or big boss, private or public. The world of work is – at best – uncomfortable with this subject, which is still taboo for many, and which could be extended to this big question: what behavior should companies adopt in the face of the humanity of their employees ?
Corporate culture
Funny question, isn’t it? However, it encompasses the challenges that human resources have already been facing for a long time: pregnancy, illness, disability, burn-out… We seem to have discovered in recent years that employees are not machines but human beings, with their strengths and their difficulties. What a headache for some, who would surely prefer to manage a formless and productive mass! The balance between personal life and professional life can only exist when everything is going well. No one puts their worries for a loved one on “airplane” mode, like on a smartphone, when they arrive at the office, nor leaves their overwork on their doorstep when they come home in the evening. What if we stop behaving as if it does?
And even more, if we stopped thinking that being a helper is a weakness? It is high time that employers understand the value of these employees who accompany a loved one. They are loyal, caring, steel-minded people. But beyond this evidence, it is also employees who develop a large number of useful qualities at work! Management of a budget, administrative files, learning to negotiate, coordination of a team, flawless organization… These are soft skills that every boss wants to see in his employees! Recruiters, think about this the next time you come across a hole in a resume, especially on a woman, in a job interview. Perhaps it illustrates a period of help, which the candidate will not necessarily dare to approach for fear of seeing his chances diminish.
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