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Glenna Hecht (00:02)
The dollar impact is extraordinary. It’s estimated between somewhere $13 billion to $33 billion a year and the average being about $5,600 an employee who’s dealing with it.

JoDee Curtis (00:22)
Welcome to The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, where we help people leaders embrace joy in the workplace. I’m JoDee Curtis, owner and founder of Purple Ink, and with me is my friend and co-host, Susan White, owner of Susan Tinder White Consulting, an HR consulting practice. Susan is also a senior executive collaborator with Purple Ink.

Today we’re talking about an issue that impacts more employees than many leaders realize: caregiving. When someone is caring for young children, aging parents, a loved one with a disability, or a family member facing a serious health condition, caregiving responsibilities don’t stop at the office door.

According to a February 2026 article by Christine Muldoon with WebMD Health Services, there are 63 million adults that identify as caregivers in the US alone. By the way, that tells me there’s a lot more than 63 million because probably some people don’t necessarily identify as that, but still may be dealing with it. And research from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving has shown that 70% of US employees are caring for a child, parent, or a friend.

Employees who care for loved ones find their work and caregiving duties overlapping. A recent study from Harvard Business School revealed that more than 80% of caregivers report the logistical, financial, and emotional pressures of roles interfered with their ability to do their best work. In fact, the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported recently that half of working caregivers say helping loved ones has impacted their employment situation and 56% of caregivers report going in late, leaving early, or taking time off to accommodate their loved ones, leaving little to no time for themselves and their own self-care. Lot of statistics in this, I know, but I thought they were so powerful.

Susan White (03:01)
I agree.

JoDee Curtis (03:02)
And furthermore, nearly nine in 10 employed caregivers, meaning people who work and also have unpaid care responsibilities at home, depend on other care providers to free them up so that they can perform their own jobs. And if they don’t have that support, burnout, stress, and exhaustion can crop up quickly.

So what might employers do to assist those responsible for this caregiving? If organizations want employees to show up happy, healthy, productive, creative, engaged, they must step in and provide meaningful support for caregivers in the workplace. Let’s explore what caregiver-friendly policies actually look like and why they matter.

Susan White (03:56)
Well, I think the first one is really important, and that is offering flexible schedules where and how you can. One of the most impactful ways employers can support caregivers is by giving them some flexibility. Emergencies are going to happen, especially when you know that you’re responsible for a loved one or a neighbor or a friend, and they’re going to come up. And so you need that person to feel like they can attend to it without losing their job.

And also, in addition to emergencies, there’s just ongoing day to day responsibilities. There’s going to be more doctors’ appointments if there’s a health issue present. There can be school meetings, drop offs, reduced hour days, all those things. And so managing these kind of duties and managing your own work routine can just really come into conflict. But flexible scheduling can allow the employee to meet their work responsibilities while still being present for the people who depend on them.

Just as important, caregivers need to feel safe and supported, having open conversations, talking to their managers, talking to their colleagues about why certain flexibility is needed on a given day.

JoDee Curtis (05:05)
I’ll tell you Susan, on that one, I have a dear friend who has been going through this caregiver role for years. She had elderly parents. She dealt with it with her dad who passed away. Then she dealt with it with her mom who passed away. And now she has a sister who is single and her kids are not local, and I’m telling you, she has spent hours and hours and days and days doing all these things. Some of it figuring out the logistics for her to get to appointments to taking off. And thank goodness her employer has been incredibly flexible. She can work remotely. She sets up an office in the ER day after day after day when her sister is in there and it has just been such a blessing for her to have that flexibility and she’s very loyal to her employer because of it.

Susan White (06:11)
For sure. Kudos to that employer.

JoDee Curtis (06:15)
Yeah, which rolls into number two, which is remote work. When possible, remote work can be a game changer, as it is for my friend. Eliminating commuting time alone gives employees hours back each week and allows them to remain close to loved ones who need care. This remote work can reduce costs related to childcare, elder care, or in-home support. And when paired with the flexible scheduling that you mentioned, employees can structure their days to balance work responsibilities with caregiving needs without sacrificing productivity.

Susan White (06:58)
Beautiful. The third thing that we could do as employers is make space for self-care during the workday and make sure that our employees understand that we want them taking care of themselves, especially caregivers. They’re often so focused on caring for others that they may neglect their own health. They’re always eating at their desk because they don’t want to take time to get away. Encourage those care…takers — caregivers, as well as all your employees to take time off during the workday for their own self-care. Encourage exercise, maybe doing a lap after lunch, doing preventative medical appointments, being supportive when people go in for checkups, or just simply stepping away to clear your head and get some air. It really is critical, I think, for all of us to bring our A game, especially people who are wearing so much responsibility on their shoulders.

JoDee Curtis (07:50)
Number four — Susan, this is a favorite of yours — is employee resource groups. Caregiving can be isolating, which is why employee resource groups, which I’ll call ERGs, can play an important role. They give caregivers the space to share experiences, learn from others, and feel less alone.

Organizations may consider caregiver-focused ERGs broadly or create more specific groups, for example, like caregivers of aging parents, for children under five, or for those caregiving for those with disabilities. Social support can significantly reduce burnout and improve emotional well-being.

Susan White (08:43)
I love that. Number five, expanding mental health and caregiving benefits. Some employers are expanding their access to counseling, health coaching and mental health support specifically for caregivers. I think they’re important for all employees because we don’t know, as you said, we don’t know who all is doing caregiving. So let’s make sure all our employees have this this resource. People that are offering hands on assistance, there are EAPs out there that help with scheduling medical appointments, planning childcare, or securing home health aides. Employee assistance programs can also play a key role, particularly when they help employees locate childcare or elder care resources. However, these benefits only matter if caregivers know they exist and understand how to access them.

JoDee Curtis (09:34)
Number six is financial support. Caregiving can be expensive, so forward thinking organizations are addressing this by offering financial support such as childcare subsidies or daycare discounts, dependent care, flexible spending accounts, long-term care insurance, financial planning, and budgeting education. So many different things. Some employers also offer well-being stipends covering things like family meals or massages. But again, flexibility and time off must accompany these benefits so caregivers can actually use them.

Susan White (10:19)
And then finally, just talk to your employees, right? Raise the conversation just by acknowledging the additional responsibilities that employees are taking on can go a long way. People can be seen and valued and heard. Consider bringing in experts to talk about resources or challenges that they may be having, doing lunch and learns on this topic, having an EAP person on site one day a month. Give people avenues to talk to people.

Senior leaders sharing their own personal experiences on this front with caregiving can also really be impactful. It helps employees feel that they’re not alone. Other people go through this, even people that are at high levels that I respect a lot. It can really help with your inclusion efforts. It can help people be more empathetic and understanding in the workplace. Having the conversation, making this not a secret, getting it on the table, being transparent can really be helpful.

JoDee Curtis (11:21)
Right. Employees who are caregivers are often navigating one of the most stressful periods in their lives. They will remember whether their employer showed compassion and support or treated them like just another cog in the machine.

Organizations that provide a full spectrum of caregiving support are more likely to see healthier, happier, and more engaged employees. Supporting caregivers is not just a benefit, it’s a statement about your values as an organization. And when employees feel respected and cared for as people, everyone wins.

Now, today we have invited a guest to share additional resources and thoughts on this topic. Glenna Hecht is a speaker, author, and leadership consultant who helps organizations understand the human realities that employees bring to work.

After a long career as a senior HR executive, she founded Humanistic Consulting to help leaders navigate complex people challenges with clarity and empathy. She is the author of “How Old Are You Today: Dementia, a Mother, a Daughter, and the Game that Transformed Their Lives,” and this was inspired by caring for her own mother through a decade of dementia. Today, Glenna speaks with organizations and caregiving in the workplace and the human side of work.

Glenna, let’s start with your book. Tell us a little bit more about it and why you wrote it.

Glenna Hecht (13:10)
Well, thank you. Thank you first off for having me on the show. I just, I enjoy being on podcasts, but this one particularly because it bridges between human resources and the other part of my life, which is the passion of my book. So it gives me a chance to talk about the things that I absolutely love.

The book is called, “How Old Are You Today?” And it’s “Dementia, a Mother, a Daughter, and the Game that Transformed Their Life.” And, you know, just imagine leading HR in companies and sitting at your desk one day and getting a call in Texas that my mother went missing in Chicago. And that was scary and tragic. And immediately I walked into my boss and said, I have to leave. I’m an only child. I don’t know when I’ll be back. So if you need to replace me, go for it, but I have to go, right?

And what happened the next day, getting on a plane and going to Chicago was the beginning of a nine-year journey being a caregiver for my mom. Seven of those years she was on hospice, which is quite unheard of. I moved her five times, JoDee, from Chicago to Dallas, because I couldn’t care for her remotely, and then when I moved her to Dallas, four times after that.

But to tell you about how the book came about, as an HR professional, you know this, our jobs are to fix stuff, right? So, someone comes to you with a payroll issue. Someone comes to you with a benefits issue. Someone has an employee issue, and you become the answer person to say, do this, try this, let me contact… and everything is kind of fix it, fix it, fix it. Right? So for the first two years of my journey, I was bound and determined to fix my mother. I knew that I could make dementia go away.

And so I joined support groups and did research, even became an assisted living manager thinking it would give me the special sauce to make it go away. And of course it didn’t, right? So one day I lost my stuff and my mom had repeated the same thing six times and I went ballistic and nobody looked. It didn’t faze anyone. And so I was so mortified that I ran out of the facility, came to my house, crawled in a closet and cried myself to sleep and said, if you can’t fix it, then dementia is something you have to face and you’ll be the best daughter that you can.

Fast forward after about a year, I walked into her assisted living and you can only imagine what it would look like. Saggy couches, wood paneling, the TV on, the linoleum floor, right? And my mom is sitting there looking up at the fluorescent lights and saying, the sun is so beautiful and I love the beach, and she was flirting with boys, and I was like, my God, she’s dying. And she wasn’t, she was living graciously and fully. And I thought I wanna get back to the beach. No matter what, I have to get back there.

And for some time I would say to her, are you at the beach? And she’d go, no. Okay, are you 20 something years old? No, end of conversation. Finally, one day I said, you know, I have forgotten, how old are you? And my mom went, yes. And that became the beginning of a game. And so every day for about six and a half, close to seven years, we would play this game.

And the game over time, it has rules. There’s an art to playing it. There are things that I learned. And over the course of dementia, those of your listeners that have been dealing with it with a parent or a husband or a loved one know that the disease progresses and so you can’t really talk or you can’t really swallow. So we went from playing a verbal game to playing a game where mom would squeeze my hand and I would say, squeeze one for yes or twice for no. And up until the day she passed away, we played this game. And it gave me glimpses of her I never had in my life, ever. It brought us closer. It gave us peace.

But more than that, I shared it with other people, and they had amazing results with it. And I finally said, you need to share this and write the book. And it took 11 years to do it, believe it or not. Yeah, because I needed to be willing to be vulnerable and willing to be the person who admitted I crawled in a closet and cried.

And your listeners who are in HR know that’s not an easy place for us to be, right? We’re supposed to know everything and know how to fix people and what to do. And I had done it for so many years that I had to kind of get over myself — I don’t know any other way to say it — and be willing to be vulnerable and share what I went through. And when I finally was, was the time when I sat down and it took me about six months to write this and it’s been published for six months.

So. Long answer, but it’s my other passion project with human resources.

JoDee Curtis (19:01)
Yeah. So you had firsthand knowledge of this experience and even the impact in the workplace too. And what is the impact of caregiving — our employees having caregiving responsibilities outside of their work? And why don’t leaders see this and do something about it to help people?

Glenna Hecht (19:27)
The statistical information, if you were to look up the impact of caregiving and work, the dollar impact is extraordinary. It’s estimated between somewhere $13 billion to $33 billion a year and the average being about $5,600 an employee who’s dealing with it, right? So if you look at it, just a company of a thousand people and say, all right, I have a population, that’s a significant amount of money, right? So the impact is there. Businesses just may not know it’s there. And that’s what you’re talking about.

I think the reason that companies are not as aware of it as twofold. One is a lot of people grew up with the “leave your personal life at home” routine, right? And we try really hard to do that. But that’s not realistic, right? If you’re dealing with a family member, if you’re up at home, you’re trying to figure out where to put them, they’re not who they were, it’s wearing on you, it’s exhausting, and it’s frightening, quite frankly. So it’s entering into work in a way that most people may not be aware of it.

And let’s be honest, it’s hard to say, hey, I have a parent who has this or my child has special needs, because a lot of folks are fearful in the workplace that it’ll impact their job. So they don’t say anything, right? They take their PTO, they come in later, they start to schedule appointments so that they can go and care for things. So I would say businesses may not even know what’s going on.

Here’s what has to happen, okay, and I implore the HR people to know this, is that the frontline managers are the ones that deal with this every single day. When somebody is not acting as they normally would, right, when somebody is taking time, when somebody is a little off, right, their performance is slipping, the manager has to sit down, instead of making judgment, is to sit down and inquire, hey, is something going on with you? We want to help you.

And if they find out that it’s a situation outside of work, there are tons of resources that HR folks can refer. Free, no cost, employee assistance programs that may already be part of their insurance, giving them something that can help them, but also offering the time away from work because I faced it. I would have quit and I headed up HR and training for a large company. You lose your leaders, you lose your institutional knowledge, you lose your continuity. And wouldn’t it be better to work with somebody than having to hire and retrain and start all over again? And so I think learning about your people and what they’re going through and working with them is really extraordinary.

I recently was speaking at a conference for a quick service restaurant and in preparation, I was speaking to the COO and we got onto the topic of multi-generations and the sandwich generation. And the sandwich generation are typically what we had called the Gen Ys, dealing with their kids, right, some who are moving back home after college, but also their aging parents. And I said to him, just in passing, have you dealt with this at all?

And he said, yes, as a matter of fact, we had a manager who was 27 years old and learned that both of her parents, both of them had dementia and she had to fly from the East Coast back to California, which was where she was from and deal with it. And I said, well, what did you do?

He goes, well, they’re large enough to put her on FMLA, right? Gave her a leave, said, if you run out, we want to have you back. We love you. You’re a great manager. We’ll bridge your service. We’ll make your pay okay. We’ll welcome you with open arms. And so that was what happened. She decided she couldn’t be a manager. She became an assistant. But the key, JoDee, was I said to him, is there something that you wish would have happened differently?

And he said, yes. It took him three weeks to find out that she was going through this, and he felt horribly about it. But part of it was because when the manager had conversation, they didn’t realize A) the severity of it, and B) the potential impact, and that there were things that they could do. So the truth is that the managers may not be the problem solvers, they’re the problem identifiers, but they need to have a way to bring it to somebody who can help them identify a resource to work through it.

JoDee Curtis (24:48)
Yeah. It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it, that myself and others as employees, we don’t want to maybe tell our boss or our leaders because we don’t want it to impact our work, but yet it is impacting our work. So really, how does caregiving change an employee’s focus or their identity and/or their relationship with the work?

Glenna Hecht (25:41)
I can only share with you from my experience and, and certainly when I found out that my mom was missing, I literally left that day and left Dallas the next morning to fly back to Chicago. What happened was repeated trips to go and get her out of an apartment, move her things, move her to Dallas.

I would get calls on a daily basis from her assisted living. My mom could not live with me because she was a flight risk. So, she had a lot of energy and would walk out the door, right? So, she was in an assisted living facility, but I would get a call daily. Your mom needs this. Your mom needs that. Can you come and help us?

I was very fortunate in that she was in a facility. Just imagine a lot of the people that are working in an organization may be caring for a special needs child who is in their home and they have to go and talk to a teacher. They have to go and deal with an issue that may be coming up. Or they have a parent that’s living in their home and they have to leave and go to the doctor. And so it’s always wearing on you.

And one of the comments that I put in the book and somebody shared this with me yesterday was they said, you said it’s like walking through fog. What do you mean by that? And I said, well, if you’re ever in fog, whether you’re walking or driving, you always wonder what’s beyond the next step. Right? You never know what you’re going to see. And so you put one foot in front of the other and you do so with trepidation. Right? You do so wondering, is this the right direction?

Dementia is exactly the same. Caregiving is exactly the same. Whether it’s a child, whether it’s a spouse that has had surgery, whether it’s a parent with Alzheimer’s. You’re taking a step, but you don’t know exactly what the next step will bring. And so, you’re always trying to learn and do and learn and do.

And I will share with you, I’ve headed up HR for huge companies. Caregiving was the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life. Absolutely. Because it’s not only the emotion of caring for somebody that you love, but it’s the learning and putting it into practice immediately. And by the way, juggling that with what you do as your livelihood.

So when someone says they’re a caregiver, put them on a pedestal, hold them up, right? They are heroes. They are doing an extremely difficult job. And so it’s really something to treasure and something to applaud people that are dealing with versus thinking, they’re going to check out and I need to fill their job. Maybe not. And so that’s why I encourage companies to look at alternative means that may be able to assist them and to not lose that precious employee that you’ve worked so hard to train and bring into your company.

JoDee Curtis (28:41)
Right. And what advice do you have for managers, maybe who know that an employee has something going on, but they haven’t, you know, they haven’t directly shared it, but their performance is starting to shift because of this fog and, other responsibilities they’re taking on. What, what can we do to help the managers?

Glenna Hecht (29:29)
So I think that’s a really difficult situation, JoDee, because managers have to manage the work, right? So the question that it really talks to is how do you talk to the employee, right? And that is, here’s what you’re responsible for, here’s what’s starting to slip, that’s an honest conversation that has to happen. And what can I do to help you? And based on that response, then you have an idea of what direction to go, right?

Because if the person says, I’m not getting enough rest, I’m having to adjust my schedule, if they’re giving you some alternatives that are there that are ones that the organization can potentially work with, then I would say the manager needs to get a partner and see if they can help work through those. If there is nothing that’s given to you, a manager, and you still are managing and have to manage the work, then you have to share with the employee that they have to be accountable for doing your job.

If an employee is not willing to share or not comfortable doing that, you can’t force them to do that, right? All you can do is to say, how can I assist you? Are there things that I can do to support you? What can we do to help you and have you achieve the goals that you’re supposed to achieve? So there needs to be some honest conversation.

And I think navigating tough conversations is difficult. It’s really difficult because managers are sometimes afraid if I say what’s going on with you, they’ll hear an answer that they don’t know how to handle. And if that happens, right, then it is a manager being honest and saying, you’re bringing something to my attention I’m not sure how to handle. May I bring this to human resources and see what we can do to help you? So I think that’s critical.

And a lot of us, myself included for many years, didn’t want to be vulnerable as I was growing up in my HR world and saying, I don’t know. And when you don’t, that gets you to the answer more quickly and allows you to have a partner that can help you move forward. So I think that’s very important.

JoDee Curtis (31:43)
Yeah, I love it. And you mentioned that there are resources and things available to organizations who can support employees who are balancing this. What are some practical ways that organizations can support employees?

Glenna Hecht (32:03)
Well, I would say absolutely most organizations that have medical insurance that they afford to people have an employee assistance program that’s bolted on, right? And you know this from your HR history, very few employees go to the EAP, A, because they may not know about it, they may not know what they offer, but they’re also afraid are there ramifications to that. One of the things that an organization can do is to communicate in very casual training environments, know, this is what an EAP offers, this is the kind of thing you can use it for, and they’ve got tons of resources that they can refer people to, which is wonderful.

Different communities all over the country have resources for caregivers that are dealing with dementia or Alzheimer’s. They’re called the Blue Book. And it lists everything from, my gosh, from the Alzheimer dementia organizations to caregiving facilities to in-home help and to hand something like that to somebody would be really, really significant.

I’ll put in a shameless plug here, but one of the things that I have organizations doing is saying, let me have a book that helps somebody deal with what’s going on with their family. And so whatever an organization can do to offer some help and assistance only brings them closer to their employees, only brings them into a relationship that feels like we’re not company/employee, boss/employee, that we really truly are a team and you’re trying to help me make the best decisions and do the best thing I can do for the person that I’m dealing with, whatever their situation can be. And that’s how you get employees for life.

So I think that’s really, really important. I mean, organizations, larger ones are doing dementia groups or caregiving groups or bringing in assisted living facilities to talk about what are some things that you see that could be tip-offs to you. So if it helps one person, it’s important. It’s very important. Yeah.

JoDee Curtis (34:33)
Right. Glenna, how can our listeners reach out to you if they have additional questions on this topic? And of course, how, how can they find your book?

Glenna Hecht (35:06)
Well, thank you for asking that. You — I know you have the QR code that I sent you with a free handout for the people that are listening. So if you love a freebie, click the QR code and you can leave not only a review of the podcast, but you can connect directly with me. And I would love to hear from you.

And the book “How Old Are You Today: Dementia, a Mother, a Daughter, and the Game that Transformed Their Lives” is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback and also other locations where you buy books. So you can get it really anywhere at this point.

And I would love to be a resource if somebody has a question about what do I do? I post frequently in a lot of the Facebook groups that have to do with dementia and Alzheimer’s and things to think about and questions to ask.

So I have a very big goal to get the book in the hands of 200,000 people and donate $2 million to Dementia and Alzheimer’s research. So your investment pays off big time to hopefully help others and pay it forward. That’s what I’m all about. So thank you. Thank you for asking that.

JoDee Curtis (36:05)
Yeah, I love it. Sounds like it is a wealth of information.

For our listeners, we’ll include Glenna’s QR code in our show notes so you can access that information.

Glenna Hecht (36:21)
Thank you. And I think they’ll enjoy the freebie, which talks about the art of the game and the five rules that my mom lived by. Absolutely, I think you’ll enjoy that. Thank you.

JoDee Curtis (36:30)
I love it.

And Glenna, we always like to ask our guests a JoyPowered® question. So what’s one small step people can do in this area of caregiving to create more joy at work?

Glenna Hecht (36:52)
I would say certainly there’s two parts to that question. So the JoyPower in caregiving personally for the caregiver is to look for connection over correction. Depending on where your loved one is, they may not be able to relate to you the way they were. So you have to say to yourself, would I rather connect with them with joy or correct them and make both they and myself frustrated? So, I always say connection over correction is really big for me.

In companies, the most important thing to give you joy is to be able to say, what’s going on with you? You’re important to us and we want to create a situation where you feel empowered at work and you feel as though you’re part of this team. So before jumping to judgment is asking the question and finding out what’s really going on.

JoDee Curtis (37:55)
Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s great advice. And thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your book with us.

Glenna Hecht (38:05)
Thank you. Thank you. Loved being here. Take care.

JoDee Curtis (38:08)
Thank you.

Susan White (38:10)
JoDee, it’s time for our listener question.

“How can I help aging workers who don’t want to leave but are not keeping up with other co-workers? I want them to retire with dignity, but I know I can’t push them out the door.”

JoDee Curtis (38:22)
Well, first, I think you have to focus on performance expectations and not age, right? There are plenty of older workers who can still do the work. So let’s take it specifically from a performance related function and have honest, private conversations about job requirements and changing demands, just as you would with any employees. Be clear about what keeping up means today and listen carefully to what challenges they’re experiencing.

And second, look for accommodations and adjustments if necessary that may allow them to contribute their strength. And this might include updated training, new tools, modified workloads, flexible schedules, or even shifting some responsibilities to emphasize institutional knowledge, mentoring, quality, or relationship-based work.

Third, if they are open to it, consider alternative career paths that honor experience, such as advisory roles, project-based work, reduced hours, or mentoring positions. I’ll just add, I think you — you know, to be careful not to assume this is something they’re looking for, but again, would you offer this type of flexibility or alternative career paths to anyone? These options may allow them to remain value contributors without the pressure of roles that they may not no longer fit.

And finally, if retirement is becoming a realistic option, approach it as a supported transition, an exit. Provide access to retirement planning resources, allow time for knowledge transfer, and recognize their contributions publicly and sincerely. When people feel respected and appreciated, they are far more likely to leave on their own terms and with pride. But at its core, helping aging workers retire with dignity means treating them as individuals, valuing them for what they bring to the role and ensuring that both the employee and the organization are set up for success.

Any other thoughts you have on that, Susan?

Susan White (41:07)
I love everything that you said, I think I would just note that it is particularly a sensitive topic. As people are aging, there is age discrimination out there. It’s real. And people — it’s not unheard of for people to start thinking that individuals who are old are not keeping up when it may not be the truth, or that they’re not bringing fresh ideas or they’re not — they’re too old school, I mean, all those things. I think it’s just really important to check biases.

And my guess is the person who wrote this in feels really comfortable that this is not an age thing, it’s about a performance thing. Help guide your managers to think about it just the way that JoDee laid it out. Now, if an employee comes and asks about retirement, terrific, have a conversation. How can we support you? What can we do? But you don’t want to be the one offering it, suggesting it.

We used to have a joke around my old company about leaders, managers, supervisors, you’re never to use “the R word.” You’re never to bring it up. If they bring it up, you’re more than welcome to entertain it, but we’re not going to force people into retirement. We’re not going to be the ones that they could later come back and say we pushed them. So good luck listener. It can be sensitive for sure.

JoDee Curtis (42:17)
Yeah, good advice. And now it’s time for in the news. According to remote.co’s 2026 Financial Flexibility Report, nearly two thirds of workers say they do not feel financially secure in their current role. Other key findings, 40% have quit or seriously considered quitting their job to pursue a side hustle full time and 30% of millennials currently have a side hustle, the highest of any generation. Customer service, administrative, and healthcare are the top side hustle friendly fields based on the volume of fully remote part-time jobs.

You know, Susan, I just saw a segment on the Today Show about this yesterday about the growing number of people who have side hustles and some in a good way and some in not a good way and that some people feel like with inflation and increasing costs that they have to have a side hustle. Whereas others stated they like doing something that they feel is on their own, that they can control, and that could be a safety net for them in the event something happens with their full-time job.

Susan White (43:47)
I’ve heard many, many people having side hustles. And interestingly enough, it tends to be millennials or Gen Zers, where I’ve heard people say to me, Susan, I want a portfolio of work. Yes, I have an eight to five, but I’ve got more juice in me. I’ve got other things I want to do for all the reasons that you mentioned. So I think it’s a really growing trend that I think is going to stick.

JoDee Curtis (44:08)
Yes.

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