Creating a positive and supportive environment for our colleagues who are carers is important to us at GC, and we recognise the impact that caring responsibilities can have on their lives.
We know that the number of colleagues who care for a family member, friend or disabled child is growing all the time. Everyone has a valuable experience to share and must feel supported, which is why GC’s Parents & Carers Network exists.
To mark Carers Week (10th - 16th June) and its theme of ‘Putting Carers on the Map’, we met with GC colleague, Suzanne Grange, Regional Account Manager, Sales & Recruitment in our GC Employment team.
Suzanne has caring responsibilities for her husband’s 92-year-old grandmother, Dorothy (Gran), who raised her husband and is like a mother to him. Gran has advanced dementia and now lives with Suzanne and her husband. Dorothy lives in their front room, and her condition now requires round-the-clock care as she’s unable to support herself.
(Q) What are your key responsibilities as a care provider?
(A) You might think that caring for an adult is similar to looking after your children full-time, but it’s very different. I manage Gran’s everyday life tasks – I decide when she wakes up, what she's eating and drinking. And because I have ‘Power of Attorney’* over her affairs, I pay her bills, manage her doctor's appointments, prescriptions, and I arrange her district nurses, life care team and social workers. We've constantly got somebody from her support team visiting our house, so it’s important that we have a strict routine so that everything happens when it needs to for Gran.
(Q) How you manage your caring responsibilities alongside your job here at GC?
(A) My husband and I feel it’s our duty to give Gran the best end-to-life that we possibly can. That means being there for Gran 24/7, so there’s still lots to do outside of the day-to-day support visits from carers and the district nurse. When I finish work, be it in the office or at home, I’m usually greeted by 3 loads of washing, so I have to catch up on that. It's literally a full-time job when I get in through the door.
I didn’t really want to give up work to care full-time. Working alongside caring does help me keep grounded in my life and I find it good to throw myself into work and keep busy. I’m achieving my work targets every month, so just because I have caring responsibilities, there are no questions around my work capabilities.
I'm very grateful that I can work at home – which I do alongside going into the office and some work-travel. Gran sleeps most of the day, but when I do need to support her if I’m at home, I'll have logged-on to work early in the morning, and I’ll work later into the evening if need, so it balances it out – even though the day might be longer for me.
(Q) How has GC supported you since your caring responsibilities have increased and become more complex?
(A) GC has evolved its processes when it comes to colleagues’ caring responsibilities. When more agile and flexible ways of working came in a few years ago, it was all very different, Nowadays, I definitely think we're on the right path and the support is there for carers like me.
My circumstances changed very quickly recently. During May, Gran got put on end-of-life care, which was very upsetting and meant that her care support package would be reduced – because she's no longer eating and drinking.
When I told my manager the news, she was absolutely there for me, and she told me to do what I needed to do. She understood what the changes in Gran’s support would mean to me (both as a person and as a team member). She advised me to work from home straight away. That’s made things so much easier, because I can still do my job and be there for Gran when she needs me.
(Q) Why is our GC Parents & Carers Network important?
(A) I know that the network is there for me when I need it. It’s a comfort to know I can pick up my phone today and ring a network member and let off some steam, cry, or say whatever I need to. I'm absolutely convinced that they would listen and I’m so appreciative of that.
If anything, a call to action from me would be for more carers to join the network. I've learned a lot through caring and I've educated people in the network along the way because I've lived through the whole caring journey – from seeing a loved one living independently, to coming to terms with someone who can no longer take care of themselves, eventually becoming bed-bound and living with you and your family.
(Q) What would you like to raise awareness of, which would give others a better understanding what it means to be a carer?
(A) If you’ve never had any caring responsibility and are not sure what’s involved, please take time to listen to carers’ stories and lived-experiences. Whilst you can read up about it, we have the caring knowledge which we can share to help and inform others, because we’ve done it. We can help you navigate and plan your caring journey, because being a carer involves recognising signs of change, and to foresee challenges along the way which you need to address at the right time for your caring situation.
Secondly, for me, what really makes a difference is people’s understanding and recognising that life can (and does) get in the way of work – and sometimes it's not your fault when you might not be able to do or deliver something that you usually do at work. I’d encourage everyone to just remember that, if someone’s not in the office as often, or they’re working at home a little bit more, it might be because the circumstances in their life have just got in the way a little bit.
If you’d like to find out more about our GC Parents & Cares EDI Network, or become a member of an ally, please visit this page on Our Working Way.
* A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. This gives you more control over what happens to you if you have an accident or an illness and cannot make your own decisions (you ‘lack mental capacity') – Find out more here.
