Over the past decade, a caregiving crisis has been building in the workplace. Currently, 35% of the Canadian workforce or 8 million people, are struggling and juggling their work responsibilities with caregiving duties. It’s a perfect storm: a rapidly aging population living longer with more complex care needs and fewer family members to care for them. The stress of juggling caregiving and work responsibilities is leading to burnout, absenteeism, and significant productivity loss. The caregiving crisis is both a social challenge and an economic one.
Earlier this month, I participated in a panel at the 6th Annual Benefits and Wellness Superhero Symposium hosted by ThorpeBenefits. The session on the Caregiving Crisis at Work drew strong interest from the executives, human resource specialists, and other participants who are seeing firsthand the impacts of the caregiver crisis in the workplace and are urgently seeking solutions.
For those who own or manage a company or partnership, there are caregivers on your staff whose struggles may be invisible. Many caregiver employees are hesitant to disclose their challenges for fear that the organization will underestimate their struggles. People often think caregiving is a short-term prospect of a few weeks or months for an elderly person, when in fact, it could go on for years. Many employees perceive there is a stigma around caregiving, and if they admit they are struggling, they fear they will be passed over for promotion or other work.
It’s easy to misread an employee who is grappling with caregiving. What are some of the early symptoms you might notice? The person demonstrates fatigue and frustration, sometimes forgetting things and feeling overwhelmed and short-tempered. Colleagues may notice a change in behaviours or presentation, such as coming in late, leaving early, needing extra time off, or spending vacation time looking after a parent or sick child. The person may appear to be caught up in urgent problems and too busy to problem-solve, leading to workplace conflicts.
There is a crisis in the workplace. According to the 2026 Caring in Canada Report, released by the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, more than half of caregivers (59%) are working, and they provide an average of 5.1 hours of care each day. That adds up to another full-time, unpaid job each week. [1] The report goes on to note that caregiving makes it harder to work: 36% of working caregivers report that their productivity suffers, they lose earnings, or they struggle to balance work and caregiving. The result is that many caregivers in their prime working years have increased absences or are at work but distracted by increasing demands. Lost productivity is estimated at $ 1.2 billion annually in Canada. And it’s estimated that the ½ million caregivers have dropped out of the workforce altogether due to their caregiving responsibilities.
One of the biggest issues for working caregivers is their frustration with the health care system. In a recent report from Maple.ca, entitled The Cost of Caring, 57% of caregivers reported that the health care system only sometimes meets their needs. They summed it up this way:
“…parents, partners and adult children are filling the widening cracks in our health-care system to coordinate care, manage medications and advocate for their loved ones while struggling to access care for themselves.” [2]
The Cost of Caring report goes on to make stark comments about the impact of caregiving on a person’s health: 60% of caregivers delay their own care to prioritize someone else’s; 63% say caregiving has negatively affected their mental health, with one-third experiencing burnout.
The panel discussion moved from the current reality to action and looking for solutions. The caregiving crisis is real, and workplace change is critical to address both the social and economic impacts. The following are a few discussion points to introduce the needed change.
How can organizations break down the stigma around caregiving?
Leadership starts at the top. If you want to deliver fundamental change in an organization, people need to understand the scope and impact of the problem. Education is the first step organizations can take to break down the stigma around caregiving. Caregiving will impact all of us at some point. This is not a niche issue; everyone has a parent, or ill family member, or elderly aunt or uncle who will need assistance.
How do you foster a caregiving-friendly environment?
The organization’s leadership can commit to work-life balance and manager training on caregiving needs. Staff awareness sessions for education and concrete steps to address issues are helpful. For example, actively use the workspace to promote lunch-and-learn sessions and high-visibility displays on caregiving topics. Personal wellness promotion, such as yoga and walking groups. Establish compassionate care benefits – top-up funeral or bereavement leave, and gradual return to work programs.
The single biggest thing working caregivers request is flexibility.
The organization can offer multiple flexibility arrangements, such as flex work hours, remote work, compressed work, weekly job sharing, part-time work, unpaid or paid Leave of Absence, or personal days off, to name a few.
There are excellent resources for owners and managers seeking to address the caregiver crisis in the workplace. The Ontario Caregiver Organization has very helpful resources for both employers and employees. See the Employer Guide.[3] There is also an Employee Toolkit with suggestions.[4]
The caregiving crisis at work is real and is currently resulting in absences, sub-optimal performance, and burnout, causing people to leave the workforce entirely. If you are concerned about people and productivity, urgent solutions are required.
[1] https://canadiancaregiving.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Caring-in-Canada_web.pdf
[2] https://www.getmaple.ca/uploads/2025/11/cost-of-caring-state-of-caregiving-canada-report.pdf
[3] https://ontariocaregiver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/OCO_CMHA-Employer-Guide.pdf
[4] https://ontariocaregiver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/OCO_CMHA-Employer-Guide.pdf
