Episode 6 Mom’s at Work: The ‘Panini’ generation — The hidden workforce struggle employers can’t ignore

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Being stuck in the middle isn’t just a metaphor — it’s daily life for the sandwich generation.

These are the working parents juggling the care of kids while also supporting aging parents, and it’s a lot. Between the rising costs of childcare, senior care and just everyday life, the pressure is mounting, especially for women who still tend to shoulder most of the caregiving.

For the final episode in WorkLife’s podcast series Mom’s at Work, we speak with Naaz Nichols, chief customer experience officer at Care.com, about her own difficult journey juggling her dad’s health needs along with her two children as a single parent. She shares how she had to give up her job and sell her house so she could find the right care for them all.

"I had to take a year out of my career to actually understand what are the resources that are out there."

Naaz Nichols

chief customer experience officer, Care.com

Countless hours disappear into the black hole of researching, coordinating and worrying about adequate care for aging loved ones. Hotel group Hilton has sought to address this issue for its employees.

We speak with Lora Lawler, svp of total rewards and HR technology for Hilton, about how the company’s partnership with Wellthy provides an invaluable service to its employees in caregiving roles, shaving thousands of hours off their searches and giving them vital peace of mind by vetting caregivers and facilities on their behalf.

"They [Wellthy support staff] can help with anything and not just related to elderly, but across anything from finding the right in-home health aides and navigating the health care system overall in the U.S. and UK."

Lora Lawler

svp of total rewards and HR technology, Hilton

And we speak with Sarah Robb O’Hagan, an entrepreneur, author and former global president at Gatorade, who shares how her own parents’ diagnoses affected her mental health at a time when she had three young kids and was working full-time. She also talks about how more flexible structures within corporations can benefit both parents and businesses. 

"When all these things are piling on top of you, it's really easy to just go from one thing to the next and to feel like you have so many things on your plate that you've just got to do the next task, as opposed to putting your own oxygen mask on first before you support others."

Sarah Robb O'Hagan

business leader and author

Sarah’s experiences around extreme burnout as a working mother, when she was working 90-hour weeks at corporate firms, later informed her work at EXOS, a human performance company that helps corporate clients and executives around the world to lead healthy, high-performing teams.

WorkLife Presents is hosted by Jessica Davies, founding editor of WorkLife. Sara Patterson is producer, and Tim Peterson is the executive editor of audio and video for Digiday Media.

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