Health Corporate Network, Perth
The Need for WLB:		Caring for Elderly Family Members
Outcome:		Working reduced hours

I am a Supervisor of the Security Systems in WA Health.

At present, my 82-year-old father-in-law lives with my wife and I. We are also the primary care givers for my 87-year-old mother and 94-year-old aunt who live together about a half hour away.

My family has a strong tradition of not placing older members in nursing homes. However, the effort involved in maintaining this tradition while holding down a full time job has now reached breaking point.

I approached my Manager with the following proposal.

Reduced Hours / Long Service Leave

I propose to work a nine-day fortnight with flexible hours. On alternate weeks, I shall apply for one day LSL at half pay.

In a nutshell, what this works out to is 68.4 hours of work (after accounting for 7.6 hours of LSL) per fortnight or 8.55 hours of work for each of 8 working days.

Using half a day of LSL a fortnight means that in a working year of 52 weeks, 4 will be annual leave, 8 have a public holiday will not require LSL, leaving 40 weeks to be covered. A full day LSL will cover 4 weeks and so two weeks of LSL should cover a full year.

I also have about 90 days of sick leave that could, pending approval, be used as carer’s leave.

Working Arrangements

I am completely flexible with which day I am allowed off. I will work with my superior and come up with a standard off day that suits everyone. I am not averse to swapping this agreed upon off day whenever operational requirements demand it. The only time I envision a problem with this is when there is a prior doctor/specialist appointment or some other appointment I cannot reschedule.

A few adjustments will be required to accommodate my request whilst maintaining a smooth workflow with minimum disruption. On my part, I will:

1. Find suitable co-workers to fill in for me during my absences. This will only be for urgent matters. Most of my work can be deferred for a day or longer and should not affect daily operations.
2. Put in place a communication system that will redirect urgent matters to relevant co-workers. For the most part, this will be accomplished via a redirection of email, as this is how most of my work comes in.
3. Come in for half days, instead of taking a full day off, whenever someone who is covering for me also needs to be away.
4. Email my supervisor at the end of every week to advise him/her of my absence the coming week.

This proposal was accepted and to be reviewed quarterly. This will allow for minor changes that would surface as the subject’s or dependant’s situation changes. It also allows the department to take stock of the arrangement and tweak it to satisfy both subject’s and employer’s interests.

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