Paper presentation NorLife seminar
Aslaug Gotehus (AFI) and Heidi Gautun (NOVA) delivered presentations at the seminar- Employees caring for old parents 7th September 2023 at OsloMet. The seminar was arranged by the Nordic Center for Research on Work and Family Life through the Life Course (NorLife).
Aslaug Gotehus gave the presentation «Flexibility and Care in Working hours », and presented findings from the case study conducted at various workplaces in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Gotehus discussed how flexibility, or a lack of flexibility, within the work day impacts the ability of adult children to provide care and the work-family balance of employees. She concludes that, although flexible arrangements enable the provision of care within the regular workday, this doesn’t come without costs for individuals, where boundaries between work, family, and leisure are largely blurred.
Heidi Gautun gave a presentation of article “Help and Care to Older Parents in the Digital Society”, that was published in The Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies June 2023. She highlighted that, apart from the increased burden on family members due to the welfare state’s resource limitations, adult children are now providing unrecognized digital assistance to their old parents. The 2022 survey revealed that digital support has become the predominant form of help provided by adult children. She concludes that improved user-friendliness of technology and ongoing efforts to teach older individuals digital skills might ease the burden on family members. However, this solution may not apply to all elderly individuals. The question remains: how will this be addressed in the future?