Heres what one state is doing to help workers caring for elderly parents

Heres what one state is doing to help workers caring for elderly parentsHeres what one state is doing to help workers caring for elderly parentsWhat happens when you need to take care of yur parents and elders on top of doing your job? According to the AARP,42% of U.S. workers have provided care for an aging relative or friend in the past five years, and about half of the workforce expects tobe providing eldercare in the coming five years.In December, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to launch a direct subsidy program aimed at lifting the burden of long-term care on employees. The states new Kupuna Caregivers Program will give Hawaiis caregivers who work at least 30 hours a week up to $70 per day in services to cover the cost of caregiving responsibilities for aging adults like hiring help, paying for transportation, and getting home-delivered meals. (Kupuna means elder in Hawaiian.)We are hopeful that this program will provide working caregivers with the opportunity to continue wo rking and with peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are safe and are receiving services and supports that maximize their independence and quality of life, Terri Byers, director of the Hawaii Executive Office on Aging, said in a statement.Since Hawaii is the state with the longest life expectancy, it makes sense that it would be the state pioneer in helping its aging citizens.There are other states that could soon follow its lead. Washington is expected to reintroduce a bill that would give Washingtonians $100 a day to support caregiving situations like nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Meanwhile, the grassroots organization Maines People Alliance is currently campaigning for universal homecare services for its seniors and citizens with disabilities.The cost of elderly caregiving on the workplaceResearch has found that caring for our elders is not just an individuals burden - it can easily become a workplace problem.When we need to make sure our older parent gets to that appointment, its an unpaid part-time job that can distract us from doing our paid one. The AARP Public Policy Institute found that the average U.S. caregiver is spendingalmost 20 hours per week providing unpaid care. Those hours can add up to lost productivity and wages.According to a 2012 study from AARP, nearly seven in 10 employees report having to take time off, cut back on working hours, change jobs, or stop working entirely to accommodate taking care of an elderly adult. And when employees have to stop working, they can lose up to six figures in wages. AARP found that employees who had to leave the workforce to take care of an elderly parent could lose up to $304,000 in lost wages and benefits.More from Ladders10 ridiculously smart questions you should ask in a job interviewThe best answer when an interviewer asks what animal are you?6 reasons recruiters say theyll toss your resume in the trash

Spending time on Facebook can be good for your mental health

Spending time on Facebook can be good for your mental healthSpending time on Facebook can be good for your mental healthEveryone knows that Facebook is bad for you. Unless its not? New research from Michigan State University says that adults spending time regularly on social media could actually give you a mental boost in well-being and make you happier.While Facebook has been blamed for spreading misinformation, influencing elections, and encouraging negative feelings like FOMO (fear of missing out), the study says that using social media often can prevent anxiety and depression in adults. Previous studies that have shown the negative effects of social media use have been on adolescents or college students.For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 13,000 adults. They asked about their use of the netz for means of communication and their anxiety, among othere things.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Sat isfaction, Neuroscience, and moreThey found that adult social media users are 63% less likely to have mental health issues, like depression or anxiety.The connectedness of social media makes a difference, said study co-author Keith Hampton, a professor at MSU, in a release. Any way people can maintain contact with their family or loved ones is a good thing, and social media facilitates that.Today, we have these ongoing, little bits of information popping up on our cell phones and Facebook feeds, and that ongoing contact might matter for things like mental health.

Our brains have an urgency bias. Heres how to not get tricked

Our brains have an urgency bias. Heres how to not get trickedOur brains have an urgency bias. Heres how to not get trickedEvery day at work, we are faced with decisions that make or break how our days will go. Do we pick the administrative task that was due yesterday or the important task that has no clear deadline enforcer? Left to their own devices, our brains pick urgency over importance, wanting the immediate satisfaction of a quick payoff.A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that our brains are biased towards tasks that are seemingly urgent even when they are objectively less important. People may choose to perform urgent tasks with short completion windows, instead of important tasks with larger outcomes, because important tasks are more difficult and further away from goal completion, urgent tasks involve more immediate and certain payoffs, or people want to finish the urgent tasks first and then work on important tasks later, the researchers foun d.How to overcome the urgency bias to be productiveWe are creatures who thrive under tight deadlines. Big-picture projects with no time constraints are harder for us to motivate ourselves to complete. The goal of finishing that email sounds much easier than the nebulous goal of learning a second language. In one experiment, participants picked an urgent, five-minute task to win a $20 Amazon gift card over a less urgent task that they had 50 minutes to complete, even though this task paid five more dollars.Restrictive deadlines act as exclamation points, asking us to pay more attention to them. The restricted time frame embedded in urgent tasks elicits attention, diverting focus away from the magnitudes of task outcomes, and thereby leads people to exhibit the mere urgency effect, the study found. We may sacrifice health, family, and other important aspects of our lives in reservierung to focus on less significant activities with shorter completion windows, especially when we seem to be working more and perceive ourselves to be busier. The warning we like the comforting illusion of being busy so much we will choose tasks that matter less to us in the long-run. Too often, overworked employees mistake being busy with actual accomplishment. But studies have proven that working long hours does not lead to better work.To stop your brain from thwarting your productivity, you need to build reminders of yourself of what you really want out of the day. The researchers suggest shifting our mind away from the completion windows to the final outcomes of everyday tasks. Instead of looking for the easy win of a quick task, we can remind ourselves of the bigger tasks long-term benefits. Or as management professorMorten Hansen has told Ladders, focus less on the activities themselves, focus more on the value of each one. Do less, then obsess over the choices you pick. That way, we learn to stay focused on the bigger picture of our careers.