Productivity is lagging.
Deadlines are slipping.
Your high performers seem distracted.
And your team can’t quite name what’s wrong—but something’s off.
It’s not just burnout. It’s not disengagement. And it’s definitely not laziness.
This is deeper. Messier. And it’s showing up in ways you’re not tracking on your dashboards.
What’s Really Behind the Productivity Slide?
Here’s what many companies are missing:
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Crisis overload – Economic pressure, global unrest, community instability—people are coming to work already stretched thin.
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Mental health strain – Anxiety, fatigue, and grief are no longer rare or private. They’re part of daily life, and they shape how people show up.
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Blurry boundaries – Work and life now overlap constantly. The “off switch” many relied on is gone, and the result is exhaustion, not laziness.
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Disconnection from meaning – Employees crave purpose. When it’s missing, performance quietly fades—not in rebellion, but in resignation.
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Caregiving responsibilities – One in four employees is caring for someone—a parent, spouse, child. This isn’t a side job. It’s an invisible one they carry into every meeting, every inbox, every missed deadline.
A Closer Look: Caregiving and the Cost You Don’t See
Caregiving isn’t the only driver of productivity loss—but it’s one of the most invisible. And it’s one that companies rarely prepare for.
Let’s get specific:
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Caregivers lose about a third of their productivity on average.
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That’s $5,600 per caregiver per year in lost output.
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Nationally, U.S. employers lose $17–33 billion annually due to caregiving-related productivity costs.
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Most of that loss comes from presenteeism—employees who show up but aren’t fully present.
And most of this isn’t being tracked.
It’s not because these employees don’t care. It’s because they’re carrying too much. And they’re trying to do it all silently.
What Leaders Can Actually Do
Real life walks through your door every day—you either lead through it or lose to it.
If you want better performance, you have to support the people behind it.
Start here:
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Measure what matters – Beyond deliverables, track patterns in absenteeism, disengagement, and turnover.
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Design with life in mind – Offer caregiver leave, real flexibility, and permission to pause when life hits hard.
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Train leaders to listen – Many performance problems are actually pain signals. Respond accordingly.
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Normalize the conversation – Creating a culture where caregiving isn’t a liability, but a recognized part of life, builds trust—and results.
One Last Thing
This isn’t theoretical for me. I’ve lived it. I’ve watched the tension between caregiving and work play out in real time —while leading teams, consulting leaders, and walking with my own family through dementia.
That’s why I wrote How Old Are You Today? Dementia, A Mother, A Daughter, and The Game That Transformed Their Lives.
To capture what it means to stay connected—even when memory fades, roles shift, and the work of caregiving takes center stage.
The truth is, when leaders understand what their people are carrying, they lead better.
And when we design work for real life, productivity stops slipping—and people start thriving.
