Caregiving Committee Final Report

After fifteen months of remote work for much of UMBC’s staff, we are preparing to return to campus. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the notion of work culture and what productivity looks like, including what we can do to create a holistic and supportive workplace, particularly for those employees who have dual roles as caregivers.

The UMBC Professional Staff Senate designated a Caregiving Committee, who in turn developed a survey and collected responses from a broad cross-section of UMBC staff. The survey gathered quantitative and qualitative data regarding productivity, mental and physical health during the pandemic, work-life balance, and staff attitudes regarding an array of potential benefits that would support caregivers returning to campus.

 

This is an opportunity to leverage what our community has learned during the pandemic to address challenges around accessibility, child care/elder care responsibilities, mental health, and chronic illness/disability, with the goal of creating a workplace that is more accessible, flexible and responsive to the needs of staff, and consistent with UMBC values.