Finding a work-life balance is hard enough when you’re able to clock-out of work and come home to just relax at the end of the day. But if you’re working a full-time job and working as a caregiver to an elderly loved one, it can seem nearly impossible to find balance in your life. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help you stay on top of both of these areas of your life without losing yourself in the process.

To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for balancing work with caring for an elderly loved one.

Speak With Your Boss Or HR

Once it becomes apparent that you’re going to be taking on responsibility for caring for your elderly loved one, one of the best things you can do to start finding balance is to speak with your boss or the human resource manager at your place of work.

When you speak to this person, you’ll be able to explain your situation and what kind of flexibility you might be needing in order to continue working while being a caregiver. In some instances, you might find that you’re able to get a lot more flexibility than you even thought was possible for you. But you won’t know this until you broach the topic and ask for what you need from work. Also, most businesses are legally required to allow people to take a certain amount of family leave while still maintaining their job, so it’s good to know what you have available to you legally in order to make your new normal work.

Build A Network Of Caregivers On Standby

While you might be committed to giving the bulk of the care to your elderly loved one right now, you’re going to need to have others that you can rely on to share the load every once in a while.

Knowing this, it’s wise to build a network of people around you and your elderly loved one that you can call on to lend a hand when needed. Whether you have something big coming up for work that you can’t miss or you just need someone else to be with your loved one for a while, having friends, family members, or hired care workers available will make your life much easier to manage.

Do What Works For You, Guilt-Free

One of the biggest problems people face when becoming a caregiver is feeling guilt over not being the best possible caregiver or feeling guilt over not being the best possible employee. This can cause you to have a ton of stress in your life, which isn’t good for finding balance.

To alleviate this, you’ve got to give up your feelings of guilt. All you can do is what you can do. And if this means looking into an assisted living community for your loved one at a certain point, then you need to give yourself permission to do this.

If you’re having a hard time balancing working with being a caregiver for an elderly loved one, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you better manage this time in your life.