“Sandwiching” isn’t a trend. It’s a crisis.

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Jennifer Levin: Care work Is real work

Today’s episode springs from one moment in my life, in March 2024. I’m sitting in the waiting room of a hospital n Springfield, MA while my mother has heart surgery two floors below. The room is sterile with muted yellow chairs arranged in triads angled so my siblings and I don’t need to make eye contact with others. The East wall is floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on an enclosed garden where I will occasionally walk with my mom during the 31 days that she will be in the hospital. I don’t know any of this yet.

I’m tired because my daughter, who is then three, has been waking in the night with a stubborn insomnia, and by the time she gets back to sleep I often can’t. Maybe it’s the stress of the surgery or the exhaustion of parenting; I keep nodding off slightly and jerking myself awake when my chin hits my shoulder.

Then my phone is ringing. Is it the doctor?

No, it’s the senior producer for Hello Monday. There’s an issue with the episode. A guest is upset by the headline and she wants us to change it. The wonderful terrible thing about work is that with a laptop and a cell phone, I can be available for any question, any time, except when I myself set the limit and don’t pick up the phone or check the Slack.

Reflecting on this now, I felt like I could do it all. I was doing it all—parenting, tending my parent, working. But that Spring nearly broke me. I lost touch with my friends, forgot how to work out, and became accustomed to the uncomfortable feeling of letting other people down at every turn. When people asked how I was doing, I shot back a quick text: “Sandwiching.”

My question for you is this: Who among you has not been in your own version of that hospital waiting room?

Caregiving is the unpaid backbone of our economy. It’s invisible labor, mostly performed by women, with almost no structural support. We’re expected to actually strive for that promotion at work while absorbing the emotional, physical, and financial costs of caregiving. Seriously.

That’s why I asked Jennifer Levin to join me in the studio this week. Her new book is Generation Care: The Revolution We Need to Raise Children, Care for Elders, and Fix a Broken System. She asks us to reimagine caregiving in America.

I’m a Gen Xer. We bear these things with silent, dutiful resentment. But Jennifer is a millennial and she believes her generation is both at the center of this caregiving crisis, and well positioned to lead the way in building a society that values and supports care as essential infrastructure. In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• The emotional toll of caregiving and why so many of us feel alone in it

• Why caregiving should be treated as real, valuable work

• How to support colleagues who are quietly balancing care responsibilities

• Why policy change must recognize caregiving as core to the future of work

• How managers and leaders can create cultures that acknowledge and support caregiving

• The power of talking about caregiving — with friends, with employers, and in public

Be sure to check out Office Hours!

We’ll be taking this conversation to Office Hours this week. You can find me and senior producer Sarah Storm right here on Wednesday afternoon at 3pm EST. We'll talk about the episode...and anything else that's on your mind!

Hello Monday is LinkedIn News’ weekly podcast about the changing nature of work—and how we must change to keep up. It's hosted by me, Jessi Hempel. Subscribe to the show's newsletter.

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