The Key to Balancing Caregiving and Career? Delegating Responsibilities
7.24.2026
Approximately 53 million Americans provide unpaid family care for loved ones and 61% of them are also employed full or part time.
A recent program, “Helping the Helpers: Balancing Work and Caregiving Without Burning Out,” covered strategies to balance the demands of caregiving with work and personal obligations.
The program was led by Emma Soy, nurse and founder and CEO of Gentle Shepherd Care, an eldercare and home care agency based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Why is this issue really hard for professionals like attorneys?” said Soy. “One of the reasons is that you are trained to handle everything. You are able to control things… You solve problems. Caregiving is a problem that you really cannot solve fully. Things come in that you don’t expect. That tension is relentless. The skills that make you excellent as a great attorney can actually work against you when you start doing caregiving – because everything that you know is really hard to apply when you’re providing care for an aging loved one.”
Soy said that for lawyers who also act as caregivers, the key to balancing all of their responsibilities and reducing burnout is knowing how to delegate tasks and ask for help.
“So if you hear anything I say today, [it] is get help, because you don’t have to do this alone,” Soy said.
Soy also said that even naming and identifying caregiver burnout is the first step to addressing it and giving oneself permission to ask for help. It also helps to notify others at your firm in case an accommodation is available.
“You don’t have to tell everybody everything, but you’ve got to find someone that you can trust, like a colleague at work,” Soy said. “And then you can start discussing what’s going on with you.”
She said it is important to delegate responsibilities to a care team – including people like a nurse care manager, an elder law attorney, a financial planner, a home health aide and other family members. These are people who can help manage appointments, medications, insurance, direct care, finances, and other caregiving duties.
“The hardest delegation is that emotional work,” Soy said. “Stop being the person everyone calls for support. Stop being the person that everybody calls when they are stressed out, and they’re tired, and they need you to help them carry the load. Protect your professional life, because after all of this, you’re still going to need your career.”
Soy also advised setting aside blocks of time that are free from caregiving and are instead dedicated to self-care – like a run at the park or a dinner with no phones.
“You are allowed not to be the primary caregiver,” Soy said. “You don’t have to be. Who else in the family could be the primary caregiver? You are allowed to set limits on how much information you take on.”
The seminar was sponsored by the Lawyer Assistance and Attorney Well-Being programs. It was the latest in a series dealing with caring for loved ones, following sessions on creating an elder care plan and having difficult conversations with aging parents.
