In recent years, companies have invested a lot of time andenergy into improving company culture. Shiny new fitness centers,break rooms stocked with refreshments and equipped with couches andbig screen TVs, flexible work hours, extended vacation time, freemeals, educational programs — the list of employee perks and benefits goes on.Companies like Zappos and Google are leading the wayin the company culture movement. Zappos even screens prospectiveemployees through a cultural fit interview to ensure they’re theright fit for the company’s culture.

So what’s the motivation behind the company culture frenzy thesedays? For one, companies seem to be realizing that employees aremore than just revenue-producing pawns. Employees want to be valuedand treated with respect. The other reason is that employees tendto work harder when they are comfortable with their company’sculture and feel like they are working toward a common goal andvision. In short, great company culture will result in drivenemployees and increased productivity.

Companies have certainly come a long way in taking care of theiremployees, but what if there is another factor flying under theradar that can’t be solved in break rooms or fitness centers and iskilling workplace productivity? In fact, this responsibility isforcing employees to cut back on work hours, take leaves of absenceor, in some cases, even lose their jobs. To top it all off, what ifemployees felt they had no choice but to take on thisresponsibility and face it alone?

This employee responsibility that is killing workplaceproductivity, as studies are revealing, is family caregiving.AARP estimates that 23.9 million employees areproviding care for a loved one while working at a paying job.What’s more, a Caregivers in the Workplace study by the University ofCalifornia at Hastings reported that, “Nearly one in four workersprovides eldercare, and half expect do so in the next five years.These numbers will only become more extreme not only as thepopulation ages, but as the workforce ages, given that workers overthe age of 55 are those most likely to provide care.”

So how does the prevalence of employee caregiving impactworkplace productivity? Here’s just one example:

Joe is 49 and works as a sales manager in Chicago. He has beenwith his company for seven years and has worked his way up to amid-level management position. Joe spends his days meeting withprospective customers and managing his team of account managementemployees.

Toward the end of a hectic week, Joe blocked time out of hisschedule to take his 85-year-old mother to her primary care doctor.He had noticed that his mother was moving slower of late and washaving a lot of trouble getting around the house. Joe suspected his90-year-old father wasn’t telling him the full story about hismother’s conditions.

At the doctor’s office, Joe was shocked to learn that his motherhad been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Unsure of whatquestions to ask, Joe learned that his mother might have adifficult road ahead of her, especially given her advanced age.

Back at the office, Joe begins researching Parkinson’sspecialists. He also worries about his father’s ability to takecare of his mother, so Joe begins coming into work later so that hecan stop by his parents’ house and check in on them every morning.Joe knows it’s only a matter of time before his mother’s care needsbecome more than his father can handle, but he has no idea where tolook for additional care. Joe fears that his parents will have tomove in with his family, adding even more chaos to a home with twoteenagers.

Before long, Joe is regularly taking time off of work to carefor his mother and he begins to fall behind on many of his team’ssales goals. Joe is still unsure where to turn for help for hismother, and is facing growing pressure from his boss about his lackof productivity at work. The responsibility of caregiving isquickly becoming overwhelming for Joe and costly for hiscompany.

While Joe’s story is a fictional example, studies are revealingthat situations like these are very real for many caregivers.Genworth’s Expanding Circle of Care report found that 77percent of caregivers report missing work in order to provide carefor a loved one, while 52 percent report having to work fewerhours, 51 percent feel caregiving had negatively impacted theircareer and 11 percent report losing their job due to providingcare. The report also outlines the financial and physical toll ofcaregiving: 62 percent of caregivers said they used their ownsavings or retirement funds to pay for care, and 43 percent ofcaregivers said caregiving negatively affected their personalhealth and well-being.

Caregiving cannot be treated as an isolated event, either. Mostcaregiving events demand a caregiver’s time and energy for years.In fact, a 2015 Caregiving in the U.S. analysis by the NationalAlliance for Caregiving found that, on average, caregivers ofadults have been in their role for four years, with a quarterhaving provided care for five years or more.

At one point or another, the reality is that everyone will be acaregiver on some level. Whether it’s a child, parent orgrandparent needing care, the caregiving responsibility willundoubtedly fall on a family member. This is cause for concern asAARP reports that, “In 2010, the caregiversupport ratio was more than 7 potential caregivers for every personin the high-risk years of 80-plus … By 2030, the ratio is projectedto decline sharply to 4 to 1; and it is expected to further fall toless than 3 to 1 in 2050, when all (baby) boomers will be in thehigh-risk years of late life.”

Fewer caregivers with more Americans in the high-risk years oflate life inevitably means that more Americans will find their worklives colliding with their caregiving responsibilities. The problemis employers have been lagging behind the times when it comes toproviding support for their employee caregivers.

Cynthia Calvert, senior advisor for the Center for WorkLife Lawat UC Hastings suggests, “Employees’ expectations that they shouldbe able to care for their family members, raise their children, andsupport their parents, frequently collide with employers’expectations that employees will be ‘ideal workers’ — those who canwork full-time, full-force for 40 years or more with no time offfor childbearing, childrearing, or other caregiving. Although fewsuch workers exist today, the structure and norms of the workplacestill exist as if they predominate.”

The evidence is furthered by the NAC’s findings that only 23percent of working caregivers say their employers offer employeeassistance programs or telecommuting to accommodate theircaregiving responsibilities. At the same time, 84 percent ofcaregivers state they could use more information or help oncaregiving topics, 25 percent say it is very difficult to getaffordable services in their loved one’s community that would helpwith their care, and 22 percent would like additional informationabout making end-of-life decisions.

The bottom line is that employee caregivers need support.Studies are proving that the responsibility of caring for an agingloved one is overwhelming employees who are already juggling afull-time job and family activities of their own. And this uglytruth about caregiving is killing workplace productivity.