Objective 

Caring Workspaces project aims to make our workspaces more inclusive, diverse, caring and safe by prioritizing gender+ perspective. The COVID-19 pandemic created inevitable and deep transformations in work life practices. We aim to lead the way that the transformations in caring responsibilities are addressed from a perspective of equity, inclusivity and employee wellbeing.

Rationale 

As civil society professionals and volunteers working on social good and human rights, despite often being exposed to high levels of stress and precarious working conditions, we seldom talk about our employee rights, mental health and wellbeing. The pressure on our wellbeing only intensified with the COVID-19 pandemic, as home-based work has blurred the boundaries between paid and unpaid areas of our lives. Workers who are expected to be “always available for work” in both space and time experienced performance anxiety.  These have put tremendous pressure on working parents and were almost always exacerbated in relation to inequalities based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, class, disability and sexuality.

Nevertheless, it is also during this period that discussions and queries around care gained new momentum, enabling for new practices to flourish. With the Caring Workspaces project, our goal is to develop a workspace practice that addresses these challenges and encourages inclusivity, diversity and care for employees. 

Activities  

This project primarily aims for transformation in the workspaces of civil society and public benefit organizations. To this aim, it’s scope includes; 

• Research into organizations and organizational practices in Turkey and Europe which can serve as good examples in terms of being a caring workspace; 

• A checklist for organizations’ self-assessment, and 

• A campaign that puts the good practices to vote for visibility and encouragement. 

The project, a pilot study of RESISTIRÉ, will be completed by the end of 2022. RESISTIRÉ is a Europe-wide consortium for developing policy proposals against gender-based inequalities created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

► Visit the project website for more information.