Forward by: Louise Ritchie, Working with Dementia Network Plus Lead
We share this blog in memory of our colleague Dr Josephine McMurray, who sadly died in 2025. Written in April 2025, shortly before she became unwell, this blog demonstrates Josephine’s enthusiasm, commitment and drive to improve the lives of people working with dementia, and the organisations and structures in our society that support them. Josephine was instrumental in the planning, application process and development of the Working with Dementia Network Plus and we are incredibly grateful for her support and encouragement.
As we launch our blog series, and move to the next phase of the Network we will continue to be inspired by Josephine’s message to politely challenge, ask questions and act to make positive change for those affected by dementia in work.
Strain, Resilience, and Rethinking the Rules: What Our Research Tells Us About Work and Dementia
What happens when the systems we build to help people actually hold them back?
That’s a question we kept running into while doing a study across two large Canadian organizations—one in healthcare and the other in government—as part of a project looking at how workplaces support employees with cognitive challenges like Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Young-Onset Dementia (YOD).
Our paper[1], currently under review and being presented at this year’s Academy of Management conference in Copenhagen, explores how organizations manage the often-complicated reality of supporting employees whose cognitive capacity may change over time. We interviewed 97 employees—executives, managers, and staff—across both sites. What we learned wasn’t just about accommodations. It was about how the very rules and processes meant to help can sometimes get in the way.
And it’s not just a Canadian problem.
Across the Working with Dementia Network Plus, and especially in the newly formed Carers Forum, we’re hearing similar themes: how rigid HR policies, inconsistent managerial support, and fears about financial security are all too common for carers and people diagnosed with dementia. In our research, those same issues were showing up again and again in real workplaces—despite best intentions.
So what did we find?
The headline is this: technology and policy are part of the solution—but only part. What matters most is how well an organization can adapt, listen, and respond over time.
We found that when managers had the ability to make decisions quickly and with empathy—without needing three levels of sign-off—employees were far more likely to disclose their condition and intend to stay in work longer. Informal accommodations (like flexible hours, modified tasks, or even adjusting the lighting or pace of meetings) often worked better than formal policies—especially when there was trust.
But when organizations relied heavily on rigid rules or struggled to integrate assistive technologies, accommodations often came too late—or not at all. And employees, understandably, disengaged.
To make sense of it all, we built a model—something we’re calling the “Strain and Resilience Cycles.” It’s not a checklist or a compliance guide. It’s a way to understand how organizations respond over time to changing employee needs. If you keep adding job demands without giving people the tools and support they need, you enter a strain cycle: burnout, conflict, and turnover. But if you invest in the right kinds of resources—supportive leadership, adaptive technologies, clear but flexible processes—you can shift into a resilience cycle where all employees, but particularly those with MCI or YOD may flourish.
Why does this matter now?
As the UKRI-funded WWD Network Plus moves into its next phase, this kind of research can help frame how we approach employer engagement, policy advocacy, and future grant applications.
The Carers Forum identified gaps in employer awareness, in employer responses based on company size, impact on pensions and financial security, lack of managerial compassion and rigid workplace policies. Our study found all those same issues playing out in live organizations—underscoring just how aligned our collective priorities are, even across borders.
This isn’t just about creating “dementia-friendly” workplaces. It’s about building systems that can flex—across time, roles, and responsibilities—to meet people where they are.
Because if we’ve learned anything from the 97 people who shared their stories with us, it’s this: resilience doesn’t come from having all the answers in a binder. It comes from having the courage to ask better questions—and the freedom to act on what we hear.
[1] McMurray, J., Levy, A., Rasheed, S., Cole, A., Kokorelias, K. M., Boger, J., Burns, C., Astell, A., & Mann, J. (2025). Balancing organizational demands and resources for employees with mild cognitive impairment and young-onset dementia: Integrating job demands-resource and socio-technical systems theories [Manuscript under review]