scholarly journals Workplace Perceptions of Older Workers and Implications for Job Retention

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjetil Frøyland ◽  
Hans Christoffer Aargaard Terjesen
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Heterogeneous Group ◽  
Job Retention ◽  
Employer Attitudes ◽  
The Way

Older workers’ opportunities for late careers are influenced by employer attitudes and willingness. Nordic managers seem unwilling to hire and retain older persons. In this article, we explore Norwegian workplace perceptions of older workers and the way they are positioned at the workplace.We base this article on qualitative interviews with managers and both union and HR-representatives from 19 companies. Previous research has linked this unwillingness to stereotypes and ageism among employers. We find that the perceptions of older workers do not rest only on stereotypes and ageism, but also on concrete experiences of older workers and processes or mechanisms of positioning and polarization that sometimes occur within the workplace. These actors perceive older workers as a heterogeneous group. We argue that these perceptions may lead to ambivalence towards older workers as a group, and in how to handle them individually. Qualified and available support and flexible strategies are needed.

Remaking Retirement

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Older Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cost Of Education ◽  
The World ◽  
Low Interest Rates ◽  
Key Aspects

Around the world, people nearing and entering retirement are holding ever-greater levels of debt than in the past. This is not a benign situation, as many pre-retirees and retirees are stressed about their indebtedness. Moreover, this growth in debt among the older population may render retirees vulnerable to financial shocks, medical care bills, and changes in interest rates. Contributors to this volume explore key aspects of the rise in debt across older cohorts, drill down into the types of debt and reasons for debt incurred by the older population, and review policies to remedy some of the financial problems facing older persons, in the United States and elsewhere. The authors explore which groups are most affected by debt, and they also identify the factors causing this important increase in leverage at older ages. It is clear that the economic and market environments are influential when it comes to saving and debt. Access to easy borrowing, low interest rates, and the rising cost of education have had important impacts on how much people borrow, and how much debt they carry at older ages. In this environment, the capacity to manage debt is ever more important as older workers lack the opportunity to recover for mistakes.

scholarly journals Older workers imagining retirement: the collapse of agency, or freedom at last?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Anne Skevik Grødem ◽  
Ragni Hege Kitterød
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Work Patterns ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Retirement Decisions ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Images of what retirement is and ought to be are changing. Older workers are being encouraged to work for longer, at the same time, older adults increasingly voice expectations of a ‘third age’ of active engagement and new life prospects. In this article, we draw on the literature on older workers’ work patterns and retirement transitions (noting push/pull/stay/stuck/jump factors), and on scholarship on the changing social meaning of old age, most importantly the notions of a ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ age. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 employees in the private sector in Norway, aged between 55 and 66 years. Based on the interviews, we propose three ideal-typical approaches to the work–retirement transition: ‘the logic of deadline’, ‘the logic of negotiation’ and ‘the logic of averting retirement’. The ideal-types are defined by the degree to which informants assume agency in the workplace, their orientation towards work versus retirement and the degree to which they expect to exercise agency in retirement. We emphasise how retirement decisions are informed by notions of the meaning of ageing, while also embedded in relationships with employers and partners.

scholarly journals Combining Work and Pension in Norway: Gathering Information and Imagining the Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Skevik Grødem ◽  
Ragni Hege Kitterød
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Early Death ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Sense Of Ownership ◽  
Information Strategies ◽  
The Future

The Norwegian pension system has provided unprecedented flexibility to combine work and pension drawing from the age of 62, and this has become a popular option. Using qualitative interviews with 28 older workers, we explore their information strategies and motivations. We find that many informants struggle to understand the various options and their consequences and use different strategies to shield themselves from insecurity: they downplay the issue or point to factors beyond their control. Two key motives for early pension take-up are the desire to secure the money for one’s family in the event of early death and to get the money while still vigorous. Informants typically imagine life after 80 as quiet and with fewer material demands. In conclusion, the analysis shows how adaptations to the flexible pension system are embedded in notions of ageing, institutional trust, and a newfound sense of ownership regarding one’s retirement savings.

Our Changing World

2022 ◽  
pp. 13-63
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Family And Work ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way ◽  
Changing World

COVID-19 has dramatically changed our world in terms of telework specifically and remote life in general. We are still learning new things about balancing family and work; trustworthiness, performance, and accountability issues; important changes and discoveries about the way the world goes to work; and discussions of the dynamic ways people communicate. This chapter examines reasons for resistance to telework to shed light on how COVID-19 has changed us. The discussion that follows centers on qualitative interviews concerning telework, an evaluation of employee engagement now and in the future, and ideas and actions that should prove helpful to organizations. Analyzing the interviews reveals several common threads: distractions, fatigue, accountability, communication, productivity, technology, coping, work hours, resources, and plan approaches.

scholarly journals Expectations, loss aversion and retirement decisions in the context of the 2009 crisis in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Nicolas Sirven ◽  
Thomas Barnay
Keyword(s):  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Reduced Form ◽  
Job Retention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Retirement Decisions ◽  
Form Model ◽  
Reduced Form Model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to estimate a reduced form model of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences to explain job retention of older workers in Europe in the context of the 2009 economic crisis. Design/methodology/approach Using individual micro-economic longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe between 2006 and 2011, the authors derive a measure of “good, bad or no surprise” from workers’ anticipated evolution of their standard of living five years from 2006 (reference point) and from a comparison of their capacity to make ends meet between 2006 and 2011. Findings The authors find that the probability to remain on the labour market in 2011 is significantly higher for individuals who experienced a lower than expected standard of living. The effect of a “bad surprise” on job retention is larger than the effect of a “good surprise” once netted out from the effects of expectations at baseline, change in consumption utility, and the usual life-cycle determinants on job retention of older workers. Originality/value The authors interpret this result as an evidence of loss aversion in the case the reference point is based on individuals’ expectations. The authors also find that loss aversion is more common among men, risk-averse individuals and those with a higher perceived life expectancy.

scholarly journals The Way of Improvement of Quality of Life of Older Persons as Users and Maintainers of Technical Means

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 520-528
Author(s):  
Andrzej Wieczorek
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
The Future ◽  
Multidisciplinary Model ◽  
The Way

Abstract In the article the way of improvement quality of life as users and maintainers of technical means is presented. It is assumed that it is necessary to keep the fundamental of sustainable development. Therefore the application of the scheme of the process of satisfying needs is shown. It helps establish the activities necessary to achieve this goal and enables to plan required information resources. In the range of exploitation and design tasks the application of original strategy of exploitation by older persons was proposed. This strategy uses 6R method which in the future will be supplemented on elements commonly executed strategies and policies of exploitation. Decision making in accordance with proposed strategy will be possible by performing calculations and simulation with the use of multidisciplinary model, whose conception was indicated in the article and which uses matrix of assessment of the quality of life.

scholarly journals “He Explained It to Me and I Also Did It Myself”: How Older Adults Get Support with Their Technology Uses

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311988786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Hunsaker ◽  
Minh Hao Nguyen ◽  
Jaelle Fuchs ◽  
Teodora Djukaric ◽  
Larissa Hugentobler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Heterogeneous Group ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Technology Support ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Wide Availability

Given that older adults constitute a highly heterogeneous group that engages with digital media in varying ways, there is likely to be large variation in technology support needs, something heretofore unaddressed in the literature. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with a multinational sample of older adults, the authors explore the support needs of older adults for using digital media, including their perceptions of whether the support they receive meets their needs. Participants obtained assistance from both informal (e.g., adult children) and formal (e.g., computer classes) sources. However, the support given can lack immediacy, leaving older adults dependent on others’ availability to provide it. Educational approaches that emphasize individualized support and wide availability might allow an improved experience for a population that is increasingly online with an interest in a wide range of activities.

The allied health collective

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-56
Author(s):  
Susan Nancarrow ◽  
Alan Borthwick
Keyword(s):  
Allied Health ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
Heterogeneous Group ◽  
Allied Health Professions ◽  
Professional Project ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Individual Professional ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the concept of allied health as a confederation of constituent professions. We examine: the way that different jurisdictions define the allied health collective; the rationale for those groupings; and the impact of inclusion (or otherwise) of the groupings on the individual professional project of specific allied health professions. Concepts that will be explored include the considerations around a heterogeneous group of occupations attempting to work together to achieve a single professional project. It also also explores the international contexts of the allied health professions and the relevance of the specific comparisons between Australia and the UK.

scholarly journals Kindred spirits: Doing family through craft entrepreneurship

2020 ◽  
pp. 003802612091613
Author(s):  
Thomas Thurnell-Read
Keyword(s):  
Social Ties ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Entrepreneurial Ventures ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Role Allocation ◽  
The Way

While there is a tradition of viewing both craftwork and entrepreneurship as characteristically individualistic and autonomous activities, this article examines the way in which social ties of family and kinship are often integral to many entrepreneurial ventures. Instead of a neat divide between ‘separate spheres’, work and home permeate each other in meaningful ways. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 20 workers from UK craft gin distilleries, this article explores how kinship and intimacy are put to work in craft enterprises. Findings show that the involvement of family and kin is vital to the operations of many craft businesses. Working together with spouses and siblings brings benefits and challenges and involves negotiating task and role allocation, often through invoking heteronormative notions of suitability and complementarity. Such concerns are bound up with how family and kin are understood by participants. Their reflections on entrepreneurial kinship involve both narratives of work and visions of a lifestyle which are both familial and entrepreneurial.

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