Factors associated to managers’ belief whether their employees cannot and do not want to work until an older age, and measure activities increasing their employees’ possibilities of working in an extended working life.

Abstract

Background: The demographic situation with an increasing number of elderly citizens will postpone the retirement age in most countries. However, retirement is a socially accepted way to withdraw from a demanding working life.Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the main factors associated to managers’ beliefs their employees want to or can work until 65 years of age or beyond, and measures increasing participation in an extended working life.Methods: The baseline survey in a follow up study including 249 managers in the municipality sector in Sweden. By logistic regression we investigated the associations between two outcome measures: i) whether employees wanted to work, and ii) whether employees could work until 65 years of age or beyond, and statements within nine areas related to a sustainable working life as well as measure statements for an extend working life.Results : Of the mangers 79% stated their employees ‘can’ and 58% that their employees ‘want to’ work until 65 years of age or beyond. The employees’ health, physical work environment, skills and competence were statistically significant to the mangers’ belief that their employees could not work until 65 years of age or beyond. Lack of support in the social work environment and lack of possibilities to arrange relocations were the most important factors to managers’ beliefs whether employees would not want to work until age 65 or beyond.Conclusion: To offer the employee other tasks in the workplace if needed was a measure statistically significant associated to increase the managers’ belief whether their employees both could and wanted to go on and work until 65 years of age and beyond. Additionally, the managers’ belief measures to decreased physical and mental strains and rotation between different tasks to reduce work load and wear would increase whether their employees can work, and reduction of pace and working hours would increase whether employees want to work in an extended working life past 65 years of age. The managers’ perspective on how their employees ‘can’ and ‘want’ to work will hopefully contribute to the understanding of the extended working life process.

Managers’ Attitudes to Different Action Proposals in the Direction to Extended Working Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…A sufficiently sound health is a prerequisite for employability and to participate in working life [20,24,[26][27][28][29]. However, professional work also affects biological ageing, by wear and tear caused by the physical and mental work environments, the possibility to recuperate during and between work shifts, but also by the strengthening impacts of our work [17,18,24,26,30,31,[36][37][38][39].…”

“…For example, some managers perceive senior employees as stagnant and as an obstacle to organisational development, through having difficulties in adjusting to change, through working more slowly and being less educated, as well as through holding negative attitudes towards new technology [17,21]. The experience of such negative attitudes, from managers towards senior employees, could push people out of working life early [18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Professional work contributes to the upkeep of livelihood, food, and living expenses, and is often the main source of funding for individuals' lives [17][18][19]22,[24][25][26]32]. Insufficient employability due to ill health, lack of support, and lack of skills risk resulting in exclusion from working life and a poorer financial situation for the individual, not least in bad times, through sick leave, unemployment, early retirement, etc.…”

“…Human beings are herd animals; working life can contribute to the experience of participation and inclusion in a group as well as to a sense of security [17,18,21,24,26,27,34,43]. On the other hand, working life can also contribute to the experience of exclusion and neglect, or even discrimination [23,26,27,43].…”

“…Working life is constantly changing and employees must be and remain employable in relation to the requirements of knowledge and skills in order to be able to execute their work tasks and activities [17][18][19]24,26,27,34,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Work tasks and activities can be a source of motivation, stimulation, and joy through the challenge to learn new things and develop, however, it can also be a source of boredom, dissatisfaction, and stagnation from which individuals want to make their exit as soon as possible [17,18,24,26,32,34,43,48,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64].…”