Older Jobseekers’ Temporal Identity Work: Relating to Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

This paper examines how older unemployed people cope with unemployment through temporal identity work. By temporal identity work, we refer to identity work that takes place at junctions between past, present, and future working lives and which relates to these tenses as a part of identity construction.The paper is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with jobseekers aged 50+ living in a region that has undergone deindustrialization and suffers from high unemployment rates. In the interview material, we identified three main types of identity work: Relying on the past, renewing oneself, and tweaking one’s working identity. This article identifies ‘respectably unemployed’ as the cultural construction in relation to which identity work is done in a society that values paid work highly. The paper contributes to the literature on age and unemployment by enhancing the understanding of older jobseekers’ identity work as a contextually embedded temporal process.

Affective Patterns Related to Unemployment

“…However, the importance of wage work for one's identity remains rather central, especially among the more aged population, as this study also partly shows (see also Steel & Tuori 2019). Previous psychological research has argued that losing one's job can be compared to losing a close family member and can even have more prolonged negative effects than divorce or widowhood (von Scheve et al 2017).…”

“…Several interviewees said they had worked away from their respective families and felt it was too hard, both physically and mentally. Only two interviewees felt positive about an itinerant occupation and for both of these, this was a major aspect of their identity work in the interview situation (Steel & Tuori 2019). Many mentioned elderly parents who needed constant care.…”

“…One way is to do voluntary work. Another way is to look at one's values and shift their emphasis to, for instance, family ties and health, which gives people's personal lives meaning (see also Taira 2006;Steel & Tuori, 2019).…”

Entrepreneurship and self-employment for mature-aged people

“…Providing help in translating their previous experience to required skills could be useful to ensure more successful transitions and long-term success. Ways to facilitate and prepare them mentally for the mind shift in how they see themselves and their work identity (Steel & Tuori, 2019) could also be valuable. In this process, human capital can also be retained (Perenyi et al, 2018).…”