What Do the Managers Think of Us? The Older-Worker-Perspective of Managers’ Attitudes

Abstract

Background: Due to demographic changes, the need to prolong working life has become increasingly salient. Paradoxically, stereotyping and discrimination against workers based on their age can limit possibilities for a long working life. A large body of research has investigated attitudes towards older workers; however, less is known about differences across occupational groups as well gender differences. Aim: To compare perceptions of the managers’ perceptions of older workers between employees from mainly seated work and mainly physical work as well as men and women. Method: Data from 11,444 workers aged 50+ from the baseline questionnaire survey in the SeniorWorkingLife study were analyzed. Results: Across all groups, a larger proportion of the respondents indicated that their managers had more positive than negative perceptions of older workers. Respondents from the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) group 5–9 (mainly physical work) and women were less likely to point at both positive and negative perceptions than the ISCO group 14 (mainly seated work) and men, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicate that there are differences between those with mainly physical and mainly seated work as well as gender differences. More research is warranted to explore the nature of these differences and, in particular, attitudes towards older female and male workers, respectively.

The Relationship between Work, Health and Job Performance for a Sustainable Working Life: A Case Study on Older Manual Employees in an Italian Steel Factory

“…Managers are less subjected to more soft influences, such as organisational factors, in their evaluations of employees. This might be linked to the literature on age stereotypes and the idea that managers provide an evaluation based on an image of older workers where the health impairments (as assessed by work ability) have a strong influence [ 4 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Previous research has found that while managers’ attitudes toward soft skills (reliability and loyalty) have improved over time, their attitudes toward hard skills (such as physical stamina) have not improved [ 24 ].…”

Employee perception of managers’ attitudes towards older workers is associated with risk of loss of paid work before state pension age: prospective cohort study with register follow-up

“…Furthermore, managers and employers are generally found to hold more positive than negative attitudes towards older workers (Jenkins and Poulston 2014 ; Jensen and Møberg 2012 ; Kluge and Krings 2008 ; Meng et al 2021 ; Van Dalen et al 2009 ). The positive stereotypes and beliefs include that older workers are committed, loyal, honest, trustworthy, more stable, dependable, and less likely to miss work or turnover quickly (Posthuma and Campion 2007 ).…”