Workplace Perceptions of Older Workers and Implications for Job Retention

Abstract

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.

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

“…When comparing ISCO group 1–4 (mainly seated work) with ISCO group 5–9 (mainly physical work), employees from ISCO group 5–9 were significantly less likely to report their managers to have four out of the five positive attitudes, the exception being, “Older workers are easy to cooperate with”. These findings support previous studies indicating that the attitudes towards older workers varies across occupational groups [ 19 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 27 ] and that managers in white-collar jobs may have less negative attitudes towards older workers [ 21 , 22 ]. Surprisingly, the results showed that respondents from ISCO groups 5–9 were also significantly less likely to believe their managers to have three of the five directly negative perceptions of older workers.…”

“…In addition, findings indicate that older managers [ 13 , 21 , 22 , 23 ] and managers that are in more frequent contact with older workers [ 13 ] hold more positive attitudes towards older workers. A recent study found that concrete experiences with older workers influenced the managers′ perceptions of older workers [ 24 ], indicating that it is not enough merely to have frequent contact with older workers to develop more positive attitudes towards them; the concrete experiences have to be positive.…”

“…Furthermore, there are indications in the literature that both the extent and nature of the attitudes towards older workers among managers vary across occupational groups [ 17 , 19 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], and that that managers’ attitudes towards older workers may be less negative in white-collar jobs [ 21 , 22 ]. Furthermore, qualitative results illustrate that the nature of the negative attitudes may also differ between physically demanding jobs and white-collar jobs.…”

How do employers think about older workers?

“…Rather, we seek to present rich insights into employers' justifications about employing older workers. Nevertheless, the current study is important and innovative, since it reveals not only the justifications used by employers to explain that they do not employ older workers (Frøyland and Terjesen, 2020), but also the perceived “objective reasons” used by employers. As we demonstrated with our findings and analysis, employers' attitudes and abilities with respect to recruiting older workers are not always objective.…”

“…Some previous studies investigated age-based bias and examined situations in which older workers encountered discrimination, for example in hiring, promotion and layoffs (Axelrad et al, 2013;Mong and Roscigno, 2010). While there is a general agreement that such discrimination poses a social problem from a normative as well as a practical perspective (Macnicol, 2005(Macnicol, , 2006, less is known about employers' justifications for these practices (Frøyland and Terjesen, 2020), which may explain some of the barriers faced by older workers (Axelrad, 2021).…”