Our last blog posts of the year has usually been an age at work story with a festive twist. They’re not always that easy to find. This year we bring you this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald about the role of grandparents in providing child care who might now be looking forward to a break over the festive season. Entitled ‘Grandparents put their feet up after a year of helping the rest of us achieve the impossible‘ it highlights the reliance working parents have on their own parents to look after their children. The parents are generally working in paid employment whereas most grandparents are providing unpaid childcare. A reminder that childcare is still ‘work’ even if you are not getting paid, and whatever age you are when you undertake it!
The article points out the benefits of such arrangements: “Within our larger communities there are those in the older generation who work hard, generally without payment, for our benefit throughout the year. Many of us rely on the contribution, the kindness, the love of these older members of our community. Yet too often we fail to appropriately include and appreciate them.” Closer to home, this last sentiment has been the message of Age UK’s campaign ‘No one should have no one’.
Meanwhile Sarah Millican will be running her #joinin twitter initiative to alleviate loneliness again on Christmas Day. As she explains to the Huffington Post, this is for those who are on their own at Christmas not through choice: “Be it because they have no family, are estranged from their family, it’s not their turn to have the kids, even just that their partner is at work, whatever. Alone and would rather not be.” The idea is to use Twitter to connect people who otherwise wouldn’t have anyone to talk to on Christmas Day.
All these stories remind us (whatever our age) that we benefit from the work of others, that valuing what we have is important and that we can contribute to those who may not be so fortunate this year.
We’ll be back in January but in the meantime, Merry Christmas.
It would be fair to say that this has been a very busy term for Katrina and me in our respective universities so our apologies for not having blogged for a while.
What have we missed? A survey by CV-Library covered here on the Small Business website reports that 70% of UK workers said age discrimination is common in their workplace. The survey was also covered here by the Independent and by Free Press website with the latter highlighting that the percentage reporting this in Wales was even higher, at 81%. It didn’t offer any explanation for this though.
A decade after discrimination on the grounds of age was made unlawful, this is depressing reading. It is good to note that the survey did not assume that discrimination is only targeted at either younger or older workers, but could be directed at people of any age. Unfortunately the detail suggests that the application of age stereotypes are still a feature of recruitment practices in some organizations. Of those who said they were considered ‘too young’ for a job, nearly half said they were told they didn’t have enough experience and over a third said the employer felt no-one would take them seriously. For those considered to be ‘too old’, one in five were told that they would be ‘too stuck in their own ways’.
Age Cymru, BITC Cymru and You Gov have worked together to place ageing in Wales under the spotlight. The survey finds, perhaps unsurprisingly, increased concern about the need to work longer for financial reasons alongside worries about the health implications of doing so. The survey found that 43% of respondents believe they will be working past state pension age and plan to continue working in their current job.
Relatedly, the Welsh Government are reminding employers that people have #nobestbeforedate and also highlighting that many over 50’s plan to keep on working into their sixties.
The aim of this campaign is to address myths about employing older workers.
Once again there have been headlines this week regarding issues of ageism in the tech industry. Thanks to my colleage Almuth McDowall for drawing my attention to this article in The Register which reports a survey by job website Indeed.com of tech workers. It found that in the US almost half ‘live in constant fear that age will end their careers’. It likens tech workers to Hollywood stars (in terms of their vulnerability to being seen as ‘too old’).
The article links to a blogpost by Raj Mukherjee which gives further details. Unfortunately, the piece uses all the generational labels (Millennials, Baby Boomers) that we find unhelpful and which research shows don’t usually represent groups between whom there are meaningful or significant differences. Still, I guess it’s interesting to see the attitudes and experience of people of different age groups in this industry. A couple of points to note: those who were once the ‘young guns’ in tech are themselves getting older. There seem to be some differences in the types of tech job that different age groups apply for (and where).
Mukherjee also very rightly calls out the importance of language, arguing that organizations can improve workforce diversity by using age-inclusive language in their communications and job postings. “Removing terms like ‘recent graduate’ and ‘digital native‘ can go a long way toward encouraging older professionals apply for these positions,” he said.
All of this is right up the street of Katrina’s PhD student Christine Brown who’s conducting her doctoral studies at Birkbeck on the professional identity of the older ‘digital worker’. This is her Twitter response to the tweet about the survey, in which she makes the point that those working in the industry may also reinforce age stereotypes.
…you happen to be sitting on a very large pension pot and happen to be the person who oversaw the reform to state pension age.
Aside from the glowing tributes from the Civil Service much is made in the press about his retirement age – he will be leaving on his 61st birthday in January – and the size of his pension pot – £1.8 million according to the Daily Mail.
The news not only comes on the back of a raft of changes to state pension arrangements but also the recent announcement that any review of the specific changes to women’s pension age entitlements will not take place. This is despite campaigns that had highlighted poor communication leaving many women born in the 1950’s with too little time to make satisfactory arrangements for their pension.
Regular readers of this blog will know that we have covered the topic of ‘generational differences’ more than once; the methodological limitations of many studies in this area are now well rehearsed – for example – investigating attitudes of one ‘generation’ and claiming it possesses some unique characteristic that must be accommodated in the workplace. If we were to be cynical we might say that these ‘findings’ promote a certain type of business – that of telling managers how they must / can manage this accommodation.
A recent paper published this summer reports on a meta-analysis of 77 studies and 105 different measures of work ethic in different ‘generations’ : Zabel, K. L., Biermeier-Hanson, B. B. J., Baltes, B. B., Early, B. J., & Shepard, A. (2017). Generational Differences in Work Ethic: Fact or Fiction? Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(3), 301-315.
The article is behind a pay wall but see here in Science Daily for a useful synopsis: ‘The analysis found no differences in the work ethic of different generations. These findings support other studies that found no difference in the work ethics of different generations when considering different variables, such as the hours they work or their commitment to family and work. Zabel’s team did however note a higher work ethic in studies that contained the response of employees working in industry rather than of students.’
This is the latest in a line of papers that suggest that so-called ‘generational differences’ have been over-stated at best and at worst are the product of sloppy methodologies.
After an eventful summer we are back with a brief round up of the notable – though not necessarily insightful – news on age at work over the last few weeks!
Rebecca and I will be presenting our paper called “Facing up to Work” at 12th International Ethnography Symposium in Manchester this week. Looking forward to meeting old and new colleagues and getting feedback on this new area of our research
On a busy news day for the BBC (see #notonthelist), the increase in state pension age is to be brought forward to 2037. This change impacts those who are currently aged between 39 and 47. In principle this gives those affected 20 years to plan for this change, although future changes are not necessarily ruled out.
The timing of the announcement – at the same time as research reporting that the rate of life expectance increase was slowing – was noted by many as slightly incongruous.
I recently spotted “Renaissance Magazine” at London City Airport and it sparked my curiosity. This is a new magazine, launched in 2017 and will be published three times a year. From its website it aims to:
“break conventions with exquisite fashion editorials featuring models over 40, essays for the mind & soul and interviews with inspiring people from around the world”
and address “the needs and interests of contemporary women over 45”.
You could (at a push) argue I am absolutely their target market – so why didn’t I buy a copy? Because it really doesn’t look that different!
Issue 02 offers the option of ‘choosing‘ your own cover for the ‘body’ issue. However these images raise many of the same issues that are often debated in the literature about constructions of the ‘acceptable’ ageing body (here, still looking like a super model).
This is timely in light of our forthcoming research presentations at conferences this summer in which we examine both our own and others aesthetic labouring and ageing!
Professor Katrina Pritchard
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