Wendy Loretto

Ageism and Employment: Controversies, Ambiguities and Younger People's Perceptions

This paper traces the emergence and evolution of the concept of ageism with respect to employment matters in the UK, and challenges some features of the emerging concept as defective and undermining of efforts to eradicate age discrimination in employment. Also revealed is some loosening in recent years of the association of the term ‘ageism’ with older employees. This latter observation informed the focus of our empirical work, which examined the views of 460 Business Studies students concerning age and employment. A significant proportion had experienced ageism directly in employment, and a large majority favoured the introduction of legislative protection against age discrimination, with blanket coverage irrespective of age. Though negative stereotypes regarding older workers were by no means uncommon among the sample, little firm evidence emerged of intergenerational tensions or resentment towards older people. The concluding section considers the policy implications of our findings, including the relative merits of weighting policy responses towards older employees. It is argued that initiatives restricted in this way, and further constrained by commercial imperatives and macro-economic objectives, are likely to prove divisive and self-defeating as a means of combating ageism.

The domestic and gendered context for retirement

Against a global backdrop of population and workforce ageing, successive UK governments have encouraged people to work longer and delay retirement. Debates focus mainly on factors affecting individuals’ decisions on when and how to retire. We argue that a fuller understanding of retirement can be achieved by recognizing the ways in which individuals’ expectations and behaviours reflect a complicated, dynamic set of interactions between domestic environments and gender roles, often established over a long time period, and more temporally proximate factors. Using a qualitative data set, we explore how the timing, nature and meaning of retirement and retirement planning are played out in specific domestic contexts. We conclude that future research and policies surrounding retirement need to: focus on the household, not the individual; consider retirement as an often messy and disrupted process and not a discrete event; and understand that retirement may mean very different things for women and for men.

The Future for Older Workers: New Perspectives

Introduction ~ Wendy Loretto, Sarah Vickerstaff and Phil White Older workers in the Labour market: the demographic context ~ Mike Danson The American experience of age discrimination legislation ~ John Macnicol The employment of older people: can we learn from Japan? ~ Bernard Casey Moving older people into jobs: incapacity benefit, Labours reforms and the job shortfall in the UK regions ~ Christina Beatty and Stephen Fothergill Womens knowledge of and attitudes to pensions ~ Sue Ward Sustaining working lives: the challenge of retention ~ Donald Hirsch Healthy work for older workers ~ Amanda Griffiths Flexible work and older workers ~ Wendy Loretto, Sarah Vickerstaff and Phil White The employability of older workers: what works? ~ Tony Maltby Is extending working life possible?: research and policy issues ~ Chris Phillipson The future for older workers: opportunities and constraints ~ Sarah Vickerstaff, Wendy Loretto and Phil White.

Gender, age and flexible working in later life

In many countries economic and social concerns associated with ageing populations have focused attention onto flexible forms of working as key to encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement. This article argues that there has been a remarkable lack of attention paid to the role of gender in extending working lives and contends that this gap has arisen because of two, inter-related, oversights: little consideration of relationships between gender and flexible working beyond the child-caring phase of life; and the prevailing tendency to think of end of working life and retirement as gender-neutral or following a typical male trajectory. The findings of a qualitative study of people aged 50+ in the UK challenge some of the key assumptions underpinning the utility of flexible work in extending working lives, and provide insight into the ways in which working in later life is constructed and enacted differently for men and women.

Workplace Change and Employee Mental Health: Results from a Longitudinal Study

This study is intended to improve understanding of the impact of workplace change on employee mental health and well-being. We construct and test a comprehensive measure of organizational change, which is then applied in a prospective longitudinal study of nearly 5400 employees in six UK National Health Service Trusts. Self-rated mental health was assessed using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Just under a quarter of the sample were at increased risk of psychiatric morbidity (‘cases’). After controlling for a wide range of personal characteristics and work variables, it was found that respondents who reported an increase in the amount of work over the previous year were more likely to be classed as GHQ cases, whereas increased training and promotion and improved job security had a beneficial effect on employee mental health (less likelihood of being GHQ cases). Quantity or degree of change showed a somewhat ambiguous relationship with GHQ status. Our findings challenge the assumption that change will necessarily have an adverse effect on health, indicating areas, such as promotion and development, where a positive impact might be anticipated.

Assessing psychological well-being: A holistic investigation of NHS employees

A substantial body of research has investigated the effects of work on the psychological well-being of employees. However, there has been little assessment of the ways in which workplace factors (such as job demands, working conditions, inter-personal relations and workplace change) interact with personal factors (such as work-life balance, family circumstances, key personality traits or demographic characteristics) to affect psychological health. This article reports findings from a study which aimed to construct and test a comprehensive model of the influences on employee well-being within the UK National Health Service (NHS). The results show that psychological well-being is influenced by a complex array of personal, environmental and work factors. A key finding is that there are clear associations between workplace change and well-being and between work-life (im)balance and well-being. These effects appear to be independent of one another and therefore require separate attention from managers and employers.

Ageism, early exit, and British trade unions

Union responses to ageism and the early exit phenomenon are here examined, based on documentation received from some 40 British unions. Our results show that though age discrimination is now accorded some prominence in union agendas, policies towards exit are only partially informed by current conceptions of ageism.

Youthful Drinking in Northern Ireland and Scotland: Preliminary results from a comparative study

Available evidence suggests that drinking habits in Northern Ireland are markedly different from those in Britain. A cross-cultural study was conducted of self-reported alcohol use amongst 1172 young people aged 11–12 and 14–16 years old in selected areas of Northern Ireland and Scotland. The results of this study supported earlier findings: the Northern Irish teenagers were less likely than their counterparts in the Scottish study group to have consumed an alcoholic drink. However, the findings also showed that the young drinkers in the Northern Irish group were more likely than their Scottish peers to be heavy drinkers and to consume alcohol in contexts associated with possible dangers, i.e. drinking in peer groups in uncontrolled settings. The importance of these findings in the prevention of youthful alcohol misuse is explored.

Something for nothing

Against a background of partial, and often contradictory, information, this article explores the attitudes of over 1,000 employees in one firm in the financial services sector towards various issues related to retirement and pensions. The respondents regarded the existence of occupational pension schemes as having a major influence on their job searches. Among the various reasons for being members of the employer’s scheme, the principal ones were associated with the perceived qualities of the scheme itself, the zero charge for employees, and opportunities for planning for the future. Levels of ignorance about certain features of the scheme were discernible, and differentiated patterns of response among groupings of employees suggested that employees bring to pensions matters diverse expectations and awareness. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for employee recruitment, motivation and retention.

“Thatcher’s children”, pensions and retirement ‐ Some survey evidence

Despite major changes in the UK pensions scene, including policy initiatives by successive governments, very little is known about people’s attitudes towards many pensions related issues. Reports the results of a survey of undergraduates, born on the threshold of the Thatcher era, who are themselves about to embark upon influential careers. The findings relate both to knowledge of pension and retirement details, and the students’ own pension and career plans. In the spirit of the 1980s, the students, especially the males, attached some importance to “individual choice” in pension arrangements. The need for a role for the State was acknowledged, whilst occupational pensions were not rated highly in employment choice terms. The overall pattern of responses allows for some tentative evaluation of recent Labour Government proposals and speculation of future developments in the field of provision for retirement.