Older staff want to keep working — but lose heart amid constant upheaval

Many older employees are choosing to leave the workforce even though they still feel they have a lot to contribute.

This is partly because they are weary of constant workplace changes, concludes a new study published by the Danish interest group for seniors Ældre Sagen (DaneAge Association) and conducted by ethnologist and associate professor Aske Juul Lassen, according to Danish media Politiken. Aske Juul Larsen does research on ageing at the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).

The study is based on qualitative interviews with 14 pensioners conducted by Aske Juul Lassen.

»Some of the interviewees had made lists of the changes they had experienced in their workplace over the last ten years. And it could easily amount to ten major and far-reaching changes. It was hard for people to keep up,« says the associate professor.

He explains that those who retire for this reason tend to have higher-than-average incomes, longer educations, and better health. Moreover, most of the study’s contributors worked in the public sector.

This does not necessarily mean that the trend is more pronounced in the public than in the private sector, Aske Juul Lassen emphasises.

»Overall, there was a tendency for constant workplace changes to result in a loss of meaning for employees in one way or another. When people described specific changes, there was a sense that before one change had been fully implemented, a new one was already underway,« he says, adding:

»There was never, in other words, any respite that let them get on with their work.«

Solidarity in the workplace

UCPH management cancelled a round of layoffs in the autumn that had previously been announced in connection with the administration reform. Preceding ‘mitigation measures’ had worked so well that it was no longer necessary to lay off administrative staff.

A total of 118 employees accepted a voluntary redundancy offer. Several senior staff were among those who chose to leave — and who spoke with the University Post.

Many of the senior employees I interviewed could easily imagine continuing on the labour market for many more years, but they would have to accept changes that lacked professional justification

Aske Juul Lassen, associate professor, Saxo Institute

Aske Juul Lassen stresses that he cannot comment on the UCPH administration reform or the reasons why former colleagues chose to leave. He can only point to general dynamics.

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»With voluntary redundancies, the implication is often that it is older employees who are free to choose to retire. There is also a certain solidarity among older staff, who typically think: Better me than one of the younger ones,« says Aske Juul Lassen.

He adds, however, that this should not be interpreted as older employees’ lack of adaptability. Rather, it is that many of them have experienced an overwhelming number of changes throughout a long career.

»And for some of them, the changes just no longer make sense,« he says.

The new study suggests that, at many workplaces, one transformation process is barely underway before the next one begins, says the associate professor.

»Many of the senior employees I interviewed could easily see themselves staying in the labour market for many years to come. But in this case they would have to accept changes that lacked professional justification — and they simply can’t see themselves doing that,« says Aske Juul Lassen.

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