Employment and Labour Market Institutions for an Aging Workforce – a Survey Made for Poland

2009–2010

ERSTE Foundation Fellowship for Social Research Ensuring Income Security and Welfare in Old Age

Employment and Labour Market Insti­ tutions for an Aging Workforce – a Survey Made for Poland Boguslawa E. Urbaniak

Bogusława Urbaniak Department of Labour and Social Policy University of Lodz, Poland e-mail: bogelur@uni.lodz.pl

Employment and labour market institutions for an aging workforce — a survey made for Poland By remaining in the workforce, older workers can continue to contribute to the economy, to society at large, but also to their own personal dignity and well-being.”

Vladimir Špidla, XVIII International EURAG Congress, 2005 Acknowledgement I wish to express my gratitude to ERSTE Foundation for its financial support for my research, without which this study could not be produced, and for providing me with the opportunity of participating in the Summer School in Split, a perfect forum for the representatives of different CEE countries to exchange their views. I also wish to thank the Lodz business organisations — the Lodz Lodge of the Business Centre Club and the Association Club 500 — for facilitating my contacts with Lodz entrepreneurs who kindly agreed to participate in my research on the employment of older workers and acknowledge the cooperative attitude of the managers in all the involved firms that they showed during the surveys.

1. Short rationale behind the selected research subject Poland is one of the new EU member states that do not utilise a large part of their labour force — low employment rates can be found in every age group. An especially low employment rate is specific to persons aged 55–64 years: 29.7% in 2007 (28.1% in 2006) against the EU27 average of 44.7% [only 19.0% of women]. Poland’s employment rate for workers aged 55–64 years ranked the country last among the EU member states for many years. In the 3 million female population aged 50–60 years and the 3.5 million male population aged 50–64 years only one third is in employment.

Because the employment rates characterising older generations are low, the old-age and survivors’ benefits are disproportionate in Poland, accounting for 61.2% of the total amount

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of social benefits in 2006 against 46.2% in EU-27, [Eurostat, Statistics in Focus 40/2009].

The average age in transition to retirement is low in Poland — only 58 years.

Employment is certainly the best source of incomes, determining both the level of future oldage pensions and the current disposable income. Because earned incomes are taxable, they additionally support the budget and reduce the tax burden resting on the younger part of the economically active population.

2. A description of the research goal, methods and tools The low level of employment among older persons in Poland led to defining the following research aim: „An analysis of conditions encouraging workers aged 45+ to continue their economic activity”.

The following research theses were then formulated: 1/ Age management does not exist in Polish firms as a planned and purposeful activity; 2/ Older workers wish to continue employment because of the job satisfaction they feel; 3/ Younger colleagues and superiors appreciate the competence of workers aged 45+ that determines the sustainability of employment in this age group.

The project was broken down into three stages: –

Stage I — assembling a full set of information about government’s policy towards the economic activity of workers at pre-retirement age as pursued in the period of the central-command economy, during the early transitional period and in the period of market economy stabilisation, i.e. in the years 1950–1989; 1990–2000 and after Poland became an EU member state,

–

Stage II — assessment of the effectiveness of the government programme “Solidarity of generations. Measures for improving economic activity of persons aged 50+” designed in 2008, using the case of the Lodz agglomeration,

–

Stage III — a survey of some selected enterprises in the Lodz agglomeration1 ▪ questionnaire surveys of HR managers, ▪ conducting anonymous questionnaire surveys of the workers and managers employed in the SME sector in the Lodz agglomeration to investigate how age influences the chances of continued employment.

1

Lodz is the third largest city in Poland in terms of population.

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Methods and research tools: – A descriptive and qualitative analysis making use of the readily available information about the practices, legal solutions and labour market programs serving the older employees, – Original research conducted among the selected firms and institutions in order to identify the broadly understood determinants of older workers’ employment — statistical processing of the opinions formulated in the questionnaires by the HR departments, management representatives functioning at different organizational levels, workers younger than 40 years of age and those aged 45+.

3. Labour market policy towards aging workforce in Poland between 1950 and 2015 The economic activity of older persons depends on the specific policy that the government pursues in the labour market and on the social security system with its old age benefits.

Especially important are the varying concepts of regulating labour supply through measures such as the retirement age limit, special privileges making early retirement an attractive solution, circumstances entailing increases in old-age benefits and postponement of the decision to retire, as well as the option allowing a person to work and draw an old age benefit at the same time. The Polish labour market policy has had quite a rich history in this field.

However, there have been few measures regulating the demand side of the market, which might draw employers’ attention to the aging labour force. Within the first segment of the research, the long-term government’s policy towards older employees was analysed.

Any labour market policy should be underpinned by clearly defined principles, such as the right to work regardless of person’s age, ban on ageism in the labour market, persons’ freedom of choosing between economic activity and inactivity, the freedom of choosing between work and other forms of activity covered by a broadly-meant concept of active ageing. Unfortunately, the long-standing Polish experiences show that the government’s views on the economic activity of persons aged 50+ have been shaped by short-lived decisions, imposed by the current needs and the particularistic interests of trade unions in different industries. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, the government was lavish with the privilege of early retirement, as it was believed then that this would make it easier for young people to start their careers. Early retirement was also used as a way of compensating for low pay (teachers) and difficult working conditions that were hazardous to life, reflecting also the political power of a given occupational group (miners). The then redistributive

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pension system was capable of financing spontaneous political decisions that granted retirement privileges to new and new occupational groups. In the 1950s and 1960s persons in the older age groups showed high occupational activity because of the limited access to income other than earned. Many older persons were simply forced to work long years, as they could not demonstrate sufficiently long pensionable periods once they reached the statutory retirement age (because of the war, unemployment in the 1920s) and the shortage economy with its typical lower level of development and high intensity of manufacture could absorb many employees.

The labour market instruments used in the EU countries in the 1970s and 1980s tended to withdraw older persons from the labour market early, as it was believed that this could relieve unemployment among the young people. This argument found many supporters also in Poland. The early retirement policy that was pursued in the beginning of the 1990s towards the aging employees was challenged by the budget considerations [Wiśniewski, 2009, p. 258].

It was decided that the aging of societies called for action aimed at lengthening the periods of economic activity. It was also proposed that the employment rate for persons aged 55–64 years should be 50% in 2010 at the latest.

Early retirement increases labour costs by increasing contributions and taxes. As a result, the number of available jobs grows smaller, which decreases also employment in the age group under 25 years. Consequently, the younger generation has to assume a significant responsibility for financing the transfers directed to persons who have left the labour force.

Poland is one of the EU countries where the risk of poverty among older persons is the lowest, but the highest among children and young persons. Gradual restructuring of social expenditures is necessary to restore the intergenerational balance and limit the risk of child poverty.

The goal can be accomplished through active labour market policy with three types of basic activation instruments: guidance and job placement, vocational training, subsidized jobs. The instruments are available to all unemployed population, including its older members. Special training programmes for older employees are carried out under international projects cofunded by the ESF, for instance, under the Equal Community Initiative. The self-employment programmes using support mechanisms such as loans, subsidies and grants allowing the beneficiaries to start up their own firms can play a significant role in activating the older population.

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Poland introduced her pension reform (1998–1999) to extend the period of economic activity even before the country became an EU member. However, the retirement age limit for women has not changed and it is still 5 years lower than for men. The present retirement age limits are impossible to keep in the longer term; according to the GUS (Central Statistical Office) population projections the 2015 working age population (aged 18–59/64) will be smaller by 900,000 (3.7%) than it is today. Some changes are promised under the public finance reform, which is being currently prepared. The retirement age limit will be raised (probably by 2 years) and the male and female retirement ages will be gradually equalized — by six months every year.

After Poland joined the EU in 2004, the country started preparing for launching special labour market programmes addressing the older employees, because Poland and the other EU member states are obligated to develop measures supporting older workers in the labour market. (A discussion on this subject was presented in connection with stage II of the project).

The initiated discussions aimed at amending the national labour law in the context of the ban on ageism in the workplace. On 17 Oct. 2008, the Polish Council of Ministers accepted “A Programme of Solidarity of Generations. Measures for Improving Economic Activity of Persons Aged 50+”. The Programme includes a detailed diagnosis of the economic activation and deactivation of workers aged 50+, accentuating factors behind their early withdrawal from the labour market. The Programme assumes that within five years’ time 40% of the population aged 55–64 years will have jobs and that by 2020 every second person in this age group will be in employment.

All actions aimed at making older employees in Poland active in the longer term can be divided into two groups. The first of them includes legal solutions addressing the ban against age-based discrimination of workers reaching the statutory retirement age, while the second one deals with the ways of subsidizing older workers’ jobs, so that their employers will continue to use their services.

The question of amending the national legislations in the EU to remove from them the rules conducive to the discrimination of older persons is differently interpreted in particular member states. Following the Council Directive of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, the Supreme Court in Poland ruled that: “Reaching the statutory retirement age by a worker should not be used by the employer as a sufficient argument for automatic termination of the employment contract” (ruling of 21 January 2009, file number II PZP 13/08) — therefore, workers approaching the 5

retirement age cannot be discharged only on the grounds of their becoming eligible for an old age benefit as this would constitute indirect discrimination. Before the ruling, the practice in Poland was very much different. This is a significant achievement, especially in the context of the ruling made public by the UK Supreme Court. On requesting opinion of the European Court of Justice, the Court decided on 5 March 2009 that “The social policy objectives related to employment policy, labour market and vocational training may be treated as legitimate reasons allowing the employer to impose the retirement age as an end to worker’s economic activity” The current measures aimed at the economic reactivation of persons aged 50+ in Poland as formulated in the programme “The Solidarity of Generations. Measures for improving economic activity of persons aged 50+” include the following solutions: 1. On 1st July, 2009, firms were released from the obligatory payment of contributions to the Labour Fund (the rate is 2.45% of the base (at least the minimum wage) used to calculate the old age and disability insurance contributions) and to the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund (0.1% of the same base as for the Labour Fund) for the newly recruited older workers aged 50+; employees who turned 56 years (women) and 60 years (men) have also been exempted from the contributions. A firm shall not pay the contributions for persons employed after 1st of July and for persons employed before this date who meet the age requirements.

2. Since 1st of February 2009 firms shall only pay for 14 sick days of an employee aged 50+ (previously 33 days); the costs have been transferred on the sickness scheme being part of the social security system; 3. Employees who have turned 46 years are eligible for training financed by the starostas (county heads) from the Labour Fund’s resources; before the new solution was introduced such training was only available to the unemployed persons.

Will the changes introduced to boost the occupational activity of older persons really support them in the labour market? A firm caring of its good image of a desired employer2 should also pay attention to the way it treats its aging workers. Firm’s attitude to such workers should be based on certain rules determining its HR policy. If the policy is detached from the overall HRM system, then even manifestations of the firm’s favourable attitude to the employment of 2

The studies of the image of a desired employer usually involve tertiary students, although some of them also address the current employees who are requested to provide opinions on their employer — http://employerbranding.blogspot.com/2009/06/najlepsi-pracodawcy-w-rankingach-hewitt.html

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older employees will be just a superficial practice resulting from opportunism, representing tokenism rather than real interest determined by business calculations. Tokenism is regarded as a symptom of a discriminatory practice, where the members of a given minority (in this case the older workers) play a limited role, making other people believe (intentionally or not) that real actions aimed to include a given minority group are being taken. In fact, an employer keeping few older workers does not change his or her generally reluctant attitude to employing this category of employees. In addition to the main stereotypes affecting the perception of older employees, such as their generally outdated or inadequate skills, lower mobility and productivity, as well as health problems that are more serious than in the younger generation, the key problem is that the stereotypes are not confronted with the possible benefits that the employers might derive from having workers aged 50+. A serious issue in the discussion of the profitability (higher or lower) of employing older employees is the younger generation’s attitude to older workers and what the younger persons think about their own professional careers at later stages of life.

4. Reflections on continuing employment at older age; examples of good solutions The possibility of continued employment of older workers can be viewed in pessimistic as well as optimistic terms. The first approach builds on a negative stereotype of older workers, leading to either rejection of such workers (open or disguised practices aimed at early withdrawal of such workers from the labour market) or to offering them low-quality jobs in a secondary segment of the labour market. The optimistic approach involves the development of human capital, using opportunities inherent in the cooperation of persons of different ages and in the resulting exchange of knowledge, loyalty and commitment that are typical of older employees. The optimistic approach has laid foundations for the age management concept.

Chart 1. Opinions on older workers’ employability

Jobs for persons aged 50+

Unavailable because of globalization, migration, off–shoring, high–tech, etc.

Precarious jobs

Self–employment

Quality jobs if age management becomes common

Source: developed by the author

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The optimistic approach is strengthened by conclusions presented by developmental psychology, according to which the age between 40 and 60/65 years should be considered the stage of middle adulthood. It is frequently the time when one’s life is the most successful — opus magnum, the zenith of creativity, mastery that is usually connected with professional life [Dubas, 2008, p.24]. However, a career breakdown or professional burnout is also possible at the stage of life; the linear development of professional career is at risk until retirement. After 40 years of life discrepancies may appear between person’s expectations from his or her job and the job’s requirements [see Olejnik, 2000, p.239], as well as between the person and the expectations of the people around. The attitudes people have to their middle adulthood and the related occupational behaviour are significantly modified by the careers they have had so far, the risk of unemployment, information transmitted by the work environment, the attitudes demonstrated by the family, friends and employer, as well as organizational possibilities of continuing employment until retirement. If the self-attitudes one has in the period of middle adulthood concentrate around the seeking of the possibilities of leaving the labour force and attempts are made to justify the situation, then behaviour corresponding to the stereotypes of an aging employee can be expected. However, if the middle adulthood coincides with a period of fruitful and satisfying occupational activity, the environment is supportive and the professional career until retirement is planned in line with the organization’s age management programmes, then arguments for keeping the aging employees can be found.

The conclusion we can formulate now is that after 45 years of age a person’s professional career can be viewed from many angles. In addition to actions taken at the national level to manage age on the macro scale, usually represented by labour market programmes, suitable amendments to the labour law and the social security system, there is also the very important organisational and personal age management, the latter meaning the management of one’s own career in the remaining period of life (the transition period career (46–50 years); the preretirement career (50–60 or 64 years), and the career as „silver workers” after reaching the retirement age).

The support an organization can offer to the development of aging workers’ careers depends on its HR policy model. The model emphasizing human capital development (oriented to the in-house development of human capital and based on worker integration) focuses on intergenerational cooperation and tends to keep older workers in employment until their retirement or even longer. Another approach to older workers can be found in the model 8

where human capital is contracted as needed (in this model workers are usually sought outside, the employer–employee cooperation is perceived as a transaction). In the latter case actions aimed at recruiting or keeping older workers do not ensure the stability of the approach. Much more common, however, are practices involving false interest in the employment of older workers that results from employer branding, etc.

Seeking good practices concerning the employment of older persons in Poland, we paid attention to the outcomes of two competitions [Kostrzewski, Miączyński and the description of the competition’s results available on the website www.zysk50plus.pl]. The first of them „An Old Person and Still Can Work” (built on the US Experience Works Prime Time Awards Program) was set up by one of the national dailies and the Polish Confederation of Private Employers “Lewiatan”. The competition helped select ten oldest economically active persons aged 90–95 years (there was only one woman in the group). The persons were artisans, retailers and service providers (leather working, hairdressing, a forwarding firm). In five cases, the services required high intellectual efficiency (a physician, a translator, lecturers).

These examples prove that self-employment surpasses subordinated work as far as opportunities for possibly long occupational careers in the old age are concerned.

The other competition, „Practices Friendly To Persons Aged 50+”, was carried out in relation to the project „Profit From Maturity”, which was implemented in the years 2008–2010 by the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland (the project partners were Britain’s Beth Johnson Foundation and the Polish Confederation of Private Employers “Lewiatan”).

The research and design firms distinguished themselves among the awardees. Their HR policies followed the HC development model. The older employees in the firms are treated as in-house experts who can share unique skills and competence, as mentors to the younger workers, appreciated for their analytical skills (e.g. Centrum Techniki Okrętowej SA, a private Polish firm Filter Service). Two firms with the Scandinavian roots are worth presenting, whose personnel policies emphasise the long-term relationship with the older employees. Their HRM systems include programmes and tools especially addressed to the older workers with the intention to encourage them to stay with the firms longer. The two firms are IKEA Retail Sp. z o.o. and Vattenfall Heat Poland SA. Over 4% of the 2000+ workforce in IKEA are aged 50+. The firm abides by the principle of responding to the needs of workers that are in different situations and stages of their lives — last year the focus was on young parents and in 2009 it is older workers who are recognized for their identification with the firm and for building bonds among the workforce and trust with the customers. The

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firm has prepared a 50+ programme that will be implemented in its other branches in Poland.

The programme: 1/ offers benefits for the retiring persons after they have worked 10, 15, 20, 25 years in the firm, such as discount shopping in the chain’s shops, subsidised medical care, holiday shopping vouchers or one-time gratuities which are the larger, the more years have been worked in IKEA; 2/ promotes job offers for persons aged 50+, e.g. by marking them with the logo "INVOLVES PERSONS AGED 50+", or making the stories of firm’s employees aged 50 + publicly available in the Internet 3/ offers medical service packages and group insurance to persons aged 50+, 4/ develops opportunities and provides access to training for all workers regardless of their age. IKEA found itself in the group of three firms awarded for being „An Employer Friendly to Workers Aged 50+”.

Vattenfall’s HR policy (36.4% of the firm’s workforce are persons aged 50+) is subordinated to the principle that the most valuable asset of the firm is its workers, their knowledge and experience, which are of strategic importance. Therefore, the firm clearly relates to the HR development model. Consequently, it pays a lot of attention to training and developing the mature workers aged 50+, who function as mentors and coaches for the trainees and new workers (in the power industry it takes at least 18 months to prepare a new worker to act independently). What does the firm propose to its older workers? Firstly, it has prepared for them the programme „Vattenfall Expert” to promote knowledge sharing, according to the principle that „teaching others we learn ourselves”. Under the programme, firm’s high class specialists, in-house experts, play an important role in integrating new workers and talent management; their expertise will also be used in schools and the tertiary institutions. Another occupational development programme, the „Masters’ Academy of Skills”, has been directed to master workers in the production area — 35 men aged 50 years on average. The programme aims at developing the leadership skills, as well as the skills of motivating and managing teams.

Summing up, we can say that employment opportunities are undoubtedly available to these older workers who hold special, unique human capital and tacit knowledge appreciated by their employers who wish to use them to train the younger workforce. Employment opportunities are also available to regular older workers who do their jobs on equal terms with their younger colleagues, struggling in the workplace with the biological and social problems that aging brings. Entangled in the visions of their still potential capabilities, they fear of losing their jobs, because once this happens the labour market may negatively evaluate their employability and offer them jobs below their potential and worse paid. The last group of

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workers was selected as the subject of original research conducted under the project „Generations in Dialog” financed by the ERSTE Foundation.

5. The results of workforce statistical surveys conducted in the selected firms and institutions in the Łódź agglomeration The survey involving 12 organizations was conducted between October 2008 and the end of January 2009. Its instruments were anonymous questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews (IDI) performed with the heads of HR departments and company owners. The survey was made possible owing to the substantial assistance extended by the Łódź business organizations, such as The Business Centre Club — the Lodz Lodge, The Foreign Investor Club, Association Club 500.

The questionnaire surveys were preceded by IDIs (Firm’s personnel policy towards older workers 45+) conducted among 3 groups of workers to investigate their firms’ personnel policies and the resulting attitudes towards older workers. Of interest were solutions supporting the employment of persons aged 45+ and the workplace situation of persons working in age-diverse teams (questionnaire form No. 1 — see appendix 1), Then the following three populations were surveyed: – managers having direct contacts with workers of different ages (questionnaire form no. 2 “My experiences in managing workers aged 45+” — see appendix 2), – workers aged 45+ (questionnaire form no. 3 “My career after 45 years of age — advantages and disadvantages” — see appendix 3 ), – workers younger than 40 years of age (questionnaire form no. 4 “My experiences in working with persons aged 45+” — see appendix 4).

The answers given by the respondents were then analyzed statistically using frequencies, crosstabs and an evaluation index of older workers, which was built using the managers’ opinions3.

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32 selected traits of the older workers were evaluated using a four–degree scale, after which they were assigned the relevant grade: 1 — the least significant, 2 — less significant, 3 — significant, 4 — the most significant; the range of respondents’ answers varied therefore from 32 (32 x 1) to 128 (32 x 4). Assuming that 128 stood for 100%, we assigned then values to the low, average, high and very high grades.

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There was a rationale behind the sample design — it covered 12 SMEs representing the Łódź business organizations that offered organizational support to the research. The sample design omitted certain features of the respondents; hence, the information presented below should only be viewed as illustrative, revealing the diversity of situations in the surveyed enterprises.

The surveyed organizations were subdivided into three categories, depending on the percentage of workers aged 45+ in the total workforce: 1/ organizations where such workers predominated, ranging from 41.6% to 75.0% of the total workforce (9 organizations), 2/ organizations where they were in a minority, representing from 10.7% to 19.5% of the total workforce (2 firms), and 3/ one firm where the group of the oldest workers was 27.8% on average. The largest group was providers of traditional services (tab.5.1).

Table 5.1: The type of business of the surveyed organization Type

of

Involving hi-tech/knowledge

Traditional

• pharmaceuticals — Polfa Łódź

• storage equipment — Wandalex

business Manufacture

• Services

chemicals — Organika

• telecommunications (a call centre) — Telekomunikacja Polska;

▪

wholesale — Orten,

•

car dealer and repair services — Zimny Skoda

• Neoneon — advertising •

Auto,

IT — ZETO;

•

energy services — PKP Energetyka,

•

building services — Carbud Łódź,

•

household appliances dealer — Tytan,

•

trade in pharmaceuticals — Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna

The survey involved organizations of various sizes; the average surveyed firm had 173 employees.

Table 5.2. The surveyed firms by employment Workforce as of 31 Dec. 2008

10–49 persons

No. of firms

4

Avg. number of employees by category

26 persons

12

50–249 persons

5

150 persons

250 and more

3

407 persons

Total

12

173 persons

Chart 5.1 shows the typical age structure of employees by sex

Female employment by age

Male employment by age

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The age structures are similar for both sexes. Half of the female workers were older than 45 years of age, while the male group had slightly fewer older workers — 44.0% of the total workforce turned 46; the average age of workers in all the surveyed firms was almost 41 years.

The employees aged 45+ usually were: ▪ managers:

6 firms — almost 50% of all workers on average

▪ specialists — key personnel:

3 firms — 25% of all workers on average

▪ office personnel:

5 firms — 41.6% of all workers on average

▪ direct workers:

8 firms — 66.6% of all workers on average

▪ auxiliary workers:

4 firms — 33.3% of all workers on average

Most older workers were employed in the following departments and units: ▪

manufacture — 15%, 75%,

▪

warehouses — 14%

▪

a Call Centre — 17.9%

▪

the chief engineer’s unit

▪

accounting

▪

human resources

▪

field work

▪

administration — 2.5%; 11.2%

The average age of the oldest worker in the surveyed organizations was 64.3 years (67; 68; 75; 73; 59; 55; 69; 54; 60; 63; 59; 69); in half of the firms the “oldest worker” category applied to the working age persons, as a result of workers taking early retirement. The question how many of all retired workers took early retirement in 2008 was usually answered that such workers were in the definite majority, that all (or almost all) used the early retirement option.

Firms pursued different policies towards different categories of older workers. In addition to the two aforementioned models, i.e. one with contracting and the other with human capital development, the management’s attitudes to older workers could be defined as either paternalistic or indifferent. The human capital contracting model usually emphasised competencies, age was an unimportant determinant of recruitment, especially when the labour market suffered from the shortage of a given category of specialists; this model potentially favoured the recruitment of older workers in the open labour market as long as they had competitive competencies. The human capital development model fostered workers with

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many years of service who were treated as a valuable asset of the organization that deserved more training, since the younger workers’ competencies, although useful, had different profiles. The paternalistic aspect of the HR policy manifested itself through the efforts to keep the older workers in employment because of their loyalty to the employer, especially when the owner/president himself or herself also belonged to an older age group. The attitude of ‘indifference’ as shown by managers waiting for extensive structural and ownership changes that were likely to “tackle” the problem of aging workers was also quite distinct. The workforce, a legacy of the Polish People’s Republic, has aged with their firm and their future in the firm depended on the prospective modifications.

All interviewed firms’ representatives declared that their employment policies were guided by the principle “worker’s age is not important, but the value he or she contributes to our firm is”, so they sought and accepted applicants of all ages. As many as 7 firms declared that they were short of workers in 2008, for others this was not a problem. All the interviewees answered that persons aged 45+ responded to their job ads and that the firms employed them.

In 6 firms, some of the newly recruited persons were aged 45+ and constituted on average 5.3% of the entire new intake in the age group 45–50 years (11.9% in the age group 50–55 years and 2% of the 55–60 year olds). The firms sparingly offered additional benefits to award their workers for long service in the firm. The most frequently mentioned were anniversary awards (7), followed by allowances for the years worked in the firm (1), and awards in kind (1). Only 1 firm among the 12 surveyed organizations offered additional health insurance to its personnel.

The older workers generally used fewer sick days in 2008 than the average for all workers (the numbers of sick days per worker were compared). Therefore, the popular opinion that the older workers spent more days off work than the younger ones was not confirmed. The cases of single older workers with chronic diseases may temporarily increase the illness-induced absenteeism, but this does not apply to the entire population of older workers who, as evidenced by the surveyed firms, try to not miss days at work.

Table 5.3. The average number of sick days per worker in 2008, including workers aged 45+ All employees,

Sick leaves Average

no.

of

including those aged days

20.2

45–50 years

50–55 years

55–60 years

13.7

15.2

16.5

/worker

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The surveyed firms pursued different retirement policies towards their workers aged 50+.

From the set of available options, i.e. a/ “we encourage them to choose early retirement on their own will, because we want to employ younger workers”, b/ “we discourage workers from taking early retirement before the statutory age”, c/ “we automatically terminate an employment contract when a worker becomes eligible for an old age pension”, d/ “we encourage workers to postpone retirement”, e/ “we approach workers on a case-by-case basis and all options are possible”, almost all respondents pointed to the last one. Only one firm discouraged it workforce from taking early retirement before the statutory age. Most firms do not run career management programmes for their personnel, only 3 firms admitted to have such programs: 2 manufacturing firms and one service provider utilizing knowledge and modern technologies in their business, with employment ranging from 153 to 235 workers.

Career management consisted in designing the in-house occupational development paths, but the older workers were left outside the schemes. Age-related inadequacies, job hazards, and lack of skills are not good reasons for transferring the older workers to other jobs, more suitable for their age — age is disregarded when the stations are to be manned, it is possible for the workers to do the same job until they retire. One of the firms, where more than half of the employed males were aged 45+, stated that the negative results of periodical medical examinations of older workers made the superiors allocate such workers to different stations where work was easier. The superiors evaluated and rewarded the workers in relation to their performance and task execution, so the category of age was insignificant. The definite majority of the firms (10) did not pursue a more liberal policy towards the underperforming workers aged 45+ who had been with the firm for long years. Two firms only — a building services firm and a telecommunications firm (call centre) — were more understanding of the performance of their older workers who had been with the company for many years.

6. The attitude of younger workers to older colleagues and their own occupational careers in a later period of life The statistical analysis of the survey data started with the opinions presented by workers younger than 40 years of age, i.e. with questionnaire 4 (this age category was assumed to represent the young and middle-aged workers). The questionnaire was used to probe younger workers’ attitudes to: •

working together with their older colleagues in age-diverse teams,

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•

helping older workers with their jobs,

•

making the necessary adjustments to their careers due to aging,

•

early retirement, i.e. before the statutory retirement age (60 years for females and 65 years for males).

The population of workers who were arbitrarily named the younger workers, i.e. under 40 years of age, mainly consisted of the population aged 25+, where the age groups 25–35 years (47.0%) and older than 35 years (43.3%) were practically of the same sizes. The proportion of males (61.6%) exceeded that of women (38.4%) — graph 6.1.

Graph.6.1 The population of respondents younger than 40 years by age and sex

From the educational attainment standpoint the population mainly comprised workers with undergraduate and graduate education (41.0% in total), secondary education — 39.8%, and basic vocational education — 19.2%, The structure of respondents’ jobs by sex is different (graph 6.2)

Graph 6.2. The structure of younger respondents’ jobs by sex (in %)

Males usually did manual jobs while women worked in the accounting departments, in the offices and call centres as the customer service personnel.

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The questionnaire survey requested the workers to answer a series of questions about the importance of age in the HRM practice implemented in their firms. The definite majority of the answers to the question: “Are there any age management practices you could see in your enterprise? showed that such actions did not exist (85.2%). This finding is not surprising, because age management has not been promoted among Polish companies. It is much more optimistic that 14.8% of the surveyed young and middle-aged workers met with some practices of this type, associating them, however, with some sensitivity on the part of the managers to age issues in work processes and organization.

The surveyed firms employed workers of different ages, hence the definite majority of younger workers frequently cooperated with persons aged 45+. Only 11.6% of the respondents admitted that they did not have such an opportunity. The question — “Do you like working in age-diverse teams”? received a whole range of answers; 47.8% of the respondents declared that it did not matter for them who their colleagues were, 2.8% stated that they did not work with older persons. Persons preferring to work in age-diverse teams accounted for half of the respondents (49.4%). The group was potentially sensitive to the positive and negative aspects of working in age-diverse teams.

What made the younger workers think positively about the inter-generational cooperation — why did the younger persons like to work in age-diverse teams? — table 6.1.

Table 6.1. The reasons for the positive evaluation of intergenerational cooperation Types of reasons

% 44.1

One-sided benefits for younger workers (N=93) Transactional

cooperation

(involving

exchange

of

32.7

experiences, knowledge, opinions, etc.) (N=69) Other than occupational aspects of working together (a friendly atmosphere, advising on personal matters, etc.)

(N=26)

12.3

Personality traits of older workers (N=17)

8.1

Age is not important (N=6)

2.8

Total (N=211)

100.0

18

Although major intergenerational conflicts were not recorded (“Have you encountered „a conflict of generations” in your workplace?”), almost every fourth younger worker (23.8%) admitted to see such a situation. This did not influence the essentially positive attitude of this group of workers to their older colleagues, as confirmed by the responses concerning the readiness to offer help.

Graph 6.3. The preferred forms of assistance extended to the older colleagues unable to cope with their tasks and the sex of the younger workers (%)

The type of assistance offered was found to be specific to sex. The males proposed concrete forms of support, such as substitution, if the older colleagues could not cope with their jobs for some reason. On the other hand, the females usually limited their help to giving explanations and advice after work about the type of training that was worth taking to cope unassisted with the problems that age brings. The young and middle-aged women were fairly unwilling to become actively involved and reacted rather egoistically, as if fearful that helping their older colleagues of either sex could become a direct burden to them (see graph. 6.3).

At the end of the question survey, the following question was asked openly: “Should workers aged 50+ be allowed to retire as soon as possible to make room for the younger workers? In view of the generally positive attitudes of the younger and middle-aged workers to their older colleagues the answers were quite surprising. More than half of the younger employees (5.9%) thought that workers aged 50+ should retire as soon as possible. The answers are also surprising, because the media frequently discuss the financial burden resting on the economy and on the younger generation due to the necessary financing of the mass take-up of early retirement. The earlier mentioned government’s “ Programme of Solidarity of Generations.

19

Measures for Improving Economic Activity of Persons Aged 50+” has been promoted, etc.

The younger generations seem to disregard all this, eagerly „pushing” their 50-year-old colleagues from the workplace to retirement.

7. The attitude of workers aged 45+ to work and future retirement 7.1. The main research theses

The next stage of the research focused on the population of older workers, i.e. aged 45+, that were employed in the surveyed firms. The research thesis was formulated in the following way: „Older workers wish to continue their employment because of the job satisfaction they feel”. It was enhanced with an additional assumption — „even if its true, some of the working conditions should be adjusted, so that their wish for further employment could materialise”.

Therefore, the comments on „My career after 45 years of age — the advantages and disadvantages” that were formulated in the 360 anonymous questionnaire forms collected from workers aged 45+ employed in the Łódź firms were analysed (questionnaire 3). The questionnaire addressed the following issues: 1/ older employees’ attitudes to employerprovided training; 2/ training that has been actually taken in the last 1–3 years; 3/ older employees’ feelings about the stability of their employment — or its lack; 3/ the attitude to the aspects of age’s influence on the worker’s accomplishments; 4/ the attitude to older employees being transferred to other jobs as postulated by age management theory; 5/ the interest in early retirement; 6/ the utilisation of the wealth of older employees’ occupational experience by company managers; 7/ the factors behind job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as indicated in the opinions of older employees.

7.2. Basic information on the demographic characteristics, educational attainment, jobs and years of service Males prevailed (60.1%) in the population of older respondents, i.e. aged 45+, likewise in the group of younger workers under 40 years of age. However, the educational attainment of the entire older population was clearly lower — the percentage of older persons with tertiary education was more than twice lower (19.6% against 41% for the younger workers), while the percentage of older workers with basic vocational education was much higher (almost every third respondent), while in the younger population it was only every fifth. Most workers aged 45+ had secondary education (every second respondent).

20

The age structure of the respondents was relatively typical of Poland — the largest group was aged 50–55 years (45.0%), while the percentage of workers aged 55+ was clearly smaller (18.6%); only few persons aged 60+ were still in employment (1.2% of the respondents) — graph 7.4; overall, almost 25% of the surveyed males were aged 55 years or older; with only 12.6% of females in the same age band. This shows that early retirement is commonly chosen before one turns 61/66 years whereby Poland has the youngest population of old age pensioners among the European countries (as mentioned above, only 29.1% of the Polish population aged 55–65 years continue to work).

Graph 7.4. The population of respondents aged 45+ by age and sex

Almost half of all surveyed persons were manual workers. This situation can be explained by the different structure of positions held by the male and female respondents. The males were mainly manual workers (74.9%), while the female occupational profile was more diversified, consisting of office jobs, accounting jobs and customer service jobs (graph 7.5).

Graph 7.5. Older respondents’ jobs by sex

Jobs do not show substantial variations because of worker’s age. The variable is certainly much weaker than sex. Larger variations can be found between the jobs held by the males and

21

females in the younger and older age groups, but even these are actually limited to two types of positions, i.e. managerial and office personnel in the case of males. The managerial positions were much more typical of older females (8.9% of all women aged 45+) than of younger females (3.9% of all women under 40 years of age); males aged 45+ did not hold any office positions, all such jobs were done by the younger males under 40 years of age (8.2% of all male respondents).

A detailed structure of jobs by respondent’s age can be found in table 7.1 Table 7.1 Older workers’ jobs by age % of answers by respondent’s job

Workers’ age (years) Accountants

Managers

IT

Office

Manual

specialists

personnel

workers

Customer service personnel

Sales personnel

45–50 (N=107)

14.0

6.5

–

13.1

47.7

17.8

0.9

50–55 (N= 138)

13.0

9.4

2.2

12.3

46.4

15.2

1.4

55–60 (N=58)

8.6

17.2

–

15.5

56.9

1.7

–

Over 60 (N=4)

25.0

25.0

–

25.0

25.0

–

–

Total (N=307)

12.4

9.9

1.0

13.7

49.4

13.0

0.6

Older employees usually do the same jobs until they retire — almost every third person had had the present job for more than 20 years. The rates of persons with exceptionally long years of service with the same employer where the following: • among females — 19.7% (31 — 40 years) and 1.5% (41 years and older); • among males — 44.5% (31 — 40 years) and 3.7% (41 years and older).

Older males worked as long in their current positions — as much as 21.0% of them had had the same job for 31–40 years and 1.2% of the respondents for 41 years or longer; the females were more mobile, as only 4.0% of them had held the same job for 31–40 years; none of the women had been in the same position longer than 40 years. Most women had done their current jobs for relatively short periods, from 3 to 5 years (38.9%); for men the periods were much longer, ranging from 26 to 35 years (28.6%).

22

Some workers aged 45+ working very long years in the same position and for the same employer are a kind of a relic that has survived from the 20th c. It is likely to pass away with the retirement of the last, oldest workers. However, this phenomenon provokes various reflections. Long years of service certainly prove workers’ strong attachment to their employer, their loyalty and generally positive relations in the firm. On the other hand, though, such persons have accustomed themselves to working for one organization only, so, if dismissed, they run the risk of being rejected by the labour market for low mobility. That long period of employment may also suggest that their competences is fairly limited, as well as proving that the managers do not think about the necessary adaptation of the working conditions and terms of employment to the aging organisms of their workers. Some answers given by the older workers to the question about age influence on their performance indicated that the managers’ expectations were the same for all workers doing the same type of job and that age was not taken into account — „you’re either fit for the job, or not, nobody asks about your age”.

7.3. The attitude of older workers to their workplace The positive outcome of the long-term relationships between older workers and their present employers is that the former believe quite strongly that they will not lose their jobs. The surveyed population divided itself into two groups of almost equal sizes — one with those who were not afraid of losing their jobs (45.4%), while the other group contained those who had such concerns (47.9%) — graph 7.6.

Graph 7.6. Older employees concerned about losing their jobs

After analysing some other variables, such as sex, age, educational attainment, position, years of service in the firm, certain differences were found. The men were more afraid of losing

23

their jobs (54.4%) than the women were (46.8%), persons with basic vocational education (57.3%) than those with tertiary education (42.4%), persons under 55 years of age than older persons (in Poland, an employer is not allowed to terminate an employment contract with an employee who is 4 years short of his/her retirement age, if the period of employment makes the employee eligible for an old-age pension), and persons employed as the customer service personnel (65.0%) and manual workers (53.5%); the fear of being dismissed was the lowest among managers (30.0%).

According to the data above, long years worked by persons aged 45+ is both their advantage and disadvantage when it comes to examining worker mobility. On one hand, a long period of service makes the workers believe that they will stay with their current employers (workers with tertiary education aged 55+), but on the other hand, they are concerned that the employer might make them redundant despite their long service (workers with lower educational attainment, aged 45–55 years).

The relatively high stability of employment indicated by workers aged 45+ arises from their comparatively high self-evaluation.

Then the older workers were asked whether they felt any age impacts on their current performance (graph 7.7).

Graph 7.7. The self-evaluation of older employees’ achievements in the present job

An interesting thing is the high self-evaluation among the older workers. Most of them (79.9%) did not see that age had any adversary effect on the results of their work. After rejecting the incomplete answers, the percentage of „the satisfied persons” grows even larger, amounting to 85.8%; sex is a factor that only slightly differentiates the answers (92.3% of women and 81.3% of men were of the same opinion), while the other variables do not have a major effect on the distribution of answers. Even among the manual workers the rate of persons satisfied with their performance at work was high — 78.6%. The older workers were asked then why growing old did not deteriorate their performance in the present job. The answers were fairly diversified (graph 7.8).

24

Graph 7.8. The reasons for which advancing age does not undermine the performance in the present job as perceived by the older workers

Trying to identify the sources of the optimistic opinions about age’s influence, or noninfluence, on older workers’ performance, we found that the willingness to work was the best cushion absorbing potentially disadvantageous phenomena in the work environment — this opinion was expressed by 72.9% of respondents. In their group, this argument was given more often by persons under 50 years of age (73.3%) and those with master’s degrees (see graph 7.9).

Graph 7.9. Respondents pointing to the willingness to work as an explanation why older worker’s performance does not fall with aging and respondents’ educational attainment

25

Nevertheless, employees do feel that aging exerts some negative impacts on their performance, on the ways they do things in their present jobs. This opinion was expressed by 30.3% of the women and more than half of the surveyed men (53.1%) who were mainly manual workers (54.1% of such workers feel that age makes them less efficient). The negative influence of age on work is the most strongly felt by older IT specialists (66.7%), who certainly suffer from lagging behind the fast changing IT because of their growing old.

Generally, workers with low and secondary education regard that age has the most negative impact on their performance — the higher level of education, the easier it becomes for older employees to overcome age-related problems in their jobs (graph 7.10).

Graph 7.10. The negative influence of age on the current performance as indicated by older workers and their educational attainment

The subjective perception of the age-related problems in the workplace is determined by work environment and working conditions, as well as the type of job. Therefore, an attempt was

26

made to identify the types of occupational problems in relation to older respondents’ positions.

The working conditions were analyzed with respect to a/ the requirements of older respondents’ jobs, b/ the job-related evaluation of workers’ personal traits induced by aging.

The work environment was evaluated in terms of worker performance and the atmosphere (interpersonal relations).

7.4. The working conditions of older workers The respondents were shown a list of traits associated with their jobs. Then they were asked to indicate which of them affected neither them nor their jobs. The percentage of responses of the type “this does not concern me or my job” allows determining the type of older respondents’ working conditions by means of the residual method. This approach led to the creation of a list of typical traits of the workplace where the older employees worked. The older workers were asked to indicate the degrees of onerousness associated with the listed traits that they believed to affect them and their jobs using a four-degree scale: 1 — the least distractive, 2 — somewhat distractive, 3 — rather distractive, 4 — the most distractive.

According to the answers, their jobs primarily involved a fast pace of work, short deadlines and surprising, new developments. The female employees additionally indicated their exposure to the permanent requirement of raising their qualifications, while the males stated that in addition to the high speed of work and short deadlines they were exposed to the pressure on their being always available as well as substantial physical strain. The responses were determined by the types of jobs done by females and males (table 7.3).

Table 7.3. The structure of responses given by older respondents to the question about the requirements of their jobs by sex — 2 or 3 traits that were indicated the least frequently as irrelevant to their present jobs [„this does not concern my job”] — % of all answers

All respondents Type of factor

Including (% of all answers)

aged 45+ (% of all answers)

females

males

High speed of work, short deadlines (N=14)

8.6

11.3

7.2

New, unexpected developments (N=25)

15.6

6.1

x

X

13.3

x

Pressure

on

the

continuous

improvement

of

27

qualifications (N=36) Availability in the workplace (N=34)

x

X

15.9

Substantial physical strain (N=52)

x

X

16.4

After introducing the variable ‘age’ we find out that the high speed of work and new developments were more frequent among the employees aged 50–55 years than among their slightly younger colleagues aged 45–50. Unfortunately, the oldest employees’ jobs were usually inconvenient, involving noise, unhealthy temperature of the environment, as well as requiring considerable physical effort (table 7.4).

Table 7.4. The structure of responses given by older respondents by age (N=165) — 2 or 3 traits that were indicated the least frequently as irrelevant to their present jobs [„this does not concern my job”] — % of all responses

Type of factor

45–50 years

50–55 years

55 and older

High speed of work, short deadlines (N=13)

10.2

8.6

–

New, unexpected developments (N=24)

19.1

11.3

x

18.4

x

12.9

19.1

X

x

x

X

12.9

Noise, the temperature of the environment, co-workers smoking cigarettes, etc. (N=33) Availability in the workplace (N=33) Substantial physical strain (N=50)

Unfavourable working conditions as indicated by (tab.7.5): 1. the manual workers: considerable physical strain combined with high speed of work and availability, 2. the accountants: high speed of work, surprising developments combined with a strong pressure on improving one’s qualifications, 3. accountants: fast pace of work, new, unexpected requirements combined with a strong pressure on improving one’s qualifications, 4. managers: availability, pressure on the continuous improvement of skills and fast pace of work, short deadlines, 28

5. customer service personnel (in the call centres): new, surprising job requirements, also fast pace of work, noise, unfavourable temperature of the environment, coworkers smoking cigarettes, etc., Interestingly, the respondents ignored on the list of factors characterising their jobs items such as shift work, the need to work after hours, considerable responsibility. The discussion omits the IT specialists and the sales personnel because their representatives gave only few answers.

Table 7.5. The traits that do not affect older workers’ jobs: 2 or 3 traits that were indicated the least frequently as influencing their jobs [„this does not concern my job”] by respondent’s position (% )

Attribute

Fast pace of work, short deadlines New, surprising developments

Accountants

Managers

IT

Office

Manual

specialists

personnel

workers

Customer service personnel

Sales personnel

0.0

14.3

X

15.4

8.8

8.0

x

7.7

x

0.0

x

x

0.0

x

x

x

x

x

x

4,0

x

x

x

x

23,1

x

x

x

8,3

7,7

0,0

x

x

x

0,0

x

0,0

x

20,0

17,5

x

x

x

x

x

x

8,4

x

x

Noise, the temperature of the environment, co-workers smoking cigarettes, etc.

Lack of necessary knowledge and skills to do a job (N=46) Pressure on the permanent improvement of qualifications (N=31) Availability (N=31) High physical strain (N=51)

29

We can conclude that the working conditions of older workers were unfavourable, hence the necessity to adapt the working conditions to the capabilities of aging organisms. Workers did the same jobs for many years.

7.5. Evaluation of the onerousness of health changes caused by aging with respect to person’s job Older respondents were aware of the changes that progress with aging — their vision and hearing deteriorated and they generally felt worse in the work environment.

Women perceived the negative age-induced changes more often than men did; for instance, only 4.0% of the women, but as much as 13.6% men, declared that the deteriorating vision was not their problem. Almost 9 out of 10 women felt worse in the workplace, the men having the same feeling almost twice less often (tab.7.6).

Table 7.6. Evaluation of the onerousness of the age-induced health changes in the workplace — 3–4 traits that were indicated the least frequently [„this does not concern me”] by respondent’s sex (%)

All respondents Trait

Including (% of all answers)

aged 45+ (% of all answers)

women

men

Lowered mood in the workplace

16.1

10.4

19.3

Deteriorated vision

10.4

4.0

13.6

Deteriorated hearing

21.0

X

21.6

Memory problems

X

18.2

X

Poor health, losing strength quickly

X

X

21.1

Table 7.7. Evaluation of the onerousness of the age-induced health changes in the workplace — 3–4 traits that were indicated the least frequently [„this does not concern me”] by respondent’s age (%)

Trait

45–50 years

50–55 years

55 and older

30

Lowered mood in the workplace

19.6

12.7

17.2

Deteriorated vision

15.2

6.0

10.3

Deteriorated hearing

X

16.5

17.2

Poor health, losing strength quickly

X

16.9

10.0

Table 7.8. Evaluation of the onerousness of the age-related health changes in the workplace — 3–4 frequently indicated traits [„this does not concern me”] by respondent’s job (%)

Trait

Lowered mood in the

Accountants

Managers

IT

Office

Manual

specialists

personnel

workers

Customer service personnel

Sales personnel

8.3

x

0.0

x

x

4.0

0.0

Deteriorated vision

0.0

0.0

0.0

5.9

18.4

0.0

0.0

Deteriorated hearing

x

14.3

0.0

x

x

4.2

0.0

8.3

x

0.0

x

x

x

0.0

x

x

x

x

15.0

x

x

x

x

0.0

18.8

18.2

x

x

workplace

Concentration problems I don’t understand managers’ new requirements Poor health, losing strength quickly

Generally, the call centre personnel (customer service personnel) and accountants (most employees in both the categories are women) had the lowest self-evaluations of their physical and mental condition in the workplace. They noticed much more often than the respondents doing other jobs that their vision deteriorated and indicated a generally lower mood in the workplace; besides, the accountants pointed to concentration problems, while the representatives of the customer service personnel talked about poorer hearing — an important sense in their work. On the other hand, the manual workers stated that their major problem was understanding the managers’ new requirements. This suggests that the superiors do not

31

know how to skilfully adapt the way they communicate with others to the deteriorating perception of older workers.

7.6. The evaluation of workplace atmosphere and work performance by the older workers The respondents’ opinions suggest that not all of the presented inconveniences and weaknesses associated with aging have a considerable, negative effect on workers’ performance. Almost half of the surveyed workers believed that their performance was not worse than it used to be (46.9% of them rejected the suggestion about their decreased efficiency); men were more pessimistic than women were, which was certainly connected with the type of work they did. More than every third worker with basic vocational education (37.7%) rejected the suggestion that work performance deteriorates with aging.

The analysis of the collected responses with respect to workplace atmosphere focused on two factors — younger workers’ reluctance to their older colleagues and the unreliability of other persons in the workplace, brusque customers (tab. 7.9).

Table 7.9. Older respondents’ answers to the question about their work performance and the perceived reluctant attitude of their younger colleagues and customers by respondent’s sex and education — answers indicating „this does not concern me” as % of all answers

Type of answer

All

Including (% of all

respondents'

responses

Level of education

aged 45+ (% of all

Women

men

46.9

49.0

46.2

47.3

48.9

18.8

17.8

Basic

Secondary

Tertiary

37.7

54.1

50.0

47.6

41.7

47.3

63.6

19.3

18.4

22.4

12.5

answers)

vocational

My performance at work is declining Reluctance

of

younger colleagues Other

persons’

unreliability at work, brusque customers

32

The atmosphere of intergenerational cooperation may deteriorate if the older workers feel the reluctant attitude of their younger colleagues. As shown by the answers, the higher level of education, the lower percentage of older workers feeling the reluctance of their younger colleagues (tab. 7.9). Respondents’ age was clearly correlated with the strength of the reluctance felt. The older the respondents, the larger the percentage of those who met with younger co-workers’ reluctance. The intensity of the phenomenon is related to what the worker does — the accountants, managers and manual workers sensed a thicker atmosphere of reluctance. On the other hand, relatively weak signs of younger generation’s reluctance were felt by the older members of the customer service personnel.

Table 7.10. Older respondents’ answers given to the question about work performance and the perceived reluctant attitude of younger workers and customers by respondents’ age and position — answers indicating „this does not concern me” as % of all answers.

Age (years) 55 and

Type of answer 45–50

My performance

Position

50–

older

55

Account

Manager

ants

s

IT

Office

specialis

personne

ts

l

Custome Manual

r service

workers

personne

Sales personne l

l

50.0

43.4

46.7

38.5

53.8

100.0

53.8

42.9

45.8

100.0

60.0

46.7

27.6

25.0

38.5

50.0

53.3

42.7

68.2

100.0

13.0

22.1

10.3

8.3

–

100.0

26.7

25.0

8.3

0.0

is falling Younger colleagues’ reluctance Other persons are unreliable at work, brusque customers

In the opinion of the older workers, work atmosphere can be spoilt by the unreliability of other persons and brusque customers, which is particularly felt by the customer service personnel and sales personnel. The older the respondent, the more often such undesirable situations were perceived — for instance, only every tenth respondent stated that other persons’ unreliability and customer brusqueness were not a problem in their work setting.

33

8. The workplace factors perceived by the older workers as the most onerous Continuing our discussion of workplace onerousness as perceived by the older workers, in this part of the report we shall present the results of the survey investigating the onerousness of the selected factors in the work environment as perceived by the workers. The types of the factors were marked in the questionnaire survey and the respondents were requested to indicate how onerous particular items were using a four-point scale: 1 — the least disruptive; 2 — somewhat disruptive, 3 — more disruptive, 4 — the most disruptive.

The section above discussed the factors that, as the respondents believed, did not directly affect them or their jobs. This allowed characterising older persons’ working conditions and workplace atmosphere, as well as taking a closer look at how they viewed their performance.

Following that, the factors that the respondents regarded as the most onerous were analysed (4 points) — tab.8.1.

Table 8.1. Workplace factors that the respondents regarded as the most onerous in terms of job requirements

The most onerous factors (answer ”this bothers me the most”)

No. of answers N=166

%

40

24.1

Fast pace of work, tight schedules

39

23.5

Unreliability of co-workers, brusque customers

30

18.1

Physical strain

29

17.5

Deteriorating vision

28

16.8

Noise,

temperature,

co-workers

smoking

cigarettes

and

similar

circumstances

An in-depth analysis of respondents’ opinions (of the answer: „this is the most disruptive thing for me in my present job”) by sex, age, position and years of service revealed that: 1. Noise, temperature, co-workers smoking cigarettes and similar circumstances : a.

The men pointed to the factor much more often than the women did (respectively 27.5% and 15.1% of all responses), every third women decided that the factor was „somewhat disruptive”, it was usually indicated by persons aged 50–55 years (27.8%),

34

b. The factor was regarded as very onerous by workers with basic vocational education (38.0%) and higher education (28.0%); each category probably had its own problem with the factor — the low-educated ones pointed to it because of the type of their job (almost every third of the manual workers declared that the factor was very disruptive), while the persons with tertiary education were more sensitive because of their stronger awareness of the risk of smoking cigarettes, etc. (27.8% of the responding managers admitted that this was one of the factors making their work environment very onerous), 2. Fast pace of work, tight schedules : a. This factor was indicated as very onerous (“the most disruptive”) by workers aged 50–55 years (27.2% of the answers), managers (35.7%) and the office personnel (30.8%); the women usually declared that the factor was only „somewhat disruptive” — 28.3%, although every fifth of them regarded it as very onerous, 3. Unreliability of co-workers, brusque customers a. Most men and women indicated that the factor was “somewhat disruptive” (26.7% and 27.5%, respectively); however, it was very important for every fifth woman; the factor mainly affected persons aged 45–50 years (26.1%), managers (35.7%) and the customer service personnel — among which it was indicated by every third respondent, 4. Physical strain: a. For more than half of the older men (56.7%) substantial physical strain was not a very onerous factor (the answers were „the least disruptive” and „somewhat disruptive”), only 22.4% of them decided that the factor was very important („the most disruptive”), mainly persons aged 55 years and older (every fourth) doing manual jobs (27.7% of the surveyed manual workers pointed to „the most disruptive”); overall, more than half of the manual workers whose work involved physical strain regarded the factor as „more” or “the most disruptive”, 5. Deteriorating vision a. Deteriorating vision was perceived as the most onerous by every fourth woman and every fourth worker aged 45–50 years and by every firth worker with

35

tertiary education; workplace problems caused by the deteriorating vision were felt the most strongly by managers (35.7%), as well as accountants and the customer service personnel (25.0% of such answers in each group); overall, the factor was found to be the most difficult for the accountants — as much as 62.5% of them stated that the factor was „more” and „the most disruptive”; we need to remember that the contemporary accountants and the call centres’ personnel use computers in their work and computer monitors increases eye fatigue.

From among the other factors (listed in questionnaire 3) that affected other workers with different strength the „reluctance of younger colleagues” was selected. As noted above, more than half of the respondents aged 45+ met with this attitude in the workplace (52.0% — see tab. 7.10), almost as many women (51.1%) as men (52.4%). Nevertheless, the factor is not a big problem (see graph 8.1). The percentages of persons indicating that the reluctance showed by their younger colleagues was particularly difficult for them and disrupted their work („more” and „the most disruptive”) were basically equal in the three selected age groups.

Interestingly, the workers aged 55+ felt the reluctance much more weakly than their slightly younger colleagues (see graph 8.2).

Graph 8.1. Younger colleagues’ reluctance as a factor affecting older workers as perceived by the respondents — by sex (%)

Graph 8.2. Younger colleagues’ reluctance as a factor affecting the work of older workers as perceived by the respondents — by age (%)

36

Another issue concerned the relationship between the subjectively perceived onerousness of younger workers’ reluctance and the type of older respondent’s job. It was found that only two job categories were actually exposed to such reluctance, i.e. the accountants and the office personnel.

The next thing we tried to establish was why older workers gave positive answers about their work performance — according to the aforementioned self-evaluations poorer work performance was only occasionally indicated by older workers, mainly those aged 55+ (13.3% of responses „more” and „the most disruptive”) and doing manual jobs. Therefore, in the next section of the report some selected aspects of the occupational development of older workers will be considered.

9. The occupational development of older employees According to the older respondents’ opinions, they did not think that the lack of necessary knowledge, skills and the need to continuously improve their qualifications were burdensome aspects of their jobs for several reasons. As much as 37.2% of the women and 30.3% of the men admitted that they had all knowledge or necessary skills to do their jobs. As far as the other group is concerned, the lack of necessary skills was not a major obstacle — every third respondent stated that the problem was minor („the least disruptive”), only a small percentage of mainly males (12.0%) indicated that their qualification gaps were an obstacle that was felt as „more” and ”the most disruptive”. The opinion was the most frequent among workers with the lowest education — basic vocational (13.7%) — and with secondary education (12.0%), aged 50–55 years) — see graph 9.1. The lack of appropriate qualifications was the most frequently felt by the manual workers (15.2% of all answers) and the customer service personnel (13.0%).

37

Graph 9.1. Older workers’ age and their subjective perception of the considerable onerousness („more disruptive”, „the most disruptive”) of the lack of knowledge and skills in doing their work

Most of the surveyed older workers were required to raise their qualifications permanently (only 13.3% of the women and 28.0% of the men admitted that they were exempted from the requirement). This is quite a paradox, because most older workers did not feel that their knowledge and skills had any gaps, while being aware that the organization wanted them to improve their qualifications on a continuous basis (especially the group of workers with tertiary education) (graph 9.2.).

Graph 9.2. Age and the needlessness of improving one’s qualifications on a permanent basis („this does not concern me or my job”)

The IT specialists, managers and the call centre personnel were under the strongest pressure of improving their skills constantly.

38

It was noted that the opinions were sometimes not correlated with the actual situation, because the question — “Have you taken some training this year (other than obligatory)” was answered negatively by as much as 67.0% of the respondents (the opinion concerned the year 2008) — graph 9.3.

Graph 9.3. The popularity of occupational training among the older employees (training taken in 2008)

There were much more women who did not take training than men (43.0% against 27.8%), then workers with basic vocational education than secondary and tertiary education (Pearson’s coef.=29.1), workers in the oldest age group, i.e. 55 years and older (23.9%) than the younger ones, workers aged 45–50 years (38.7%) and those aged 50–55 years (35.1%) — graph 9.4.

Graph 9.4. Participation in vocational training offered in the workplace (other than obligatory) by older workers’ age

39

The popularity of training among the surveyed older workers depended on the type of job (Pearson’s coef.=86.3). Besides jobs that were covered by training to a very low degree, there were also jobs where almost all the surveyed workers were trained. The occupational groups whose older members were trained relatively rarely included accountants (10.3%) and manual workers (20.6%), while the customer service personnel (call centres) (90.2%,) IT specialists (66.7%) and managers (51.6%) were trained very often.

The group of the trained workers aged 45+ was asked to indicate the training subjects (tab.

9.1.).

Table 9.1. The subjects of training used by older workers in 2008 Training in

% of indications

The English language

1.6

Taxes, laws

3.3

Sale and marketing

3.3

Graduate and doctoral studies, post-graduate studies

8.2

Assertiveness, working time management, communication,

9.8

Finance and accountancy

9.8

IT training at different levels

11.5

Worker assessment systems at PKP Energetyka, HRM, ISO standards, teamwork, Specialist training for the rail personnel (e.g. for trolley operators, train managers)

11.5

16.4

Specialist power industry training (e.g. security systems, emergency signal systems for the 110 kV lines, operation of the 110 kV switching

24.6

station) Total

100.0

The above table shows that the most extensive list of training items was offered to the personnel of PKP Energetyka — 41% of all indicated training activities in total. The definite majority of the 118 trained workers (33.0% of the respondents) participated in training only once (only three persons stated that they had been trained twice the year before).

40

There are many reasons for which the older workers were not trained (table 9.2).

Unfortunately, the most common was the lack of training offers for the older workers, accounting for 65.3% of all causes as stated by the respondents. Another alarming phenomenon was that even if training offers were available, every tenth woman refused to participate. On the other hand, men believed that training relevant to their jobs was not available (38.9%). The wide range of training subjects available to PKP Energetyka’s manual workers was not perceived by them as satisfactory, judging by the fact that they indicated the lack of training relevant to their jobs the most frequently (70.6% of the ‘no relevant training’ answers).

Over half of the surveyed workers could not remember when they last participated in training, mainly men with basic vocational education doing manual jobs. The women were less frequent not to remember (more then every third) when they were trained for the last time. In some cases, the last training taken by the older workers had been provided at least four years earlier (14.6%), however, in the first half of 2009 almost 40% of the respondents were trained.

Table 9.3. The reasons why the older workers had not been trained the year before by sex

Including All workers Women

Reasons for not participating in training No. of answers

%

No. of answers

Men %

No. of answers

%

No training offers from the management

145

65.3

49

62.8

96

66.7

Training offers were available, but I didn't use

21

9.5

13

16.7

8

5.6

Training relevant to my job is not available

56

25.2

16

20.5

40

38.9

Total

222

100.0

78

100.0

144

100.0

them

Note: the respondents were allowed to give more than one reason

The opinion that older workers need as much training as their younger colleagues was quite popular among the respondents (the opinion was expressed by 53.5% of them) and it was related to respondents’ level of education (Pearson’s coef. =35.6). The higher the educational attainment, the more popular the belief was that training was equally necessary in older and

41

younger age groups (32.3% of the workers with basic vocational education and 72.1% with tertiary education). Besides, the opinion was more frequent among the women than among the men (71.1% and 48.8%, respectively). However, more than every third respondent believed that the older workers did not need as much training as the younger ones, presenting various arguments. Table 9.4 provides the list of the reasons why the younger and older workers should be provided with the same access to training as formulated by the surveyed population, as well as the arguments put forward by the opponents of this approach.

One of the main arguments in support of equal access to training regardless of worker’s age was the need to update one’s knowledge on a permanent basis, proving that the older generation of workers is fully aware that permanent access to training is a must in an expanding knowledge-based economy. The opponents, mainly the least educated respondents doing mostly manual jobs, believed that the older workers already had the relevant knowledge and skills and that, additionally, learning processes were more difficult for them. This proves the existence of a crack dividing the world of the educated workers who try to catch up with their younger colleagues in the ever-changing environment and a group of workers who should be trained non-stop regardless of their age, because of the hazards involved in their work, considerable responsibility (railways, power industry), but who are not fully aware that such a need exists.

Table 9.4. Older workers’ attitude to training in the workplace No. of Types of reasons

answers (N=375)

% (N=375)

% of respondents (N=359)

Older employees need the same amount of training as the younger ones do

192

51.2

53.5

132

35.2

36.8

72

37.5

20.0

25

15.4

7.0

Older employees do not need the same amount of training as the younger ones do The reasons for which older employees need the same amount of training as the younger ones do: •

To complete and update their knowledge; to keep up with changes and new developments; to handle new tasks, to operate devices, technologies, and products; because of changes in the firm, new job requirements, and due to the implementation of IT solutions

42

• Superiors expect the same results from all employees, whether young or old

19

11.7

5.3

18

11.2

5.0

15

9.3

4.2

11

6.8

3.1

2

1.2

0.6

62

16.6

17.3

38

10.1

10.6

18

4.8

5.0

14

3.7

3.9

51

13.6

14.2

• To increase their knowledge, because constant development is a must • To improve performance, productivity, qualifications, to change habits and to catch up with the younger workers • Brain has to be trained all the time regardless of your age, because nobody’s perfect; we all learn until we die; you can never know enough, • Consolidation and recollection • To do work safely, not to be pushed into the background The reasons for which older employees do not need the same amount of training as the younger ones do: ▪

Older workers have the right knowledge and skills

▪

Training is much harder for older employees

▪

Training is meant for younger employees

▪

Older employees will retire soon anyway

No answer

Note: the values given in the last column do not add up to one hundred because a respondent could give more answers than one to explain why older workers did not need training.

As an answer to the question about the type of training that the older workers missed the most the specialist training was usually indicated, including training relevant to one’s job and IT courses ranging from the elementary education, e.g. computer literacy, to new applications and advanced computer-control systems, which accounted in total for more than half of the reported training needs. The need of having so-called soft training was rarely raised — tab.

9.5.

Table 9.5. Training subjects that the older workers believed to be the most necessary by respondents’ sex All workers Training subjects No. of

%

Including Women No. of

Men %

No. of

%

43

answers

answers

answers

Specialist training needed to do a given job, improvement of knowledge and skills,

38

28.2

26

40.0

12

17.1

36

26.7

13

20.0

23

32.9

28

20.7

4

6.1

24

34.3

Training updating the knowledge of law

16

11.9

9

13.9

7

10.0

Stress management; anti-stress training

7

5.2

7

10.8

–

–

Others

10

7.3

6

9.2

4

5.7

Total

135

100.0

65

100.0

70

100.0

product-related training IT, operation of computer equipment, new computer techniques Operation of new equipment, technical innovations, occupational innovations,

Therefore, older workers present a variety of attitudes to life-long learning, which are usually specific to person’s level of education and position. Although the older workers are not quite aware that permanent training is necessary, they can be viewed as a group feeling a relatively strong drive for training, which shows that they are ready to confront training challenges.

The superiors usually encouraged the older workers to share their knowledge, experiences and skills with the younger workers (such proposals were received by 59.8% of the female and 65.9% of the male workers), basically regardless of worker’s education (55.7% of the respondents with basic vocational education and 57.6% of those with higher education) or position (77.4% of the managers, 65.0% of the female staff in the call centres, 61.0% of the manual workers).

10. Older workers’ attitude to retirement It has been frequently emphasised throughout this study that the surveyed older workers were special for their high self-evaluations — they generally did not worry that aging decreased their efficiency (79.9% of them declared that „age does not deteriorate my performance”) and essentially did not believe that a possibly deteriorating performance could be a serious threat to their jobs. Therefore, when asked to give their opinion whether it was right for the managers to propose the aging workers (after 45 or 50 years of life) transfers to other, more

44

suitable jobs (less absorbing, less demanding, less intensive, etc.), they usually denied — graph 10.1.

Graph 10.1. Workers supporting and objecting to in-house transfers of workers aged 45+ to less absorbing, less demanding, less intensive jobs, etc.

Older persons’ opinions on worker transfers to jobs that were more appropriate to them considering their age were specific to respondents’ education — the largest part of those objecting to such practices was found among persons with tertiary education (89.8%), while the smallest proportion, although still relatively large, among persons with secondary education (68.7%). It was found that age did not differentiate workers’ opinions on the issue, but the type of worker’s position did — substantial percentages of the older staff of the call centres and of manual workers supported the age-related transfers (48.7% and 31.3%, respectively). Both the jobs are very intense, which probably made these workers agree more often that older age was a sufficiently good reason for the managers to consider worker transfers to — generally speaking — easier jobs.

Why are older employees reluctant to the suggestion that they could be transferred to other jobs? Graph 10.2 illustrates the indicated reasons, showing that the main concern of the older workers was that they could be age-stigmatized, while lower pay or prestige in the workplace were indicated as less important.

45

Graph 10.2. The reasons why older employees were reluctant to the suggestion that they could be transferred to other, more suitable jobs

As found, the intensity of workers’ concerns about their being transferred to other jobs was specific to sex. The females mainly feared that they would have to admit publicly to their advanced age (almost every second respondent); the proportion of the males having the same feelings was slightly smaller (39.8%). Half of the managers and some of the office personnel were reluctant to admit to their advanced age. For women, lower prestige was more important (21.4%) than the probable pay reduction (20.5%); the males perceived the situation differently — almost every third male worried that their pay would probably be decreased, while lower prestige of the new job seemed to be much less of a problem for them (17.2%) — see graph 10.3.

Graph 10.3. The reasons why older employees were reluctant to the suggestion that they could be transferred to other, more suitable jobs by sex

46

An age-induced transfer to a different job unleashes some threats the nature of which depends on workers’ educational attainment. While the fear of being age-stigmatized was similar across the surveyed workers (somewhat stronger among those with tertiary education), the fear of lower pay was typical of the older workers with vocational (35.5%) and secondary education (30.4%). However, for persons with tertiary education this did not seem to be a vital problem (17.2%) — they expressed stronger concerns about losing the prestige associated with their present jobs (27.6%) than about lower salaries. The possibly deteriorated professional prestige was not a problem for the workers with the vocational education (9.7%), who were much more concerned about having to learn new things that would be required in their new jobs (12.9%). Age-stigmatism was the largest problem for workers in the age group 45–50 years (47.3%), while the likely pay reductions stirred significant anxiety among the slightly older workers, i.e. aged 50–55 years (29.0%).

There are many discussions going on in Poland that point to the necessary extension of the period of economic activity among older employees and suggest the introduction of further obstacles to early retirement in the next future. Therefore, the older workers were asked about their retirement plans and their attitude to a proposal of extending their employment in their current workplace (graph 10.4.).

Graph 10.4. Older employees’ attitude to their date of retirement (in %)

47

Older employees showed different attitudes to the date of retirement that allowed dividing the surveyed population into four different categories, i.e. the legalists, the impatient, the workaholics and the hesitant. The largest group, the legalists, wished to retire at their statutory retirement age — these accounted for 46.0% of all respondents. The next three categories of older employees were similar in terms of their sizes: the workaholics wanted to work as long as possible, postponing their retirement into indefinite future — 18.9% of them wanted to work as long as possible. The impatient (17.0% of the surveyed population) wanted to retire immediately. The hesitant (15.9%) planned their retirement in a year or two.

The group of those who wanted to retire immediately was slightly bigger among the males (20.0%) than among the women (15.0%). The women were also more inclined to postpone their retirement into an indefinite future than the men were (21.8% and 16.5%, respectively).

The decision to retire was specific to workers’ educational attainment (Pearson’s coef. =29.1) — 42.9% of the persons with the master’s degrees wanted to work long years, but only 9.6% of those with the basic vocational education. However, age did not significantly affect the type of answers about the date of retirement (graph 10.5.).

Graph 10.5. Older employees’ age and their interest in the date of retirement (%)

The smallest proportion of the supporters of long occupational activity was found in the group aged 50–55 years. The workaholics accounted for one fifth of persons aged 45–50 and for one fourth in the oldest group. This finding is consistent with a frequently growing interest in postponed retirement among persons who are about to reach the statutory retirement age. The workaholics were offset by the impatient employees — in each age category every fifth or sixth person wanted to retire immediately. The most interested in early retirement were women working in the call centres (more than every fifth), then the office personnel (19.0%) and the manual workers (18.5%). On the other hand, the managers (almost every third person, the accountants (more than every fourth) and a group of female enthusiasts of longer

48

economic activity (22.0%) working in the call centres wanted to extend their occupational activity.

The employees were free to take their retirement decisions, as most of them did not feel that the managers wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible (73.6%). Nevertheless, on average every fourth older employee sensed some threat of redundancy, mainly men (29.5%), persons with secondary and vocational education, rather those aged 50–55 years than in the younger (21.8%) and older age groups (28.0%), IT specialists and the customer service personnel in the call centres (43.9%), and every third manager.

Because the managers in the surveyed firms do not force their older employees to retire, this can be interpreted as an intention to keep such workers longer in the workplace. The older employees were therefore asked what they would do if the managers asked them to postpone their retirement (graph 10.6).

Graph 10.6. Older employees’ attitude to employers proposing them to postpone their retirement (%)

The question clearly divided the older workers into two groups — the resolute ones (43.7% on average) who would never accept their managers’ proposal of extending their employment (more than every second male and 41.8% of women), and the workaholics who would work longer even without formulating any preliminary requirements (18.1% of the population on average, including every fourth woman and only 16.0% of the men). Almost 30% of the respondents would like to postpone their retirement until some later date, while trying to renegotiate the terms of employment.

The lower educational attainment, the strongest worker’s resistance to managers’ proposal of extending the worker’s occupational activity (60.2% of those with vocational education and

49

23.8% of those with master’s degrees). Interestingly, workers reluctant to postponing their retirement belonged to the younger age group, i.e. 45–50 years (55.0%), while the older respondents were willing to postpone their retirement unconditionally (27.9%). The largest group of employees supporting postponed retirement was found among the managers (44.8%). As regards other positions, the groups of enthusiasts and opponents of extended occupational activity were easily distinguishable and the reluctant ones clearly predominated over those who preferred to delay their retirement; for instance, in the groups of the manual workers the rates were 58.9% and 13.5%, respectively, and 42.1% and 21.1% among the customer service personnel.

In contrast with the popular opinion, the older workers did not have more sick days.

Graph 10.7 shows that almost 60% of the older workers did not miss a single day of work in 2008. Sick leaves longer than 15 days were only found in the case of 11.3% of the older employees.

Graph 10.7. Do older employees become sick more often and thus miss many working days — sick leaves in 2008 as the number of sick days used by workers aged 45+

The high self-evaluation of the older employees was confirmed once again. This time they presented themselves as a relatively healthy population, which did not expose their employers to substantial costs related to sick pays.

11. Older employees’ satisfaction with jobs Job satisfaction is viewed in terms of workers’ positive emotions, which arise when their jobrelated needs are met. The structuralist concept assumes that a worker is satisfied when his or her job is important and allows the person to apply the possessed capabilities and skills (the 50

supporters of the approach are, for instance, R. Likert, P. Drucker, and D. Mc Gregor). The personalist concepts are underpinned by the theory of individual differences and subjective perception of the closer and farther environments (e.g. E.H. Schein). The two theoretical approaches led [M. Andrałojć, J. Szambelańczyk, 2009, p.186] to the isolation of three groups of factors that can contribute to job satisfaction: economic, related to the job, and social, formed by the types of workplace relations.

Because it was assumed that older employees’ interest in extending their occupational activity is largely determined by their satisfaction with the present jobs, pay and social relations, the following question was asked: “Are you satisfied with your work in the firm”? The definite majority of the respondents (almost 70%) answered that their work gave them broadly meant satisfaction (graph 11.1).

Graph 11.1. Are you satisfied with your work in the firm ?

Job satisfaction was more typical of the females than of the males — 78.9% and 65.8%, respectively, the employees’ with master’s degrees (82.0%) rather than those with basic vocational education (62.6%). These findings can also be viewed from a different angle — more than every third manual worker, every fourth accountant and a female worker in a call centre were dissatisfied with their jobs. On the other hand, high satisfaction with their jobs

51

was expressed by the managers (80.6%), IT specialists (100.0%), office personnel (90.5%) and sales personnel (100.0) — graph 11.2.

Graph 11.2. Older employees’ satisfaction with their jobs by job type

As mentioned, job satisfaction is determined by three types of factors. According to the quotes presented below, the workers mainly derived their satisfaction from their jobs and the social factors, while the financial factors were much less important. The indicated sources of satisfaction included the workers being part of a team in a prestigious firm, a long relationship with the same employer without any special admiration for the employer’s uniqueness — just the long-term relationship itself was satisfying for some employees.

The types of the sources of satisfaction as stated by the older workers were not specific to sex or age; worker’s position only exerted a weak differentiating influence — tab.11.1.

Table 11.1. The sources of older workers’ job satisfaction Sources/factors of job satisfaction

No. of answers

%

I like my job, I like what I do (my job is creative (interesting), I like creative jobs, I do things that I know how to handle, my work improves my self-esteem, I enjoy my successes, I feel fulfilled professionally, I can realise myself, the prestige of the job, I can demonstrate my professionalism, exchange of experiences, my job is interesting, varied, I

87

33,7

28

10,9

like to manage work teams, I know my job, a well done job is gratifying for me, the tasks are within the scope of my knowledge and skills, I can use my knowledge); The fact that I’m still occupationally active and can develop myself (I can hope for promotion; I cannot imagine being occupationally inactive now; continuous development; I’m catching up intellectually; I’m successful in the workplace; new and new challenges; educational opportunities, people always have to improve themselves, I like to work and I

52

have many things to do here; I gain new occupational experiences, I derive satisfaction from the work itself, I feel occupationally active, I improve my own skills, I’m trying to develop myself and to be as good as my younger colleagues are); My firm (I’m with a modern firm, I boost my firm’s image, my firm is big and well established in the market, my firm is my other home, I’ve been part of the company for 29 years, the firm’s reputation, my firm needs me, the prestige of working for an international

25

9,7

21

8,1

19

7,4

16

6,2

16

6,2

15

5,8

15

5,8

11

4,3

5

1,9

company, I respect my company, I identify myself with the firm; my firm is prestigious; my firm is expanding); The conditions and the good atmosphere (relations) in the workplace (peace, friendly, nice (good) atmosphere in the group (team), very good relations between the workers and the management; working in a special IT environment, there is always something new going on; I like the system of work; I have an independent position, I’m recognized by my subordinates); Interpersonal relations in diversified teams (working with people at different ages, contacts with younger co-workers; forming new relations; cooperation with other workers; I meet people; I meet the representatives of other firms, I meet people from all over the country); Financial independence, economic considerations (the fact of earning money, attractive terms of employment, steady income; my pay is growing because the firm is profitable; incentive bonus); A satisfied need of helping others, of being useful (I feel needed and this makes me feel younger, I can be of assistance, I like fast pace of life, I feel useful, needed by society, my firms needs me, I’m not bored, I can share my experiences with others); Good relations with the superiors (I’m appreciated by the managers, I enjoy their recognition; the management does not complain about me; my superiors are pleased with me; I have wonderful superiors, work boosts my self-confidence, good cooperation with the superiors, management’s understanding, good relations with the management); A long-standing habit (out of habit, after for 30 years of work, after 25 years this must be satisfying, the scope of work is within my knowledge and skills, that’s the job I have, my job corresponds to my education, a habit formed by the long years of service, that’s the way it is; I’m actually happy to be working for one employer for 23 years); I can cope with new challenges in my work (I’m glad that I can cope with my new job, I was assigned new, demanding tasks, I have no problem fulfilling my tasks, satisfaction from doing new things, the feeling that the job has been done well); The results of my work (customer satisfaction, I can see the results of my work, the results of my work are used by others, we enjoy our successes, our economic performance is good);

53

All answers

258

100,0

Older workers who were dissatisfied with their jobs were also asked to state why they felt that way. The answers suggest that the main reasons were economic (almost half of the answers), while the social and job-related factors influenced older workers’ dissatisfaction from their jobs to the same degree.

Table 11.2. Source/factors of older workers’ dissatisfaction with jobs

Sources/factors of job dissatisfaction

No. of

%

answers Pay considerations (low wages, pay inconsistent with the job and stress, the newly recruited workers are paid the same; financial discrimination; professionalism and additional certificates are not rewarded; very low pay; the pay is too small compared

40

51,2

9

11,5

8

10,3

8

10,3

7

9,0

with the requirements); Employer’s attitude to employees (employees are not respected, employee rights are breached, older employees are not respected, people are treated as objects, older employees’ experiences and skills are not respected, my occupational experiences are not used, uncertainty and the risk of being dismissed at any time); Excessive workload (the results of work are disproportionate to the invested efforts and they do not depend on my skills and commitment; the pace of work is too fast, the results do not depend only on myself but also on others and the requirements are being constantly increased, stress, irregularity); Inadequate, boring work (I’ve been doing the same things for years and I’d like to learn some new things; my present job does not offer prestige as the previous one; a wide range of tasks loosely related to the specific occupation — a „prole doing miscellanous jobs”; I’d like to have one permanent station to work at — they keep transferring me; the job I do is inconsistent with my occupation, I don’t like my job); Poor organization of work and bad workplace relations (systemic errors make it impossible to solve problems and customers’ issues fast, there is too little time to learn new procedures — I have to come to work at least 30 minutes early or stay long after hours; my education is not used, I’m treated as a little girl without a permanent assignment, my jobs is changed without a reason, I depend on someone’s whims; going to work I never know if I do my job or be sent to do something else — I lack stabilisation; the management poorly manages work; my manager is the reason for dissatisfaction);

54

Lack of motivation to work (I’m not pleased with my job; it’s difficult for me to say why, but I certainly have no motivation to work, I work because I have to); All answers

6

7,7

78

100,0

To recapitulate the results of the investigations into the influence of job satisfaction on workers’ plans to retire or continue employment, we can say that the economic factors did not encourage the older employees. However, their insufficient level made the employees express their dissatisfaction, because, as F. Herzberg stated, the factors belong to the hygiene factors and not to the group of motivators. The above clearly exemplifies Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Older employees’ wish to continue employment could be strengthened by stressing the content of their jobs, the related responsibility, the recognition expressed by the superiors and co-workers. In the analyzed cases with the older employees workplace relations played a strong motivating role, however these F. Herzberg found to be the hygiene factors.

12. Managers’ experience in working with persons aged 45+ Building on the assumption that the immediate superiors have the best knowledge of the workers, the managers were asked questions from the questionnaire survey 2 “My experiences in managing workers aged 45+”. The survey involved 93 managers in total, mainly male (59.4%); the females accounted for 40.6%. The definite majority of the managers had tertiary education — 70.8% of the respondents held undergraduate and graduate degrees (graph 12.1).

Graph 12.1. The education of the immediate superiors commenting on older workers’ performance

Most managers commenting on older workers also belonged to the older age group — more than half of them turned at least 46 years (graph 12.2).

55

Graph 12.2 The age structure of the immediate superiors commenting on older workers’ performance

The surveyed persons had been managers for long years — almost half of them (46.2%) had held managerial positions from 5 to do 10 years, and 4.4% even longer than 20 years. Their substantial experience in managing other persons allowed them to evaluate older persons’ work and its results in a broader perspective; not only in terms of their current subordinates, but also with respect to all persons they had ever supervised over the long years of their occupational activity.

Among the surveyed managers 43.8% worked as the front line managers, 39.3% as the team managers or coordinators,

the

heads of units, controllers, masters and gangers, while 16.9%

were directors, presidents, CFOs and owners of the surveyed firms.

The older workers are difficult to characterise as a social group, because aging processes affect people differently, thus increasing the heterogeneity of this population. Nevertheless, the immediate superiors managing age-diverse work teams were requested to identify, based on their long-standing experience, which of the 32 traits could be attributed to workers aged 45+ as well as the traits’ intensity on a scale from 1 to 4 (see questionnaire 2 „My experiences in managing workers aged 45+”). The selected traits were given weights, where 1 — the least significant, 2 — less significant, 3 — significant, 4 — the most significant. Older workers’ competence profiles comprise of the below traits that differentiate the group from others according to their superiors.

56

The most important traits of older workers as viewed by their superiors are:

1.

Loyal to their employer — 71.6%

2.

Involved in their work — 61.1%

3.

High–class specialist in their jobs — 59.3%

4.

Available to the employer — 57.5%

5.

Abiding by the rules and regulations — 54.3%

The least important traits of older workers as viewed by their superiors are

1.

lack of knowledge of foreign languages– 60.0%

2.

lack of computer skills — 23.6%

3.

intolerant — 20.0%

4.

wasteful as far as raw materials and other employer’s resources concerned– 19,3%

5.

unable to cope with changes– 16.3%

Specifically, the following distribution of the frequencies of answers was obtained (graph.

12.3).

57

Graph 12.3 Older workers as perceived by their immediate superiors (personality and occupational profiles of older workers)

58

Thus created image of the older workers is rather conservative — they are loyal and involved in their work, professional in their respective fields, reluctant to changes and without the attributes required by a modern workplace (without the knowledge of foreign languages and computer skills) and also intolerant.

59

Among the strong points of the older employees there are their soft skills, e.g. emotional balance, the ease of initiating contacts with new people, friendly attitude to co-workers and firm’s customers, the ability to work in a group consisting of young and older persons, the willingness to share knowledge and experience with others.

This averaged picture of older workers is not always true. The knowledge of foreign languages apart, the managers pointed to the occurrence of certain features proving that a small group of older workers, unfortunately a small one, keeps abreast with the modern economy; for instance, the managers stressed older workers’ creative attitude to the environment or their conflict-solving skills.

To get an insight into superiors’ opinions about older workers’ characteristics, a synthetic measure having the form of an evaluation index was built, whose variability ranged from 32 (each of the 32 distinctive traits could be assigned a minimal score of 1) to 128 points (the maximal possible score was 32x4). The numbers of points were then converted into percentages, so that they could be used to quantify superiors’ opinions on the particular traits of older workers; 128 was equivalent to 100% approval. Then the index values were divided into 4 categories that described older workers’ traits as low (5.8%), average (34.8%), high (43.5%), and very high (15.9%). It follows from the analysis of the empirical data that most superiors had good opinions about workers aged 45+, who received only 5.8% of the low evaluations. The female managers tended to view them more favourably than the men did (64.5% and 55.9% of the high and very high evaluations, respectively), but the relationship between evaluation and age was not statistically significant. Likewise, the level of education, the position, and the number of years the managers served in their present positions were not statistically significantly correlated with their evaluations of the workers aged 45+. After testing the evaluation index for consistency by means of reliability statistics (Alf Cronbach’s alpha), it was found to be very reliable. The statistic was 0.946, meaning that the choice of the 32 questions in the set was consistent and allowed a realistic assessment of the investigated phenomenon. One-way ANOVA was applied to assess the relationship between respondents’ age and the character of their opinions. Significant differences (p =0.024) were found between the opinions expressed by respondents under 40 years of age and older than 55 years. The younger managers’ opinions on workers aged 45+ were much tougher than those expressed by superiors older than 55 years.

Generally, most managers agreed that managing the older workers had its special aspects (59.6%), but 40.4% did not see anything special in the process. More than 40% of the 60

surveyed managers stated that the older workers needed more control than their younger colleagues (38.7% of the managers), see tab. 12.1.

Table 12.1. Managers’ opinions on the special aspects in managing older workers Special aspects in managing older workers

No. of answers

% of managers (N=93)

The control they require is 1.

stronger

36

38,7

2.

weaker

5

5,4

They need different motivation than the younger workers do

38

40,9

Scheduling their tasks is more difficult, because they got sick

7

7,5

Organizing the work of age-diverse teams is more difficult

4

4,3

Older workers are difficult to cooperate with

6

6,5

more often

Managing the work of older workers has its special aspect — this belief was expressed by 86.7% of the high-ranking managers (the president, the owner, the CFO, the chief designer); managers at lower organizational levels noticed special characteristics of managing older workers more rarely — 51.3% of the managers, their deputies and production managers, 65.5% of team heads and coordinators, masters and gangers. The variations in managers’ opinions suggest the existence of age-specific aspects of managing workers, although the front line managers do not think they are as strong as perceived by the top management.

Next, the managers were asked to describe the skills of the older workers that they appreciated the most. The managers pointed to: ▪ occupational experience gained owing to long years of service — 45.2% of all managers ▪ high professionalism in their respective fields, expertise — 22.6% of all managers ▪ involvement in work, occupational aspirations, work always comes first for them — 21.5% of all managers ▪ availability, flexibility — 20.4% of all managers ▪ structured way of acting — 10.8% of all managers After 45 years of age, workers show some negative traits that make it more difficult to cooperate with them during task execution:

61

▪ fear of changes, reluctance to new things — 20.4% of all managers ▪ old-line habits, stereotypical ways of thinking, routine — 17.2% of all managers ▪ other characteristics mentioned by individual respondents included lack of enthusiasm, boredom, lack of involvement, low resistance to stress, limited patience, poor health, sickly, limited flexibility, respect for procedures, self-righteousness, conceitedness, uncompromising attitude, unwilling to improve their skills, stubbornness, worried about their jobs, reluctant to compete, give-me attitudes, lack of computer skills and lack of knowledge of foreign languages.

The most appreciated features of older workers and the traits significantly impeding the cooperation between managers and persons aged 45+ confirm that the profiles of older workers’ occupational competencies are fairly individualized and conservative. Such persons are certainly good workers, but in environments where the pressure is not very strong.

Unfortunately, such environments are increasingly rare in the knowledge-based economy.

The managers were asked if their subordinates received different amounts of bonuses/ rewards because of the inferior performance of workers older than 45 years of age. The answer given by most of the surveyed managers was „No, it is basically the same”, regardless of the managers’ positions in the organization (68.2%); only 6.8% of them stated that the differences were significant. According to every tenth manager making such comparisons was impossible, because the earnings were not related to performance.

The next question tried to probe whether the negative impacts of worker aging could be effectively prevented by transferring such workers to other jobs, better suited to their existing capacity. The suggestion was viewed as a good solution but too difficult to implement, because of the shortage of appropriate jobs (42.2%). Every third manager rejected it, believing that it would not change anything (33.7%). Only 13.3% of the managers stated that the practice was pursued in their firms — the directors and presidents expressed the opinion twice more often than the ordinary managers. Therefore, more than every tenth manager likes the idea of transferring older workers to other jobs, but the actual practice is different.

Another option available under age management is the formation of age-diverse work teams.

However, most of the managers (62.5%) admitted that they had no control over the choice of team members. Notwithstanding, 30.7% of them tried to diversify teams in terms of their members’ age. The important thing is that the practice is part of everyday work in the case of 37.9% of managers at the lowest levels of management (masters, gangers, etc). Adapting jobs

62

to the aging workers’ needs is difficult, when workers’ training needs are practically not analysed (76.7%) (not more than every fourth manager analyses the needs). This situation could arise due to the managers’ belief that in the case of workers aged 45+ the training/ development outlays are not cost effective. However, the collected opinions make us reject the supposition — 59.6% of the managers stated that the training results of older workers should be considered on a case-by-case basis (all managers said the same regardless of their level) and 36.0% openly stated that training for older workers should not be considered in terms of the lack of effectiveness; such opinions (41.4%) were usually formulated by the lowest-level managers. Older workers were willing to share their knowledge with others — this fact was underlined by almost all workers (92.9%), only 2.0% of the workers stated that older workers’ knowledge and experiences were currently useless.

Conclusions The aging of societies affects workforce structures existing in the enterprises. Employment will undergo age-related polarization — in addition to young staff working in the banking and financial organizations, etc., where the average worker age will be 30–35 years, there will be firms where for various reasons the workforce’ age will be within the band 40–45 years. The proportion of workers aged 45+ may exceed even 40%, as in the firms described in the report.

Managing a diverse-age workforce will become a sought-after skill of the HR specialists.

Older workers belong to the most vulnerable groups in the labour market and they run higher risk of unemployment than the middle-aged persons. Besides, there is a whole range of stereotyped views on older workers wishing, or not, to be still active and on what to do to encourage their activity — the period of readily available early retirement is coming to an end and the official retirement age will be gradually raised — whether the aging labour force likes it or not.

The discussed research aimed at analyzing conditions encouraging workers aged 45+ to continue their economic activity. As part of the activity, three types of respondents in 12 SMEs located in the Łódź agglomeration, the third largest city in Poland in population terms, were covered by quantitative research employing a questionnaire survey. The representatives of the firms’ management or HR specialists also participated in the qualitative research that aimed to determine the HR policies applied to the aging workforce. During the activity, three hypotheses were verified: 1/ Age management does not exist in Polish firms as a planned and

63

purposeful activity; 2/ Older workers wish to continue employment because of the job satisfaction they feel; 3/ The competence of workers aged 45+ is appreciated by their younger colleagues and superiors, determining the sustainability of employment of workers in this age group. The first thesis turned out to be true, despite certain symptoms pointing to the awareness of the growing demand for age management. Some firms launched selected actions in this area, intentionally forming age-diverse teams or even transferring the workers to jobs, where the working conditions were better suited to the capabilities of the older workers.

However, this practice is not common, one reason being the fact that the interested persons themselves do not believe in it, because, as they declared in the questionnaires, this would make them age stigmatized, which they wished to avoid. The second thesis assuming a positive influence of job satisfaction on older workers’ wish to continue employment was fully corroborated. People having better memories of their workplace experiences are more determined to continue employment. However, some negative effects can also appear, especially when persons with the good experiences lose their jobs. Their frustration, decreased self-esteem, and the stress they go through receiving job offers much below their professional potential are much stronger than among older workers that have diverse memories of their past jobs. The third thesis concerning the evaluation of the competence of workers aged 45+ by their younger colleagues and superiors was not fully confirmed. In the cross-section of many research areas, a somewhat hidden conflict of generations was found.

Naturally, the younger workers appreciate their older colleagues and in most cases they are rather satisfied about being able to work with them, and even help them cope with their duties. At the same time, though, they are more critical about them and they would rather see them retire early, apparently forgetting that the pensions the retirees will receive will be paid by the younger generations.

Bibliography Andrałojć M., Szambelańczyk J.(2009), Satysfakcja z pracy w zarządzaniu zasobami ludzkimi, [in:] M. Juchnowicz (ed.) Kulturowe uwarunkowania zarządzania kapitałem ludzkim, Oficyna a Wolters Kluwer business, Kraków Dubas E, Pyżalski J., Muszyński M. Rapuš Pavel J. (2008), Wspieranie rozwoju bezrobotnych 50+.

Doświadczenia projektu Adults Mentoring, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź Eurostat, Statistics in Focus 40/2009 Kostrzewski L., P. Miączyński, Wiek to tylko data w dowodzie, Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 of November 2009, p. 2 Olejnik M (2000), Średnia dorosłość. Wiek średni, [in:] B. Harwas-Napirała, J. Trempała (ed). Psychologia rozwoju człowieka. Charakterystyka okresów życia człowieka, PWN Warsaw, vol. 2

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Wiśniewski Z. (ed.) (2009), Determinanty aktywności zawodowej ludzi starszych, Towarzystwo Naukowe Organizacji I Kierownictwa, Toruń http://employer-branding.blogspot.com/2009/06/najlepsi-pracodawcy-w-rankingach-hewitt.html www.zysk50plus.pl

65

APPENDICES Appendix no.1

Questionnaire 1 FIRMS’ PERSONNEL POLICY TOWARDS OLDER WORKERS (45+) 1.

Type of business: (please mark with „X”) Involving high-

Type of business

Traditional

No. of workers who retired in 2008; total of ....................................., in which: Workers under statutory ret. age............................

Employment as of the end of 2007 .......................

tech/ knowledge

Manufacturing Services 2.

No. of workers and their age structure (as of ………………….).

Worker age

Employed full time l. fem.

l.male

%fem.

Avg. age of firm’s workers in the years …….. %male

under 35 years

How old is the oldest worker in the organization ………

35 — 45 years

The largest number of workers aged 45/50+ work in the following department/ unit (%)

45 — 50 years

…………………………………………..……….

50 — 55 years

…………………………………………..……….

55 — 60 years 60 and older 100.0

Total

3.

100.0

Total number of new workers recruited in 2008 ……………(employment contracts) + civil law contracts ................., in which workers aged 45–50 years ………………………….. 50–55 years …………………........ 55–60

years……………………..

4.

No. of workers aged 45/50+ employed part time in 2008 ................., fixed term ..........................

5.

Typical jobs of workers aged 45/50+: key personnel  ; managers  ; office workers  ; direct workers  ;

auxiliary

workers



;

others

(state

what)

…………………………………………………………………………...........

6.

Total number of sick days per worker (in 2007 or 2008.) …………………….., in which workers aged 45– 50 years...........................50–55 years ……………………….. and 55–60 years……………………………

7.

Does the firm pay extra health insurance for its workers YES

NO

66

8.

Total

number

of

training

2008)……………………..,

days in

(without

which

obligatory

the

age

training)

group:

per

45–50

worker

(in

years..................

2007

or

50–55

years…………………and 55–60 years……………….…

9.

Total average years of worker’s employment .....women :......................men ..........................................; in which workers aged 45–50 years ............................ 50–55 years :………….. .and 55–60 years …………….............................. *

*

*

*

*

Please mark below the appropriate answer 1.

Our employment policy is guided by the principle: it is not worker’s age that is important, but the value they contribute to our firm

2.

YES

NO;

Consequently, a/ we seek and accept applicants of all ages

YES

NO

b/ we accept applicants aged 45+ when younger applicants are not available

YES

NO

c/ we accept applicants aged 45/50 years only for the manual jobs

YES

NO

Has the firm been short of workers recently

YES

NO

Do applicants aged 45/50+ respond to job adds

YES

NO

3.

What types of bonuses are offered to workers for long-years of service …………………………….……..

4.

Firm’s attitudes to workers aged 50+: a/ we encourage them to choose early retirement on their own, because we want to employ younger workers, b/ we discourage workers from taking early retirement before the statutory age, c/ we automatically terminate an employment contract when a worker becomes eligible for an old age pension, d/ we encourage workers to postpone retirement, e/ we approach workers on a case-bycase basis and all options are possible

5.

Does the firm run career management programmes for their workforce. YES

6.

Are the ageing, long-serving workers in the firm transferred to other jobs only on account of their age and age-related inadequacies, threats, lack of skills, etc. YES NO

7.

We evaluate / reward workers based on their performance, task execution: YES

8.

We pursue a more liberal policy towards underperforming workers aged 45/50+ who have been with the firm for long years and a more stringent policy towards new workers: YES NO

9.

Workers generally keep the same positions until retirement *

*

*

*

YES

NO

NO

NO

*

Respondent’s data (please mark the appropriate answer) 1/Gender:

female 

male 

2/Education: vocational  ; secondary  ; undergraduate  ; Master’s degree  3/Age: under 40 years  ; 41–45 years ; 46–50 years  ; 51–55 years  ; older than 55 yrs  4/Present position …………………………..................................................................

5/Years of employment in present position ……………………………

Comments: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………… ………………………………………………………………………..

Thank you

67

Appendix no. 2

Questionnaire 2 MY EXPERIENCES IN MANAGING WORKERS AGED 45/50+ 1.

Which of the traits below can be attributed to workers older than 45 years of age (mark your answer: 1 — the least significant ….. 4 — the most significant)

Regularity of acting Tolerance Emotional balance Aspirations to achieve more and more at work High degree of professionalism in one’s speciality Creative attitude to the environment Understanding Ability to express oneself

1234 1234 1234

Ability to resolve conflicts

1234

Commitment to one’s job

1234

Willingness to compete with others

1234

Ease of initiating contacts with new people Friendly attitude to co-workers and firm’s customers Knowledge of foreign languages

Patience Perceptiveness Loyalty to the employer Ability to work in a group with young and older members Ability to handle changes at work/sensitivity to changes Inquisitiveness Ability to communicate with others Ability to motivate others Willingness to share ones’ knowledge and experience with others Commitment to improving one’s own qualifications Economic approach to raw materials and other employer’s resources

1234 1234 1234

1234

Availability at the workplace

1234

1234

Empathy

1234

1234

Computer skills Adjustment of old habits to the occurring changes and needs Compliance with rules and regulations

1234

1234 1234 1234 1234 1234

Ability to handle workplace stress

1234

Prudence and cautiousness

1234

2.

1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234

1234 1234

Do you think managing the work of older workers has a special aspect YES , NO ; If yes, state its nature (please underline the selected answers): a/ they need less control ; b/ they need more control , c/ they need different type of motivation than younger workers ; d/ it is more difficult to schedule their jobs because they get sick more often ; e/ organizing the work of age-diverse teams is more difficult , f/ they are difficult to co-operate with ,

3.

What skills do older workers have that you appreciate the most as their manager ………............................ ………………………………………………………………………….............……………………………… …………….

4.

What negative traits are shown by workers after 45/50 years of age, which make it more difficult to cooperate with them in task execution ………………… …………… ……………… ………............… ………… .

5.

Does the remuneration of your subordinates receive differ in terms of the level /amount of bonuses/ rewards because of inferior performance of workers older than 45 years of age (mark your answer): a/ YES, significantly  b/ YES, slightly and occasionally ; c/ NO, it is basically the same ; d/ it’s difficult to say, because remuneration is unrelated to performance .

6.

Do you think the negative impacts of worker aging can be effectively prevented in the workplace by transferring such workers to other jobs, suitable for their present capacity: a/ YES, and we do this in our firm ; b/ YES, but it is too difficult, because we lack appropriate jobs ; c/ NO, it won’t change anything ; d/ NO, because new duties require different qualifications ; e/ NO, they had better accept old age or disability pensions .

68

7.

When organizing work of the teams you manage, you are trying to a/ diversify worker teams in terms of their age ; b/ form rather similar-age teams  c/ it’s not my decision .

8.

Are training needs of workers aged 45+ analysed? YES , NO 

9.

How do workers aged 45+ feel about sharing their knowledge, experience: a/they are for ; b/ they are against ; c/ their knowledge and experience are worthless now ;

10. Do you think the outlays on training/development of workers aged 45+ are uneconomic for the employer: YES  ……., NO  …….., IT DEPENDS ON A SPECIFIC CASE .

*

*

*

*

*

Respondent’s data (please mark the appropriate answer): 1/Gender:

female 

male 

2/Education: basic vocational  ; secondary  ; undergraduate  ; Master’s degree  3/Gender:

under 40 years  ; 41–45 years  ; 46–50 years  ; 51–55 years  ; older than 55

years  4/Current position …………………………..................................................................

5/Years of employment in current position ……………………………………………….

Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you

69

Appendix no. 3

Questionnaire 3 MY CAREER AFTER 45 YEAR OF AGE — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES Please mark the answer your selected 1.

Have you participated in any training course this year (apart from obligatory courses): YES NO If

yes,

what

was

the

course

about………..…………………………………………………......……....………....…..

2.

If not, state why: a/ the management did not put forward any training offers ; b/ training offers were available, but I didn’t use them ; c/ there is a shortage of training courses useful in my job .

3.

Do you remember the last time you were trained: YES NO; if yes, when was it …….......……. and was the training about …………… ….............................. ................................... ………………………

4.

Do older workers need training to the same degree as younger workers : YES NO If yes, why ………………………………………………..............……………………………...…………….

What training courses older workers need the most.................. .................................... ............................... ...

If not, this is so because: a/ it is much more difficult for older persons to go through training ; b/ older workers already have sufficient knowledge and skills ; c/ training is for younger workers ; d/ older workers will take their old age / disability pensions soon, ;

5.

Are you afraid you might lose your job: YES NO

6.

Do you think your performance in your present job keeps deteriorating because of your age: YES NO; if not, this is so because a/ age is not important when you want to work ; b/ I can count of the assistance of my colleagues ; c/ performance is not assessed on individual basis .

7.

Do you feel that age disturbs your performance in your present job: YES NO ; If yes, you’re disturbed by (0 — no impact on you or your job, 1 — the least disturbing factor; 2 — slightly disturbing, 3 — moderately disturbing, 4 — the most disturbing factor)

Noise, temperature in the working environment, cigarettes smoked by colleagues and similar factors High speed of work, short deadlines

01234

Reluctance of younger co-workers

01234

01234

01234

Substantial physical effort

01234

The need to work overtime

01234

Availability Shift work Being surprised by new things in the workplace Feeling bad in the workplace I don’t understand managers’ new demands My performance at work is increasingly worse

01234 01234

Poor health, I tire out quickly Lack of knowledge and skills needed in the workplace The need to improve skills continuously Deteriorating eyesight Deteriorating hearing

01234

Concentration problems

01234

01234

Memory problems Unreliability of co-workers, brusqueness of customers

01234

High responsibility

01234

01234 01234

01234 01234 01234 01234

01234

70

8.

Should the managers transfer workers aged 45+ or 50+ to less absorbing, demanding, or intensive jobs, etc.

YES NO; If not, the reasons is: a/ the following decrease in wages ; b/ the following decrease in prestige ; c/ a suggestion that I’m too old ; d/ the need to learn new things 

9.

When would you like to retire: a/ now ; b/ in a year or two ; c/ at the statutory age ; d/ I want to work as long as possible ;

10. Do you have the impression that the managers would like to get rid of older workers as soon as possible: YES NO 11. If the firm suggested that you should postpone your retirement until a later time, you would accept the proposal: YES, unconditionally , YES, but on different terms than today  NO, absolutely not  12. Has the firm management ever suggested that you could share your knowledge, experience and skills with younger workers: YES NO 13. How many days of work have you missed ………………………………………..

14. Does your work in the firm give you satisfaction: YES NO;

this

year

because

of

sickness

If yes, state why ……………………………………………………...........……………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………...........…………………… …..

If not, state why ……………………………………………………………………...........………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………............………… ….

Respondent’s data (please mark the appropriate answer): 1/ Gender:

female 

male 

2/Education: basic vocational  ; secondary  ; undergraduate  ; Master’s thesis  3/ Age: 45–50 years  ; 50–55 years  ; 55–60  ; older than 60 years  4/ Current position …………………………..................................................................

5/Total years in the firm ……………………, including years in the current position ………

Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you

71

Appendix no. 4

Questionnaire 4 MY EXPERIENCES IN WORK WITH PERSONS AGED 45+ Please mark the appropriate answer 1.

I frequently work with persons aged 45+: YES…...........NO

2.

I like working in age-diverse teams: YES….....NO….....IT IS INDIFFERENT TO ME If yes, why ……… ……………… ……………… ………………… ………………..... ..…………........... ............. ......... ……… ……………… ……………… ………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………......................…………

If not, why ……… ……………… ……………… ……………… ……………… ……………...... ............. .....… .... ........ ……… ………… ………… ………… ………… ………… ………… ………… ………….. ............ ........……………… …………… …………… ……………… ………………… ……………………………………......................…………

3.

Workers aged 50+ should be able to retire ASAP and let younger workers replace them: YES …......….. NO

4.

Do you know what preparations should be made so that you will be able to work effectively until your retirement age — i.e. until the 65 year of age or even longer; YES…................…NO……..................…I DON’T THINK ABOUT IT, IT’S A VERY DISTANT FUTURE 5.

Have you heard about age management in your firm: YES…...........NO

6.

I would like my boss to be: a/ my peer or a somewhat older person ; b/ person aged 50+ ; c/ a person younger than I am ; d/ Age doesn’t matter, it is important that the boss be a competent person ;

7.

If need be, I am ready to help selflessly a worker aged 45/50+ who cannot manage on their own: YES…..............NO ….............….I’D RATHER ASK FOR BEING REASSIGNED TO A YOUNGER TEAM If yes, you will: a/ explain the new tasks to them after work; b/ temporarily take over their tasks ; c/ encourage them to take training ; d/ replace them with more difficult operations ; e/ do some tasks for them ;

8.

Have you seen a „conflict of generations” in the workplace WHAT IT MEANS

YES............NO..............I DON’T KNOW

9.

Older workers are promoted more often than the younger ones YES.................NO

10. Do you have in your immediate working environment workers aged 45/50+ that you can treat as your mentors, advisors, instructors when difficult moments come: YES..........................NO.................................I DON’T NEED THEM *

*

*

*

*

Respondent’s data (please tick the appropriate answer): 1/Gender: female  male  2/Education: basic vocational  ; secondary  ; undergraduate  ; Master’s degree  3/Age: under 25 years  ; 25–35 years  ; older than 35 years  4/Present position …………………………..............................................................................

5/Years of employment in present position ………………………

Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ...............……………………………………….....................……………………………………………

Thank you 72