Older Worker Issues

Janet L. Barnes-Farrell

Older workers compose a growing segment of the workforce who must contend with a variety of distinctive concerns as they navigate their careers. Special concerns include physical, cognitive, and emotional changes that accompany the aging process, sources of work stress for older workers, the specter of age discrimination in employment opportunities, late career and skill maintenance concerns, and ultimately, decisions about when and how to retire from active employment. Evidence indicates that older adults are capable of maintaining high performance levels and positive attitudes toward work late into their lives. Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists can use information about challenges that confront older workers to develop recruitment and retention strategies and work designs that allow older workers to maintain their performance effectiveness and to see work as a satisfying and rewarding experience. The point at which the term older worker is applied in studies of workforce demographics may be as early older ...

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