Study Shatters Myths About Older Employees
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The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas roundup published December 13 in The New York Times Magazine debunks stereotypes about older workers being risk averse, noncompetitive and uncooperative.
It cites a 2008 “Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments” study by Gary Charness, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Marie Claire Villeval of the University of Lyon that compared how “seniors” over age 50 and “juniors” under 30 behaved during experimental games and tasks.
During tests conducted on-site with employees of two large firms and in a conventional laboratory environment, the study concluded, “We show that seniors are no more risk averse than juniors and are typically more cooperative; both juniors and working seniors respond strongly to competition. The implication is that it may be beneficial to define additional incentives near the end of the career to motivate and retain older workers.”
Among the study’s specific findings:
- Seniors are more cooperative even where there is a strong incentive to free ride on the contribution of others.
- Heterogeneous teams contribute more than homogenous ones in the sessions involving active workers.
- When they know they are teamed with juniors, working seniors cooperate more than in all-senior teams.
- The seniors who choose to compete in a tournament perform essentially as well as juniors.
“These results are at variance with the widespread stereotypes about seniors, seen anecdotally and in several surveys in both the United States and Europe,” the study concludes. “Seniors are perceived to be less adaptable, overly cautious and less willing to learn. These views undoubtedly contribute to age discrimination against seniors in the workplace. We show, however, that working seniors are as reactive and productive as juniors when competing against an opponent.”
Because mixed-age groups outperformed homogeneous groups in the study, Charness told The Times that an optimum workforce at an office would have a range of ages.
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- by Terry Nagel
Older workers in the workforce
It is certainly a good time to point out to employers the value of older workers as part of their workforce as more and more seniors and retirees are finding they must continue to work long after their planned retirement.
There are many contributing factors including loss of retirement savings, devaluation of property, etc., but a little known fact is the huge cost of health care even after Medicare becomes available. It is estimated that a couple retiring both at 65 in 2010 will spend out of pocket $282,000 for health care during the combined remainder of their lifetimes. Few have planned for this expense.
At our Website, RetiredBrains.com, we are getting a great deal of traffic from retirees interested in returning to the workforce as well as from boomers who have either lost their jobs or are looking for something else.
Many are now looking at the Start Your Own Business pages as they can’t find a job that matches their experience and skill sets.
Not only does RetiredBrains list positions available to older workers but we provide links to other Web sites that list jobs.
Employers are beginning to realized the value of older workers, but continue to post a great many temporary jobs and project assignments where they need not pay benefits providing them cost effective hires.