They feel fit and more available, but they regret not being solicited enough by their company, according to a study of 10,000 employees.
The blow of blues. They feel fit and more available, but they regret not being solicited enough by their company: the over 45s suffer from a lack of recognition at work. This is revealed by a very large study conducted among more than 10,000 employees aged 45 and over by the firm Alternate.
We first learn that seniors feel fit: only 17% recognize that they have less energy than before to devote to their work. Ditto for concentration: only 19% admit to being less concentrated on their tasks. And just a quarter, 24%, acknowledge that they make their work a lower priority than before. On the contrary, they say, age gives them advantages that they did not have before: a very large proportion, 40% of those over 45, say they now have fewer personal constraints.
“They hit a glass ceiling”
And yet, therefore, they say that they are little solicited by their company, and that is the whole paradox. According to Patrick Scharnitzki, doctor in social psychology who led this study, there is a “very strong discrepancy between their energy, their desire, their concentration, their slightest constraints, and what companies offer them“which, again according to this researcher, are affected by the”youthism” companies. “They’ve got it under their feet, but they’re hitting a glass ceiling“, summarizes Patrick Scharnitzki who points to one of the results of this study: only 40% of seniors in companies think that their professional contributions are recognized at their true value. Moreover, only 25% of them think that the career development opportunities offered to them are satisfactory.
Some even consider themselves victims of discrimination: a quarter of them say they are the subject of bad jokes and stereotypes. This can relate, explains Patrick Scharnitzki, to the way of dressing, to speaking or to musical references. More seriously, 27% of them consider that they have already been victims of age-related discrimination.
A situation that is however less serious when one is a manager: the feeling of exclusion thus concerns less seniors in managerial positions than others. 56% of managers consider that their professional contributions are recognized at fair value, compared to 41% of non-managers.
