The project set out to explore the attitudes and experiences towards work, non-work and retirement of a sample of male, middle class managers and professionals in their late 40s and 50s, working in the oil and gas industry. It found that they represented a highly work-centred, productive generation who have invested long hours and much creativity in personal success, though often at a cost to their family life and involving gambling with their health.
Middle-aged men looked at for the study benefitted from an industrial and global success story of high profits and financial rewards. Many were pioneers in their field and derived huge personal satisfaction from their work, having been creative, industrious and well-remunerated for their efforts.
But the overall picture is mixed and at times full of contradictions. The risks of burn-out, stress and disenchantment with work were apparent. At times the corporate dream seemed tarnished, says the report. Growing work pressures and a sense that the company environment was deteriorating has led to a drift into self-employment consultancy as these men grow older.
Taking early retirement has become a legitimate way out which could lead to new freedoms and a reinvigorated working life. But it could also lead to inequalities of opportunities and new risks. Employers could dictate who could go and when, as well as determine differential terms and conditions of severance.
The dependency of self-employed men on the industry they had served was seldom broken, the research team found. Self-employment could provide a sense of psychological freedom, but the rigours of contract work remained intense. Both for core employees and the self-employed, long hours of work, heavy demands and pressured schedules were commonplace.
The transition to full-time retirement usually followed several years of self-employment, says the report. It was relished as a time to recover lost years with families and in leisure pursuits, and to draw on social dues, earned through long years of hard graft. The research team found that companies were not hostile to the older managers and professionals, but did adopt a 'hands-off' approach.
Through early retirement schemes, firms downloaded responsibility for retirement onto the individual. The men themselves felt able to control their release from the company environment whilst apparently retaining employability and high income. Many of those interviewed found self-employment consultancy work enjoyable when cushioned by a pension fund built up whilst a core employee.
The research highlights issues about what happens if early retirement options vanish, and says alternatives might include part-time working, job-shares, sabbaticals, outplacements and packages within company joint ventures.
Says Professor McKee:"These men appear to be too fit to retire and too valuable to release. "Imaginative options will be needed which allow their voices to be heard and for them to be involved in the re-design of their work."
For further information, contact:
Professor Lorna McKee on 01224 272715, e-mail: l.mckee@abdn.ac.uk
or Iain Stewart or Lesley Lilley at ESRC, on 01793 413032/413119
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. The research report 'Corporate men in late middle age: re-assessing work and life', was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Professor McKee is at the Department of Management Studies of the University of Aberdeen Business School, Aberdeen AB24 3QY http://www.abdn.ac.uk/business/
2. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It has a track record of providing high-quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC invests more than £53 million every year in social science research. At any time, its range of funding schemes may be supporting 2,000 researchers within academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences thereby nurturing the researchers of tomorrow. The ESRC website address is http://www.esrc.ac.uk
3. REGARD is the ESRC's database of research. It provides a key source of information on ESRC social science research awards and all associated publications and products. The website can be found at http://www.regard.ac.uk.