12 HU 133 Work and Retirement

Work, Leisure, & RetirementWork, Leisure, & Retirement

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Occupational Choice & Development

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Occupational Choice and Development

Learning Objectives• How do people view work? How do occupational

priorities vary with age?• How do people choose their occupations?• What factors influence occupational development? • What expectations do people have about

occupations?• What role do mentors play in occupational

development• What factors influence job satisfaction? What causes

alienation and burnout?

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The Meaning of Work• Although most people work for money, other reasons

are highly variable.– They include, prestige, recognition, and a sense of worth.

• Occupational priorities have changed over time.– Younger workers’ expectations from their occupations are

lower and their emphasis on personal growth is higher.

• In the longitudinal AT&T study, changes in workers'

priorities have been documented. – The shorter the time a person had been on the job the lesser

their expectations of rewards (and vice versa).• However, this was only true for high-level management.• Lower-level management showed a decline over time.

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The Changing Nature of Work• Globalization of work has resulted in changes in the

number and types of jobs available to workers in the United States.– For example, between 1987 and 1994 there were

more than 7 million permanent layoffs in the U.S.• These layoffs were not caused by companies losing

money, but by: – Changes in competition– Productivity– Relocation of operations– Mergers and acquisitions– Infusion of new technology– Plant obsolescence

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The Changing Nature of Work (cont.)• Because of this changing nature of work:

– Managers and workers must adopt different leadership styles and assume more autonomy.

– There is also an increased need to stay current with the latest technology and newest skills.

• As the nature of work has changed, so has the work force.– The median age of the work force has increased

steadily.• It is expected to reach 41.40 years by 2012.

– The “graying of the work force” is becoming more common as there are fewer instances of mandatory retirement at 55 and over.

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Occupational Choice• Holland’s theory of Occupational Choice

– Holland’s theory is focused on the idea that people choose occupations that optimize the fit between their individual traits and their occupational interests.

– Six personality types that represent different combinations have been identified.

• Investigative• Social• Realistic• Artistic• Conventional• Enterprising

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Occupational Development• Super’s theory• Super describes five stages in adulthood, based on

self-concept and adaptation to an occupational role.– Implementation– Establishment– Maintenance– Deceleration– Retirement

• The more congruent a person’s occupational

behaviors are with what is expected of them at

different ages, the more vocationally mature they are.

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Occupational Expectations• People have expectations about what they want to

become and when they hope to get there.– Expectations change as the result of:

• Realizing that one’s interests have changed or the dream was not a good fit

• But also due to age, race, or sexual discrimination, lack of opportunity, and obsolescence of skills

• Reality Shock– The realization that one’s expectations about an occupation

are different from the reality one experiences.• Reality shock is common among young workers.• This happens most to young adults and people with little relevant

experience prior to assuming a new job.

• The outcome of reality shock is often a revision of personal priorities in life.

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Role of Mentors• A mentor is a coworker who teaches a new employee

the unwritten rules and fosters occupational development.

• Mentor-protégé relationships develop over time, through stages, like other relationships.– Being a mentor helps middle-aged workers achieve

generativity.• Kram suggests that a four-stage sequence occurs in

mentor-protégé relationships:– Initiation– Cultivation– Separation– Redefinition

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Job Satisfaction• The positive feelings that results from an

appraisal of one’s work• Job satisfactions tends to show low to

moderate increases with age.– Older workers report higher job satisfaction than

younger workers.• This may be partly because of self-selection.

– Unhappy workers may quit.

• Other reasons include intrinsic satisfaction, good fit, lower

importance of work, finding non-work diversions, and life-

cycle factors.

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Alienation and Burnout• Alienation

– Feeling that what one is doing is meaningless • Burnout

– Too much stress in one’s occupation and can lead

to: • Loss of energy and motivation• Loss of occupational idealism• Feeling that one is being exploited

Gender, Ethnicity & Discrimination

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Gender, Ethnicity, Bias, and Discrimination

Learning Objectives• How do women and men’s occupational expectations

differ? How are people viewed when they enter occupations that are not traditional for their gender?

• What factors are related to women’s occupational development?

• What factors affect ethnic minority workers’ occupational experiences and occupational development?

• What types of bias and discrimination hinder the occupational development of women and ethnic minority workers?

• What types of bias and discrimination hinder the occupational development of older workers?

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Gender Differences in Occupational Choice• Traditionally:

– Men are groomed from childhood for future employment.– Women have not been trained in that manner.

• Currently, 71% of women work outside of the home,

with this number on the rise (Department of Labor,

2006).– Many women have difficulty finding occupations that match

their level of skill.– Women in nontraditional occupations are viewed more poorly

by both men and women. – Women in traditional female occupations changed jobs less

often.

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Traditional and Nontraditional Occupations• Research in this area has focused on three issues:

1. Selection of nontraditional occupations

2. Characteristics of women in nontraditional

occupations

3. Perceptions of nontraditional occupations

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Women and Occupational Development• Betz found that 10 years after college graduation:

– Only 1% of women had been full-time homemakers.– While 79% reported having successfully combined work and

family.

• Women who leave well-paid occupations do so for

many reasons, including:– Family obligations for women working part-time– Workplace issues for women working full-time

• Women who continue to work full-time:– Have adequate child care – Look for ways to further their occupational development

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Ethnicity and Occupational Development• African American and European American women do

not differ in plans to enter nontraditional occupations.– But African American women plan for more education.

• Vocational identity – The degree to which one views one’s occupation as a key

element of identity– African American and European American men have higher

vocational identity when they graduate from college.– Hispanics have high occupational aspirations, but low

expectations.

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Bias and Discrimination• Sex discrimination

– Denying a job to someone solely on the basis of whether the person is a man or a women

– Sex discrimination is a major issue, in terms of getting jobs, occupational development, and also in pay.

• Glass ceiling– The level to which women may rise in a company, but not go

beyond – This is a barrier to promotion women and ethnic minorities

often experience.

• Glass elevator– In traditionally female occupations, men may rise much

faster than female counterparts.

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Bias and Discrimination (cont.)• Pay inequity

– Women get paid a fraction of what men with similar jobs

earn. – Equalizing pay in occupations that are determined to be

equivalent in importance, but differ in the gender distribution

of the people doing the jobs– Comparable worth

• Sexual harassment• The reasonable woman (person) standard is used to

decide whether an act constitutes harassment.– If a reasonable women would view a behavior as offensive

then it is offensive even if the man did not conceive it as so.

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Age Discrimination• Making employment decisions only on the

basis of age or denying employment or

promotion if the worker is over the age of 40.• Age discrimination occurs in many ways,

such as differential layoff patterns and

stereotypical views about older workers.

Occupational Transitions

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Learning Objectives• Why do people change occupations?• Why is worker retraining necessary and important?• How does the timing of job loss affect the amount of

stress one experiences?

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Occupational Change• Factors influencing occupational change include:

– Dislike • Which results in quitting or seeking other employment

– Worker obsolescence • For example, technological developments that eliminate

jobs

– Economic factors which result in layoffs or downsizing

• For example, recessions

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Retraining Workers• Rapid changes in the nature of work have resulted in the

displacement of older workers.– According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census:

• 51.4% of workers 55 to 64 years old do not find new employment• Whereas 65% to 70% of workers under 35 do find new employment

• As a result, there is greater career plateauing. – When there is a lack of promotional opportunity in an

organization or a person chooses not to seek advancement – Thus, learning new skills is essential to maximize one’s

opportunities.• To adapt to the effects of the global economy and an

aging work force, many corporations provide retraining opportunities for workers.

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Occupational Insecurity and Job Loss• Occupational insecurity is a growing problem.

– Fear that one may lose one’s job is a better predictor of anxiety than the actual likelihood of job loss.

• Losing one's job can have serious negative effects on every aspect of a person’s life.– May result in mental health problems, including:

• Low self-esteem• Depression• Anxiety• Suicide

• These effects are related to the degree of financial stress one is under and the timing of the job loss.

Dual-Earner Couples

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Dual-Earner Couples

Learning Objectives• What are the issues faced by employed people who

care for dependents?• How do partners view the division of household

chores?• What is work-family conflict? How does it affect

couples’ lives?

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Dual-Earner Couples

• In nearly 2/3 of two-parent households, both adults work outside the home.

• Nearly 1/2 of unmarried mothers and 56% of married mothers with children under the age of 1 are currently in the work force. – These numbers are increasing.

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Dual-Earner Couples

The Dependent Care Dilemma

• Employed Caregivers• Whether a women returns to work after having a child

depends largely on how attached she is to her work. – This can lead to inter-role conflict.

• Conflicts between work and family responsibilities

• Flexible work schedules and number of children are important factors in role conflict.– Employed mothers are significantly less distressed than

employed non-mothers.• When a woman’s partner provides good support and women

have average or high control over their jobs

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Dual-Earner Couples

Dependent Care and Employer Response• The mere availability of a workplace childcare center

does not always result in higher job satisfaction.

– Sympathetic supervisors are essential to lowering

the stress of how child care issues can be

resolved.

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Dual-Earner Couples

Juggling Multiple Roles• Dividing household chores

– Working mothers spend about twice as many hours per week as their husbands in family work and bear the greatest responsibility for household tasks.

• Unequal division of labor is a major cause for arguments and unhappiness.

• Husbands and wives view the division of labor in very different terms.– Men are often most satisfied with an equitable division

based on number of hours spent, especially if the amount of time is small.

– Women are most satisfied when men perform traditional women’s chores.

– Ethnic differences are apparent.• African American and Hispanic men spend more time on

household chores that European American men.

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Dual-Earner Couples

Work-Family Conflict• The feeling of being pulled in multiple directions by

incompatible demands from one’s job and one’s family

• How to deal with work-family conflict successfully– Women must be clear in their commitment to their careers,

marriage, and children.– Couples equally share housework and emotional work, and

combine their roles without high levels of stress.• How?

– Age of children is not a factor, but number of children is.– Stress is lower if men have a flexible work schedule that

allow them to care for sick children and other matters.– Stress is higher during the peak parenting years, then is

reduced.

Leisure Activities

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Leisure Activities

Learning Objectives• What types of leisure activities do adults exhibit?• What developmental differences are there in leisure

activities?• What do people derive from leisure activities?

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Leisure Activities

Types of Leisure Activities• Four categories are usually used to help organize

leisure activities:– Cultural– Physical– Social– Solitary

• Leisure activities can also be considered in terms of the degree of cognitive, emotional, or physical involvement.

• Preoccupations – Ideas and feelings about things one would like to do can

become more focused as interests. • This can lead to the selection of particular leisure activities.

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Leisure Activities

Types of Leisure Activities (cont.)• People develop a repertoire of preferred leisure

activities.– Each activity has a different meaning and

importance to every individual.– The activities are determined by perceived

competence and psychological comfort. • Perceived competence - how good we think we are at

the activity compared to others• Psychological comfort - how well we meet our personal

goals for performance

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Leisure Activities

Developmental Changes in Leisure• Longitudinal research shows that leisure preferences

in adulthood reflect those in earlier life. – However, as people grow older they tend to engage in

leisure activities that are less strenuous and more family-

oriented.

Consequences of Leisure Activities• Leisure activities promote well-being and can

enhance all aspects of people’s lives.– Importantly, it is the amount of satisfaction you derive from

your leisure activities; not your level of participation. • Quality rather than quantity of leisure activities

Retirement

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Retirement

Learning Objectives• What does being retired mean?• Why do people retire?• How should people prepare for retirement?• How satisfied are retired people?• What specific effects does retirement have on

maintaining family and community ties?

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Retirement

What Does Being Retired Mean?• Retirement is largely a development of the 20th

century and is still an evolving concept.• What does being retired mean?

– The way in which people withdraw from full-time employment• Changing conceptions of work are resulting in

changing conceptions of retirement. – Retirement can be crisp or blurred.

• Crisp - making a clean break from employment by stopping work entirely

• Blurred - repeatedly leaving and returning to work, with some periods of unemployment

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Retirement

Why do People Retire?• Most people retire because they choose to.

– Although some people are forced to retire because of financial status or serious health problems

• Health – The most important factor in determining early retirement and

satisfaction• Gender differences

– Married women's decision to retire is predicted most by her husbands health status or number of dependents, the opposite is true for men.

• Ethnic differences – African Americans tend to label themselves as retired or not

retired based on subjective disability, work history, and source of income rather than on whether they are currently employed.

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Retirement

Planning for Retirement• Financial planning and realistic expectations toward

retirement are important predictors of future

satisfaction.– People who plan for retirement tend to be more

successful in adapting to this major life change.• Pre-retirement education programs cover a variety of

topics, including finances, attitudes, health, and

expectations.

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Retirement

Adjustment to Retirement• Retirement is an important life transition and can be

stressful.– However, the degree of stress is related to attitudes

toward retirement and whether retirement is voluntary.

• Most people are satisfied with their retirement, as long as people: – Have financial security– Have their health– Have a supportive network of relatives and friends

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Retirement

Adjustment to Retirement (cont.)• High satisfaction in early retirement includes:

– For men• Being in good health• Having enough income • Having retired voluntarily

– For women• No one role was associated with satisfaction

• For both men and women high personal competence was associated with higher retirement satisfaction over the long run.

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Retirement

Interpersonal Ties• All aspects of a person's life and interpersonal

relationships are affected by retirement.– Marital relationships

• May undergo considerable stress until new role definitions

are reached– Readjusting to being home rather than at work is difficult for

men in traditional marriages– Sometimes marriages are disrupted, but married men are

generally happier in retirement than men who are not

married.

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Retirement

Community Ties• Volunteering to maintain community ties

– Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, Retired Senior

Volunteer Program (RSVP), and Service Corps or Retired

Executives (SCORE)

The End

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12 HU 133 Work and Retirement

Education

Transcript of 12 HU 133 Work and Retirement