Varttuneet ja ikäsyrjintä työelämässä

Abstract

Työelämän ikäsyrjintä esteenä pitkille työurille

Työelämässä esiintyvä ikäsyrjintä on ristiriidassa työurien pidentämisen kanssa. Ikäsyrjintää kokeneilla on jopa kaksinkertainen pitkien sairauspoissaolojen riski 3 vuoden seuranta-aikana. Eniten ikäsyrjintäkokemuksia on yli 55-vuotiailla naisilla, heistä lähes 8 prosenttia on kokenut ikäsyrjintää työssään. Ikäsyrjintä ilmenee työpaikkojen arjessa varttuneiden torjuntana, painostamisena, vähättelynä tai eristämisenä. Ikäsyrjintä näyttäytyy esteenä varttuneiden työllistymiselle tai työpaikkojen vaihtamiselle. Syrjinnän seurauksena työntekijä voi joutua joko marginaaliin asemaan työpaikan sisällä tai kokonaan työpaikkojen ulkopuolelle.

Tampereen yliopistossa tehdyssä väitöstutkimuksessa on tarkasteltu ikäsyrjintää varttuneiden palkansaajien keskuudessa sekä yleisellä että yksilötasolla. Yleisen tason tulokset pohjautuvat Tilastokeskuksen Työolotutkimusaineistoihin ja niihin liitettyihin rekisteriseuranta-aineistoihin ja yksilötason tulokset lehti-ilmoitusten avulla kerättyihin syrjintää kokeneiden kirjoituksiin.

Naispalkansaajista ikäsyrjintäkokemuksia on eniten ylemmillä toimihenkilöillä ja valtiolla työskentelevillä. Merkittävin naispalkansaajien ikäsyrjintäkokemusten ennustaja on työntekijöiden tyytymättömyys johtamiseen. Lisäksi muutostilanteet työpaikalla ovat otollisia ikäsyrjintäkokemusten ilmenemiselle.

Syrjintä tulee esille kielteisinä asenteina ja arvostuksen puutteena erilaisissa tilanteissa. Torjunta rekrytointitilanteessa tai painostaminen eläkkeelle siirtymisessä vaikeuttavat varttuneiden työelämään osallistumista. Taitojen ja osaamisen vähättelynä tai työpaikan keskeisistä toiminnoista eristämisenä ilmenevä ikäsyrjintä on haavoittavaa ja epäoikeudenmukaista. Torjunta, painostaminen, vähättely ja eristäminen voivat johtaa täysivaltaisen työntekijän aseman menettämiseen osittain tai kokonaan. Työpaikoilla tuleekin kiinnittää huomiota ikäsyrjinnän ehkäisemiseen, jotta pitkän työuran toteuttaminen on mahdollista entistä useammalle.

Ageing Employees and age discrimination in working life.

This doctoral thesis focuses on ageing employees and the workplace age discrimination they experience. The study consists of four scientific articles and a summary. The articles focus on: I) the prevalence and the manifestation of workplace age discrimination and indicators of perceived age discrimination among women; II) the prevailing practices of age discrimination in the workplace; III) the responses and initiative of people who have experienced age discrimination IV) the risk of sickness absence increasing due to perceived age discrimination.

My primary research question is: What kind of structural and everyday practices lead to employees experiencing workplace age discrimination? To answer this question, I collate the central results of the articles for a summary of their findings.

The phrase age discrimination refers to the negative stereotypes, attitudes and discriminatory practices that arise from prejudiced perceptions about a particular age group. Age discrimination is revealed through representations, affective behavior and practices in many differing forms of social interaction and institutional practices. Age discrimination has different dimensions compared to other forms of discrimination like racism or sexism because age discrimination can only be experienced during a certain phase of life. Age discrimination occurs on the individual, social network, institutional and cultural levels. In this research, the focus is age discrimination resulting from old age or ageing employees in which the phenomenon is experienced on the individual level, in workplace social networks and in institutional structures.

The research data consist of both quantitative and qualitative data as this study uses mixed methods. The quantitative data consist of the Finnish Quality of Work Life Surveys from the years 1997, 2003, 2008 and register-based follow-up data produced by Statistics Finland. These surveys are representative samples of Finland’s working population. The research methods are used in articles I and IV and are cross-tabulation, variance analysis, logistical regression and negative binomial regression analysis.

The qualitative data in this study consist of 31 written documents from people who have experienced workplace age discrimination due to ageing. The written documents were collected as responses to advertisements placed in newspapers. The writers are between 40 years old and retirement age. Two-thirds of the respondents are women. The social backgrounds of the writers are varied as were their occupations at the time of writing, which included retirees and employed and unemployed people. The qualitative research method is used in articles II and III and is content analysis.

The focus of this summary is on the experience of structural and everyday levels of age discrimination. The structural level is based on quantitative analysis and the results are representative of Finnish employees. The everyday level is based on a qualitative analysis and describes the everyday practices and behavior that lead to the phenomenon of workplace age discrimination.

At the structural level, the results demonstrate the prevalence, the circumstances and the association between different variables and the experience of age discrimination. In particular, women over 55 years of age are more likely to experience workplace age discrimination. However, the experience of age discrimination manifests in negative critical attitudes towards both men and women. Nevertheless, discrimination is more likely to be experienced by females who are managerial or senior office workers and state sector employees. Perceived age discrimination is also more likely to associate with sickness absence in the follow-up period compared to other employees, making it a significant risk factor for sickness absence after controlling for the demographic, work- and health-related factors.

With regard to everyday life, the results demonstrate how age discrimination influences and affects everyday workplace practices. These social closure practices are manifest in the workplace as rejection, pressure, underestimation and isolation in everyday social interaction. The result has been that those respondents who have experienced age discrimination feel they are losing their status as a full member of the workplace and in work life in general. In addition, age discrimination isolates and marginalizes employees, limiting their responses and activities, leaving them in an unstable work situation in many respects. The respondents present their own initiatives to overcome the discrimination by showing they are motivated to search for employment or retraining and emphasize their skills or self-esteem. However, long-term insecurity and disappointment resulted in their initiatives to seek employment and their belief in finding employment declining, thus making them embittered as they find fewer employment opportunities available to them.

Age discrimination arises from negative prejudices about ageing employees, which result in negative treatment that is associated with social closure practices in the workplace. The phenomenon of age discrimination may prevent ageing employees from participating as full members in the workplace. In the future, higher employment rates will be required in Finland due to its ageing societies, thus employees will be asked to prolong their careers. However, due to discrimination this may be challenging. Hence, it will be important to increase knowledge about age equality in the workplace.