Older Workers Have Seen it Before

The challenging economy has hit the psyche of younger workers hard, while older employees are showing greater resiliency in the recession-battered workplace, according to a new study by Boston College's Sloan Center on Aging & Work.

The survey, which measured attitudes about job security, supervisor support, job quality, inclusion and overall employee engagement among about 2,200 workers at 12 job sites, was done from November of 2007 until just after the Bear Stearns collapse in March of 2008 and again between June and September 2008.

Not surprisingly, employees of all ages reported a drop in employee engagement, a measure of how invested and enthusiastic employees are in their work.

Generation Y workers -- ages 26 and younger -- reported the greatest decrease in engagement, followed by Generation X -- ages 27 to 42. Baby Boomers and older Traditionalists -- ages 43 or older -- reported that their levels of engagement hardly changed at all.

"Some older workers have seen it all, and that gives them experiential resilience," says Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, director of Boston College's Sloan Center on Aging & Work. "Younger workers just don't have the depth of experience, which leaves them feeling less engaged in their jobs. But younger workers bring energy, enthusiasm, and idealism."

The survey also found:

• Perceptions of engagement, supervisor support, inclusion, and job quality declined after the onset of the economic downturn for employees who felt that their job security had decreased, but it stayed the same or only slightly declined for those whose job security had stayed the same or increased.

• Those whose job security decreased or stayed the same experienced a slight increase in work overload after the onset of the economic downturn, whereas those whose job security increased experienced a slight decrease in work overload.

• Those whose job security decreased perceived a slight decrease in team effectiveness after the onset of the economic downturn, whereas those whose job security increased experienced a slight increase in their perceptions of team effectiveness.

• While younger workers felt the effectiveness of their work team as a whole dropped as their job security declined, older workers felt the effectiveness of their team held steady even though they too reported a decreased sense of job security.