“HR Policies Are Failing UK Managers Sympathetic to Older Workers - Market Wire” plus 1 more

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HR Policies Are Failing UK Managers Sympathetic to Older Workers - Market Wire Posted: 26 Jan 2010 06:58 AM PST CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - Jan. 26, 2010) - UK managers are supportive of people who want to work past the retirement age of 65, new research shows. However, HR departments are lagging behind with the appropriate policies. Research published in the journal Ageing & Society appears to show that the 'light touch' approach by the UK Government towards regulating employment after 65 has not worked. In fact, researcher Dr Matthew Flynn from the Business School at Middlesex University goes further and suggests that the recent change in regulations has consolidated rather than eradicated an entrenched 'culture of retirement'. Success in negotiating to remain at work came down to whether or not the post-65-year-old had a supportive line manager and rarely to official policies put in place by the organisation they worked for. In 2006 the Government drafted the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations which set a 'default retirement age' of 65, but also imposed on employers a 'duty to consider' requests from employees who wanted to continue in work beyond 65. The 'duty to consider' approach is unique to the UK and has led to only a slight growth in the numbers of people working beyond 65. In 2003 17% of men aged 65-69 were in work; by 2009 this had risen by just 5% to 21%. A similarly small rise was experienced for women over the same timescale. Researchers interviewed 70 managers across 9 sectors of business and industry and based in workplaces large (over 200) and small (under 50). The study was part of a research project commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). It reveals that where an employee reaching retirement age has a sympathetic line manager, their chances of staying on in their job are much higher. This means that opportunities to stay at work are more the result of individual arrangements and do not represent wholesale change in the policies and practices of UK organisations. Dr Flynn noted: "Managers see retaining their older workers as a way to conserve skills and knowledge during economically uncertain times. Managers' attitudes aren't holding them back. The problem lies in company policies." Assistance from HR departments was unusual and, where it occurred, not generally considered positive, Dr Flynn continued. Human resource specialists have been slow in providing line managers with guidance. Many managers are unaware that they can offer workers part-time roles or a change in job responsibilities as an alternative to retirement. Previous research quoted in the article also suggests that work status at retirement age plays a role in whether or not an employee is successful in staying in the workforce past 65, with lower-paid workers the most vulnerable. Such workers were found to be more vulnerable than professionals and entrepreneurs, as many had been made redundant late in life. Dr Flynn said: "The conclusion can be drawn that post-65 workers in low-skilled jobs would benefit most from the job security that would follow from abolishing mandatory retirement." Dr Flynn quotes one commentator as describing compulsory retirement as the leading form of age discrimination and the driving force behind ageism in modern society. An employee can still be dismissed solely on the basis of age in the UK, Ireland, Denmark and France. Other countries have relaxed their laws with Sweden and Norway putting in place a retirement age of 67 and the USA and most of Canada abolishing compulsory retirement altogether. The UK government will be reviewing the default retirement age in 2010 with a view towards abolishing mandatory retirement altogether. Dr. Flynn commented: "Abolishing mandatory retirement age could result in the cultural change in managing older worker which the UK government wanted when it implemented the age discrimination regulations." Notes to Editors Access the article at: http://journals.cambridge.org/over65 About Ageing & Society Ageing & Society is an interdisciplinary and international journal published by Cambridge University Press devoted to the understanding of human ageing and the circumstances of older people in their social and cultural contexts. It draws contributions and has readers from many academic social science disciplines, and from clinical medicine and the humanities. In addition to original articles, Ageing & Society publishes book reviews, occasional review articles and special issues. For more information, please contact Cambridge University Press Hannah Gregory +44(0)1223 325544 press@cambridge.org Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Capsules: 'Noah's Compass' and other book reviews - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 21 Jan 2010 12:47 PM PST "The Murderer's Daughters" (St. Martin's Press, 320 pages, $24.99), by Randy Susan Meyers: Lulu's mother told her not to let her father in the apartment, but it's hard for a 10-year-old to say "no" to a parent. So Lulu opened the door and then ran for help as her father stabbed her mother and sister. Death comes quickly in "The Murderer's Daughter," Randy Susan Meyers' debut novel. Within pages, Lulu's mother is dead, her father is in prison and her 5-year-old sister, Merry, is recovering in a hospital. Then the girls are shuttled rapidly from their grandmother's home to an orphanage to a foster home. Lulu, desperate to leave behind the stigma of being a murderer's daughter, orders Merry to tell everyone their parents died in a car crash — and shuts herself off from most close relationships. Meyers' writing is dramatic without being overdone, and the plot is eminently plausible. Lulu buries her grief in schoolwork and eventually becomes a successful doctor. She marries the son of an alcoholic who, like Lulu, just wants a peaceful home and a quiet life. _ By M.L. Johnson ___ "Noah's Compass" (Alfred A. Knopf, 277 pages, $25.95), by Anne Tyler: Anne Tyler takes ordinary people and shows the reader how fascinating they can be. In her latest novel, "Noah's Compass," Liam Pennywell, a very laid-back man of 61 who has just been fired. Like the biblical Noah, who rode the waters of the great flood without a compass, Pennywell has drifted through life. His personal philosophy is to avoid anything that will take an emotional toll. He tries to make the announcement of his job termination easy on his boss and moves quickly to cut expenses. Far more distressing is a missing spot in his memory. It's a constant worry. Pennywell's life takes a turn when he meets a "rememberer," a young woman who helps an elderly businessman ward off his failure to remember things, and hits on the idea that she can help him. This is Tyler's 18th novel, and if not on a level with her best, she's very much at home in her funny, sad tale of wasted moments and unexamined lives. _ By Mary Foster. ___ "Just Kids" (Ecco, 304 pages, $27) by Patti Smith: "Just Kids," the new memoir by Patti Smith, recalls the life she shared with Robert Mapplethorpe. While Smith sometimes veils her meaning in poetic flourishes, a touching tale of love and devotion — part-Sid and Nancy, part-Romeo and Juliet — shines through the semantic haze. She portrays herself and Mapplethorpe as star-crossed lovers united and ultimately divided. From their modest beginnings in an apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., Smith became a rock 'n' roll star, marrying poetry and music on the stage, while Mapplethorpe blossomed into an acclaimed and highly controversial photographer. They had a relationship rich with love — and a hunger for art — that lasted nearly a year. Their romance burned quickly, and soon Mapplethorpe retreated into himself, dismayed by his growing sexual desire for men. By 1968, he had fled to San Francisco. When they met again in New York, he was involved in an intimate relationship with a man. "Just Kids" is a touching recollection, but far too sympathetic to Mapplethorpe. Smith is quick to forgive his sexual indiscretions, and often dismisses his emotional reclusiveness as the price for loving an artist. Perhaps the duo didn't have as much time for each other after career and families, something Smith tacitly alludes to by not revealing many details about that period. But there are enough details about their life together to satisfy the reader, despite the omission. By Ryan McLendon. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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