By IANS
New York : Guess it’s because they have seen it all before — older and more experienced employees display lower levels of stress than their younger colleagues, says a new study.
The study, by researchers at the University of Michigan, also found that, unlike younger workers, only two percent of the older employees said their personal lives interfered with work.
Findings of the study were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.
“Many older workers are empty-nesters,” said Gwenith Fisher, who led the study. “They don’t have the same work-personal conflicts that younger and middle-aged workers deal with, juggling responsibilities to children along with their jobs and their personal needs.”
Based on 2006 data from 1,544 participants in a health and retirement study, the new study examined the prevalence of “job stressors” reported by participants between the ages of 53 and 85. They also examined how these related to the workers’ life satisfaction and physical health.
The study indicated that workers who experience less job stress are more satisfied with their life and are overall in better physical health compared with those who report higher levels of stress.
For both younger and older workers alike, time pressure has been increasing over the last two decades, many studies have shown.
“Technological advances like Blackberries, along with out-sourcing and down-sizing, have all increased the amount of work and pace at work,” Fisher said.
“But it’s particularly important to look at the effects this pressure may have on older workers, whose health may be more vulnerable than that of younger workers.”