Age and Workplace Stress

When resources were high in the workplace, both older and younger workers reported lower levels of stress. However, when these resources were low, older workers experienced greater stress compared to their younger colleagues. These findings support that … the needs and motivation of employees of different ages is key to maintaining worker well-being

Age as a factor in workplace stress

Summary of Findings:

Older workers may experience more workplace stress than their younger co-workers if their employers fail to provide necessary support and resources.

This study also showed that stress levels between younger and older workers were broadly similar when the following conditions were provided:

• A high degree of autonomy
• Good, transparent working relationships with management
• When workers were treated with fairness and respect

If these conditions were not met, older workers reported higher levels of workplace stress than their younger colleagues.

Lessons & Conclusions:

As a result of this study, employers may want to consider the age of workers when planning to provide a healthy work environment. This might be particularly important in jobs with poor resources.

• Improving the autonomy of workers is important, although may be more important for older workers
• Another factor to take into account is the transparency and fairness within the workplace. Although this always important to improve workplace wellbeing, older workers may feel more stress if managers and employers fail to provide this

This study has growing relevance for the future as the average age of workers increases.