There has been a lot of focus on getting older people back into work of late – whether they have retired early and might be tempted back or have fallen out of the workplace due to illness or disability. But what about the older people who are still in work, who might fall out in the future? How do they feel?

That’s an important consideration because, as we know, prevention is better than cure – and cheaper in the long run.   workingwise.co.uk’s annual survey for National Older Workers Week shows 68% of older workers would like to retire early. The vast majority can’t afford to, but that still means a lot of people have had enough. For 38% this was due to health reasons; for 26%, however,  dissatisfaction with their job was the main reason. The same percentage – 26% – wanted to leave work early due to their caring responsibilities. 

Of course, people over 50 are by no means a homogenous group. A person who is 51 is at a different life stage than someone who is 64. Someone who is enjoying their job and thriving in a relaxed workplace culture is very different from someone who feels they are stuck in a rut or overwhelmed by deadlines. Someone who has been able to start their own business and earn enough from it is very different from someone who has been forced to become self employed due to circumstances and can’t make a decent living.

But, in the round, there are definitely some striking features about older workers who are still in work.  One is that they tend to feel that their life experience is not valued properly. The survey shows 49% of older workers say they feel their life experience is not valued by their employer. And not just life experience. I’ve spoken to so many older workers who have done all sorts in their working lives which their employer does not even seem to know about. If there was an environment and structures in place which valued that experience and if employers were able to think creatively about how to use it it would surely be to everyone’s advantage.

Another is that, against all the stereotypes, older workers are overwhelmingly open to learning new things or to changing direction, if they knew what direction to take.

The truth is that many people can do their job perfectly adequately by the time they reach their 50s. But could they do more? Not more work, but different work or do their same job in a different way, for instance, guiding younger people or doing more community work or something that they feel makes a difference. Why should we just stick with a job to get our pensions at a time when those pensions seem to keep ever further into the distance? We should demand more of work, given we spend so much of our time doing it. 

Valuing people for all they have to offer is good for employees of all ages, but it’s also something that requires changes in how we look at every process, from recruitment and interviews to how we manage people and encourage honest conversations and creative thinking about how jobs can be adapted to make the most of an individual’s skills, experience and interests. Of course, people will still have to fulfil certain specific functions, but maybe they could do that differently so that they keep learning, but not in a tickbox way – in ways that really engage them and make them think.  Real learning happens when you engage with a subject and with a teacher. That doesn’t mean it needs to be face to face. It just means that it shouldn’t be passive.

Learning is something we do from birth. We soak up new things and there’s no reason older people are any different. Through a lifetime of different experiences we keep learning, but we also have more questions. We should be better at tapping into and exploring that, of opening horizons up rather than closing them down.