Organizations will need to assess the consequences to profits and productivity of encouraging talented and wise elders to exit the work force. As a society we need to recognize all of the costs of supporting a nonworking population capable of productive work and living healthier and longer lives. Few positions in our information society remain static and do not require some type of education. Education and job redesign are the means by which the older segment of the community can enter, reenter, and advance in the workplace. This inquiry suggests that older workers are situated in a dynamic pattern of periods of active employment, disengagement from the workplace, and reentry into the same or a new career.
Older workers exhibit different work patterns at different stages.
The workplace becomes a dynamic space for older workers rather than a unidirectional journey leading to retirement. An aging and changing work force may cause us to reexamine and revalue the meaning and necessity of work for older workers. An aging work force might influence workplace cultures and values in ways that change our notions of the meaning and necessity of work. A workplace that blends training opportunities, flexible employment patterns, and policies supportive of the life needs of an aging work force may become a workplace that embraces older workers as capable, productive, and knowledgeable lifelong workers. An investigation of the meaning of work in the lives of older workers is fertile ground for adult educators.