A força de trabalho ‘grisalha’: mitos e estereótipos sobre a contratação de pessoas mais velhas

Abstract

The aging of the European population is one of the biggest challenges facing the continent and Portugal is one of the countries where longevity is more evident. Changes have been taking place in the social, political, economic, cultural sectors, among others, affecting the most diverse companies and modifying the organizational environment, and it becomes a challenge to retain and hire older people. Thus, the present study aims to understand the factors that inhibit the hiring of older people. Through a literature review, we seek to identify the age group of older people and understand from what age a collaborator is considered, as an older person for work. This is followed by the identification of myths and stereotypes in older workers. This work is characterized as a descriptive study, structured interviews were carried out with eight individuals with responsibility for choosing workers for their workplaces. Confidentiality was guaranteed and all respondents accepted and signed the informed consent form. The number of participants was determined by the saturation principle. The results showed that while the older worker is recognized positively in terms of stability, reliability, knowledge, experience, personal initiative and guidance, they are negatively evaluated in many other ways, they lack flexibility or creativity, they are less vigilant, they are more accident prone, unfamiliar with new technologies, more resistant to innovation and technological change, and more difficult to train. It can be concluded that there is some resistance on the part of organizations in hiring older people, resistance essentially represented by the myths and stereotypes associated with older workers.