Which work conditions can help older workers to work overtime?

“Increasing pressure to work overtime needs to be met with favourable working conditions”

Substantial parts of the workforce in industrialised countries work long hours with increasing overtime. This helps to solve the labour shortages caused by early retirement and an ageing work population. However, a balance should be struck between job demands and the need for workers to remain employable until retirement. Therefore how can working overtime be made less burdensome and stressful? We used a web survey completed by about 22,200 respondents to examine how work conditions, age, and health influence Dutch public sector employees’ willingness to work overtime.

Key Takeaways for the Industry

• Employers should enhance favourable working conditions for overtime to ensure the continuing employability of their staff.
• Although older workers are less responsive to favourable conditions, these outweigh the negative effects related to age and health.