Does intense time pressure at work make older employees more vulnerable? A statistical analysis based on a French survey “SVP50”

Abstract

Two general trends, the tightening of time constraints and the ageing of the working population, are likely to raise sensitive problems implying adjustment of both work and workers' characteristics. The statistical studies presented in this paper, referring to a French inter-professional survey conducted on health and work after fifty (11 213 employees), aim at verifying this assumption. The analyses presented are divided in four sub-questions: have part of employees over fifty been removed from time pressure situations? Is time pressure difficult to deal with for older workers (from their point of view)? Does intense time pressure imply increased prevalence of certain health disorders among senior employees? Does pressure increase the desire to end one's professional life early? The results show that intense time pressure raises serious problems for most of the employees in their fifties who are exposed to them. 80% consider this constraint to be “difficult”. They systematically show more frequent rates for most types of physical or psychological health disorders. “Sheltering from the job”, which implies being shifted from work “under pressure” to a job “without pressure”, is not uncommon but only solves a minority of situations. Lastly, the option of earlier retirement is not particularly developed in age group in its fifties working “under pressure”.