Summary
This master thesis deals with the value of a relationship with a working community. The value can be measured in relation to the recognition and esteem granted to a person from the family and the community, the workplace, colleagues and management and at the institutional level, we also are a part of. These values are a part of the frame of reference by which an individual consider, understand, evaluate and assess oneself within.
Self-development and identity is reflected in our cognitive understanding and use of language. Or, as the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) states, our understanding "is limited by the horizons of time and space, where things appear in their concrete opinion and experience structures".
The master thesis hypothesis is that societal attitudes to age and senior labor is important for the social work practice.
The master thesis wants to investigate whether age has an independent importance to keep a job or if you are unemployed, to reacquire work.
The master thesis audience is senior employee, the middle-aged person who looks back on his many years of labor market. In terms of age, he finds himself in the middle of his life. He still has a number of working years left until he can retire.
Because senior employee's social attraction seems to depend on his education, work, social position and networks, with the use of a Pierre Bourdieu concept 'is reflected in his cultural, social and economic capital', his possession of these values may decide how far in midway of his life he will assess himself as belonging to the group of reserve labor, which society chooses to hire and fire, depending on the economic climate - or he belongs to the social segment characterized as a group of important or significant individuals labor market will always demand.
In a critical hermeneutic approach can be seen the possibility that there is a social problem.
The social work concrete efforts towards the less attractive senior employee, seems less than for younger groups of employees. Community services are largely limited to financial compensation, e.g. the early retirement scheme, instead of the offer of training, further training or a healthier work environment. Offers formally exist, but in fact are not being sufficiently utilized.
The senior begins to doubt his own labor skills or competencies. If he is at work he will probably change his behavior towards management and colleagues. He may become more cautious or unsure and trying even more to adapt to and comply with workplace norm culture.
According to the hypothesis the senior shares the perception of himself with the surrounding community's standard culture. Subsequently he sees, understands, defines and describes himself as a mature or aging workforce, with a declining attraction of society.
If he is low-skilled, is more likely that his skills are outdated and besides that, his physical work has resulted in a wear on the body, which has left him with a failing health. This aging citizen has to consider his future economy, including the opportunity to transfer to early retirement, a flexible- or a senior job.