Older Workers’ Experience with Technology-related Changes at Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Introduction - Many (older) workers experienced changes in their working life as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of them related to increased use of digital technologies. In this study, we aim at understanding older workers’ degree of affectedness as well as the experience of and satisfaction with technology-related changes at work during the COVID-19pandemic in Sweden.Methods and Materials - Between June 2020 and December 2021, novel data on work during the COVID-19 pandemic was collected via a four-wave online survey (n=2901). Based on such data, which was collected in the Swedish regionÖstergötland, we modeled (a) the overall affectedness with technology-related changes at work in a sub-sample of workers aged 50 years and older, (b) the experience of specific types of technology-related changes at work in the same sub-sample, and (c) the satisfaction with technology-related changes at work in a sub-sample of 357 workers aged 50 years and older who reported to have experienced such changes.Results - Our findings show how the experience with technology-related changes is structured along the lines of age, gender, education, occupation, and job status. Also, the satisfaction with technology-related changes proved to be unequally distributed among older workers with differences also between household and family types.Conclusions - The results have implications for policies and practices to support equal and inclusive late working life in times of digitalisation of work.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

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