The legal retirement age in Europe is between 60 and 67 years. Under expectation, that life expectancy will continue to rise, some EU countries are also attempting to raise the retirement age. From this point of view, it can be assumed that people spend many years in their working life and, of course, also are getting older.
This bachelor thesis is dedicated to the question around the challenges older office workers are facing today. Particular interesting is the open-plan office type that is dominating today. The bachelor research question is answered by a comprehensive literature analysis and based on this, an outlook for further research will be given.
The central results were divided into psychological and physical challenges. In addition, the first scientific findings and publications on the Covid-19 pandemic were also included.
The focus under circumstances of Covid-19, is the development in the field of home office. After forced to work from home, the re-entering in narrow circumstances of the workplace in the open-plan office is challenging. And as well the effects of the Corona crisis on the work conditions for older employees.
Decisive factors for successfully mastering the challenges (psychological and physical) lie in dealing with each and everybody´s treatment of his/her own health and concerned health models. This also includes the self-image and the possibilities of influencing individually his/her personal health. Ideally also to generate health. Job insecurity, workload, fear, discrimination and conflicts are the main causes of mental stress on older employees. There are enough opportunities for conflict in professional life. Starting with self-image and personal development, the spectrum ranges to generational conflicts, conflicts with superiors and poor communication in the workplace. When it comes to the physical challenges, the disadvantages of the open-plan office, ambient noise and the room climate dominate. General burdening from screen work, sedentary work and long commutes can also become an issue at some point.