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This qualitative study aims to explore general perceptions of a woman experiencing negative menopausal symptoms in the workplace. It examines the socio-cultural understandings informing the responses of a mixed participant group, including those unlikely to have experienced menopause, to a hypothetical scenario involving a woman disclosing negative menopausal symptoms in the workplace – to either a female or male manager.

Using an innovative hybrid vignette-story completion (SC) technique, data were generated from 48 employees of a single UK-based organisation. Participants were presented with a vignette featuring a protagonist (Julie) experiencing negative menopausal symptoms, asked questions about their imaginings of Julie and how she might be perceived by others in the workplace, then presented with a story stem and asked to continue the story in the third person. The stem depicted Julie preparing to tell her manager about her symptoms and featured either a male or female manager, with one variation randomly presented to each participant. Responses were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

This study reports four themes: (1) the burden of menopause; (2) managing menopause at work; (3) menopause as not belonging in the workplace; and (4) menopause as unlocking new life potential? Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Using the innovative hybrid vignette-SC technique, this study contributes to the current discourse on menopause in the workplace by providing insight into how menopausal employees experiencing negative symptoms are perceived by others and the social understandings that shape these perceptions.

This paper aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 related employment disruption on individuals’ retirement planning and whether these experiences differ by occupational social class.

To explore these issues, this study linked data from those who were employed in wave 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) main study with wave 1 of the ELSA COVID-19 study (N = 1,797). Multinominal regression analyses were conducted to explore whether the interaction between employment disruption and occupational social class was associated with planning to retire earlier or later than previously planned.

The results show that stopping work because of COVID-19 is associated with planning to retire earlier. However, there were no statistically significant interactions between occupational social class and employment disruptions on whether respondents planned to retire earlier or later.

This paper’s original contribution is in showing that the pandemic has had an impact on retirement decisions. Given the known negative effects of both involuntary early labour market exit, the findings suggest that the COVID-19 related employment disruptions are likely to exacerbate social inequalities in health, well-being in later life and, consequently, can help anticipate where there will be need for additional support in later life.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of these experiences on the authors’ work and on the authors.

Following the publication of the report, the authors undertook collective, autoethnographic memory work that forms the empirical body of the argument. This is presented in 13 vignettes.

The authors found themselves continually traversing.

The paper analyses the challenges of researching what is a universal experience for women yet also a taboo subject. It discusses the relevant implications for and possible effects on researchers who investigate such topics in organisation and work studies and elsewhere.

Menopause experiences as they connect to work are under-researched per se. The paper extends knowledge of how this research area is not only shaped by researchers but has an impact on those researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the statistical evidence on the effects that ill health has on labour market participation and opportunities for younger and older workers in the East Midlands (UK).

A statistical analysis of Labour Force Survey data was undertaken to demonstrate that health issues affect older and younger workers alike. This has an equalling effect on labour market opportunities, which should reduce any potential for intergenerational conflict within the workforce.

Although health problems that limit activities and affect the amount and kind of work an individual can undertake increase with age, there are high levels of ill health of these kinds within all age groups, including the youngest workers.

The regional statistical analysis can only provide indications, and further research is required to differentiate which groups of younger and older workers suffer from which types of illnesses, as this has direct implications for their employment.

A more direct consideration of health in employment, education and training policy is required to enable the development of healthy and long‐term working lives that benefit individuals and the economy.

The consideration of the effects of health issues on the labour market should lead to a reconsideration of the rhetoric, and the reality of intergenerational conflict. There might be less reason for such competition than is generally perceived.

The paper considers intergenerational conflict in a labour market context and suggests that health issues have an equalising effect for the relative positions of older and younger workers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the degree to which there have been changes during the recession in the behaviour of employers with regards to their employment of older workers. The paper aims to show that there has been substantial change since the last recession and that there are, potentially, significant developments still occurring.

A small group of employers from a range of sectors were interviewed twice, once at the outset of the (first) recession and once towards its end.

The situation for older workers in employment is better than in previous recessions, mainly because employers are less likely to resort to redundancies for workers of all ages. Instead, a range of flexible working options are being utilised, including flexible retirement and adjustments to work processes. In the main the flexibility was instituted and controlled by the organisations. Employers are looking for alternative strategies to deal with a shift in control over the retirement process as a result of the abolishment of the default retirement age.

The research was undertaken with a small sample, which has implications for the generalizability of the results. Although it would be difficult to further investigate the developments of employer behaviour during the recession, the long‐term implications and the effects of the recession, in particular on older workers, are yet to emerge.

The paper shows a new development in dealing with older workers during a recession.

Gender segregation has been a persistent feature of apprenticeship programmes in countries around the world. In the UK, the Modern Apprenticeship was launched ten years ago as the government's flagship initiative for training new entrants in a range of occupational sectors. One of its priorities was to increase male and female participation in “non‐traditional” occupations, that is, those normally practised by just one sex. However, recent figures show that the programme has failed to achieve its aim and this has prompted an investigation by the Equal Opportunities Commission. This paper aims to report the research as part of this investigation.

This paper presents quantitative and qualitative evidence on the attitudes of young people (aged 14 and 15) and employers to non‐traditional occupational choices. It also explores the factors affecting the decisions of young people to train in a non‐traditional occupation and the recruitment decisions of employers from “traditional sectors”, such as engineering, the construction trades and child care.

The research provides evidence of the deeply entrenched nature of occupational stereotypes and the psychological and social barriers that have to be overcome if a more evenly balanced workforce is to be created. It also reveals that none of the institutions and organisations which act as gatekeepers between young people and employers is, as yet, taking responsibility for challenging their perceptions and decision‐making processes.

The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of the research findings to stakeholders and suggesting a holistic approach to tackling gender segregation.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the key themes in the area of the impact of demographic change on young workers and older workers in relation to education, skills and employment, as discussed in the papers included in this section. The authors have also drawn upon data from their project “From Young Workers to Older Workers” as a context for the papers.

This paper draws out the main themes from the papers contained within this section and presents original data from interviews with 97 older workers who were interviewed at two points in time – labour market entry and labour market exit.

The selection of papers in this section is outlined, as well as offering some findings from the authors’ research on older workers.

The papers in this section, including this paper, offer an overview of some of the key debates in relation to the impact of demographic change on both young workers and older workers.