Nowadays, numerous countries have increased the age of retirement. This essay believes that the pros of this trend do not outweigh its disadvantages. Although the experience of older employees is necessary to improve the working quality and effectively support the young, it may have adverse impacts on job recruitment and reduce creativity at work.
One of the most noticeable advantages of this trend is that familiarity with the jobs of older workers contributes to the rise of job productivity. This is because the older workers who are close to retirement age may have a wide knowledge of their jobs. Thus, the rich source of experience is crucial to the rise of maturity of young workers, who have just started their jobs for a short time. Consequently, those newcomers receive a myriad of valuable lessons from the former generation, and this culminates in the promotion of individual responsibilities, such as working manners and respective attitudes towards customers. For example, in Vietnam, many citizens advocate the labor policy to raise the age of retirement, because they believe that the support from older workers helps the inexperienced staff to be readier for the jobs and gain more confidence; therefore, the efficiency of the working process will be enhanced.
Despite the pros of improving the working progress, a school of thought holds that this trend can do the labor market a disservice. Because keeping slots for old members, instead of recruiting the young, potentially leads to unemployment among the young adults and results in the waste of labor resources, irrespective of academic backgrounds. Moreover, this new implementation of jobs also decreases creativity at work. Some anecdotal evidence shows that younger employees have a predisposition to be more creative, and the lack of young energy makes enterprises have no considerable development, demotivating the competitive advantages against other companies.
In conclusion, this trend has both pros and cons; however, the negative influences of this trend should be taken into consideration.