In some countries, the elderly tend to work for more years and postpone their retirement to the future. It is obvious that there are some benefits involved in this trend. However, I believe that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.
On the one hand, working with older people can provide numerous benefits for society. To begin with, companies and manufacturers can be benefited from the elderly’s experiences in the workplace. People at the end of their careers are acquired much valuable knowledge, so by having them in the organization, junior employees can learn many practices from them which can be really helpful in their career path. For instance, experienced employees can help the young to boost their communication skills which can be a valuable asset for young individuals starting their first job. Also, the later people become retired, the better their mental health would be. Some studies assert that it is less likely for employed, old people to face loss of short-term memory.
On the other hand, having older people occupying high-rank positions in organizations may cause certain problems for fresh job applicants. One obvious problem is if older people continue to work for more years, finding jobs will be much harder for the young. In other words, there will be fewer job vacancies; hence, there will be more unemployed young people. Moreover, many working positions are required to make a considerable amount of effort. As a result, employers cannot rely on elderly people for such posts. Take management positions which consist of demanding activities for example; allowing older people to work for more years means that companies are deprived of using energetic young managers.
In conclusion, even though the experience of old employees is really precious for many companies, it may cause both young job seekers and employers to face severe problems. Consequently, it is not recommended that elderly individuals work more that a limited number of years because I believe that the downside by no means overweigh the benefits.