Change in the growth orientation of employees in their forties What is needed to allow middle-aged workers in their forties to continue to experience growth at work?

Release Date 09/17/2021

※This article is a machine translation.

“Prime working years… middle management… balancing work, family, and nursing care…” Employees in their forties assume all sorts of roles both at work and at home at a time in their lives when many of them are certainly busy. That many such individuals feel stuck as they come to a turning point in their career was pointed out in a previous study. Based on the survey data that we provided, we saw that the environment in which employees in their forties operate changes how these individuals think about growth. In this column, we will describe these changes and introduce possible ways to grow from the time you are in your forties based on the results of our survey.

Index

Growth orientation of middle-aged employees in their 40s
Factors that have led to a decline in the growth orientation of middle-aged employees in their 40s
Growth orientation among middle-aged employees in their 40s is increasing
Characteristics of middle-aged employees in their 40s who are experiencing growth
Summary

Growth orientation of middle-aged employees in their 40s

In the 2017 data from our annual “Employment and Growth Survey of 10,000 Workers”, there was a tendency for the 40-year-old age group to have a lower awareness of the importance of growth in their work (hereafter, growth orientation) compared to other age groups (Figure 1). There is also a tendency for attachment to and satisfaction with the company to decline in the 40s, suggesting that people in this age group are more likely to feel that their career is stagnating than those in other age groups (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Proportion of people who value growth by age (full-time employees, 2017)

Figure 2: Attachment to and satisfaction with the organization by age (full-time employees, 2017)

Factors that have led to a decline in the growth orientation of middle-aged employees in their 40s

Why do employees in their 40s stop placing importance on growth in their work, and become less attached to and satisfied with their company?

The famous psychologist Carl G. Jung compared life to the movement of the sun, and said that the 40s are “the noon of life”. At this time, a person's life, which has been on an upward trajectory until then, changes in the direction of decline, and the pressure to change one's way of thinking can easily lead to conflict and indecision.

In addition to the fact that people in their 40s are more likely to face such life challenges, there are also specific issues that have been pointed out in terms of their careers. Edgar H. Schein, a psychologist, also sees around the age of 40 as a time when people feel a sense of lethargy (mid-career crisis) because they can see the end of their working lives ahead of them*. He says that even those who have been working hard towards their ideals will have to face up to reality when they see the end of their careers, and so they will need to overcome the challenge of examining reality. In our survey, the percentage of people who “become aware of the end of their career” at the age of 45.5 exceeded the percentage of those who are not aware of it (Figure 3).

There also seems to be a problem with career advancement. In many Japanese companies, inexperienced new graduates are hired and given various career experiences through transfers and relocations, and while undergoing training at key points, they are managed in a way that makes them compete with their peers in a race for career advancement. However, when people reach their 40s, this race to the top reaches its final stage, and the difference between those who can advance in their careers and those who cannot becomes clear. For this reason, at the age of 42.5, the number of people who do not want to advance in their careers exceeds the number of people who do (Figure 3), and it is thought that the growth orientation of those who have lost their motivation to advance in their careers declines. Furthermore, since the collapse of the bubble economy, the number of managerial positions has decreased, and many people who thought they would be able to get ahead when they were younger have given up on the idea of getting ahead, which has only served to exacerbate this phenomenon.

In addition, it is said that careers are likely to stagnate due to the stress of having to change the way they work as players even for those who become managers, as well as the rut they fall into due to having worked for a long time.

(*) Schein, E. H. (1978) Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs, Addison-Wesley. (Translated by Toshiko Nimura and Katsuyo Miyoshi, 1991, “Career Dynamics,” Hakuto Shobo)

Figure 3: Changes in attitudes towards career advancement and the end of one's career

Source: Tsuneki Ishiyama + Persol Research and Consulting, “Work Techniques for People in Their 40s Who Don't Regret Their Company Careers”

Growth orientation among middle-aged employees in their 40s is increasing

However, in recent years, there has been a change in the growth orientation of people in their 40s. Looking at the data on the growth orientation of people in their 40s from 2017 to 2021, we can see that the growth orientation of people in their 40s has increased to the same level as other age groups (Figure 4).

In addition, the proportion of people who “felt” they had grown in the past year decreased with age, but increased in all age groups compared to 2017 (Figure 5).

Figure 4: Changes in growth orientation by age group (full-time employees) from 2017 to 2021

Figure 5: Changes in the perception of growth by age group (full-time employees) from 2017 to 2021

These changes may be influenced by recent changes in the Japanese employment environment. As the term VUCA suggests, the market environment is changing rapidly, and the sense of crisis that the skills and abilities we have now will become obsolete is growing stronger year by year. In addition, due to the effects of the declining birthrate and aging population, as well as globalization, the Japanese employment system of seniority-based promotion and lifetime employment is beginning to break down, and the number of companies offering early retirement is increasing due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and the trend is spreading that even the middle-aged are not safe.

In addition, it has become necessary to work for longer periods than before, with efforts to ensure employment opportunities until the age of 70 becoming a legal obligation. In the past, people would have entered the second half of their careers by the time they reached their 40s, but now there is still a long way to go, and there is a growing trend of people in their 40s and 50s returning to education. For these reasons, it is thought that there is a growing awareness that people in their 40s also need to continue to grow.

Characteristics of middle-aged employees in their 40s who are experiencing growth

In the era of 100-year lifespans and VUCA, even though people feel that it is better to keep growing, as shown in Figure 5, the percentage of people who are working while feeling that they are growing decreases as they get older, and in their 40s and 50s, it is low at around half. In order to find a way for employees in their 40s to feel that they are growing, we analyzed the survey data to find out what characteristics employees in their 40s who do feel that they are growing have in common, and the following three characteristics emerged.

　Characteristic 1: Participating in projects that are different from their normal work
Characteristic 2: Being able to set work goals together with their superiors
Characteristic 3: Being able to identify with their company's corporate philosophy

*The characteristics specific to full-time employees in their 40s were extracted after excluding the effects of factors such as job title and type of work.
*The items that had a particularly strong impact on full-time employees in their 40s were extracted as a result of multiple regression analysis using a sense of growth as the dependent variable (controlling for gender, industry, type of work, and job title).

When employees in their 40s were divided into three groups based on these three characteristics, the high group in each case responded that more than 70% of them felt they had grown (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Growth perception by high, medium, and low groups for each characteristic (regular employees in their 40s, 2021)

Participating in projects that are different from their usual work is an opportunity for employees in their 40s, who are often already proficient in their regular work, to gain new stimulation from work that is different from what they have done before, and it is thought that this will stimulate new problem awareness and a desire to learn. In addition, as experienced workers, they will also find it rewarding to use the skills and abilities they have cultivated in a different way.

Setting clear work goals together with your boss will help middle-aged employees in their 40s to clarify their goals and determine the direction of their growth. The goals that should be set will vary depending on the company and the individual, but it is important for employees in their 40s, who are often prone to neglecting goal management due to their experience, to set goals in an organized manner.

In addition, eliciting a sense of empathy for the company's philosophy is thought to increase employees' attachment to the company and lead to a desire to continue to grow in their work.

Given the unique circumstances of employees in their 40s, companies are required to manage them with these three points in mind. For employees in their 40s, it is thought that taking action such as using a side job system to try out a new environment, or clarifying their work-related goals after consulting with their superiors and colleagues, will lead to career development.

Summary

In this column, we have pointed out that, in the midst of changing social circumstances, the growth orientation of middle-aged employees in their 40s, which had been on the decline in past surveys, is gradually increasing, and we have considered how to work while still feeling a sense of growth in one's 40s and beyond.

When we re-examine the characteristics of middle-aged employees who are actually able to feel a sense of growth, we find that

Characteristic 1: Participating in projects that are different from their normal work
Characteristic 2: Being able to set work goals together with their superiors
Characteristic 3: Being able to identify with their company's corporate philosophy

As career development from the 40s onwards becomes more important than ever, in addition to these being things that 40-something employees themselves should be aware of, companies will also be required to implement management that encourages the growth of 40-something employees in the future.

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