Entrepreneurship and financial planning are central themes of retirement programs
The rise of business programs that prepare employees for retirement is related to neoliberal logic, stimulating life projects with an emphasis on new economic activities. In addition to information on comprehensive health and well-being, the guidance initiatives for older workers address topics such as entrepreneurship and financial planning, which reinforces the narrative of an individual responsibility of professionals for their economic future in the face of supposed inefficiency of social security. Brazilian.
This is what an article with the participation of the researcher from the School of Business Administration of São Paulo (FGV EAESP) Maria José Tonelli says, published in “Revista de Administração Mackenzie”. The researchers conducted interviews with nine experts from five consultancies that offer retirement preparation programs (PPA) and from two companies that contracted these programs. The consultancies are headquartered in the state of São Paulo, but provide services throughout Brazil.
The performance of consultancies reveals different conceptions of aging in the labor market. At high hierarchical levels, the experience of older people is valued, and they are less impacted by the companies' downsizing process. The article also points out that most senior management professionals assisted by PPAs are men.
In operational positions that demand physical strength and agility, older age is seen as an obstacle to continuity in the function. “We verified that the PPAs operate as a way to pacify organizational conflicts by 'humanizing' the dismissals of older and operational-level employees, in order to make them more gradual and predictable, reducing risks of labor lawsuits”, observe the authors.
