Working through Ageing: Experiencing Growing Up and Older at Work

Growing up and older at work is something we all experience, yet it remains surprisingly overlooked and under theorized in management and organization studies.

In this groundbreaking book, Kathleen Riach draws on a 10 year longitudinal study to offer fresh theoretical and empirical insights into how ageing is experienced in the workplace.

Introducing a new phenomenological theory of ageing at work, the book examines how individuals negotiate age-biased workplace cultures and adapt to their changing bodies within the context of financial capitalism. It reveals that ageing at work is not simply about demographic change or ageist stereotypes, but is an ongoing process that involves balancing professional expectations, the life course, and the self.

Kathleen Riach is Professor of Organizational Studies at University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation at Monash University. Her pioneering research explores the lived experience of inequality throughout the working life course, with a particular focus on ageing as both an organizing and organized phenomenon. A prominent advocate for gender equality and economic empowerment, she serves as a UK delegate for the G20 Engagement Group, the W20, where she contributes to global policy dialogue. Kathleen has also collaborated with organizations and policymakers at both national and international levels to drive impactful change.