[Development, magnitude and determinants of mental and emotional exhaustion of nursery school teachers]. / Entwicklung, Ausmaß und Determinanten der psychischen und emotionalen Erschöpfung bei Erzieherinnen und Erziehern.

This paper investigates mental exhaustion of educators in the years 2006, 2012 and 2018 as well as emotional exhaustion for the years 2012 and 2018, in both respects in comparison to other educational groups (data base: "Employee Surveys" carried out by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training [BIBB], and the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [BAuA]). Intragroup comparisons of educators as well as other occupational groups show differences according to age and sex. Based on their mental and emotional exhaustion, educators are categorized into four groups. Then the prevalence of different stress factors amongst educators and other occupational groups is shown. It is determined how these stress factors affect the probability to belong to the group with the highest mental and emotional exhaustion. Finally, it is shown which stress factors can be reduced in order to reduce educators' mental and emotional exhaustion. There are single stress factors with leeway for improvements due to high levels amongst educators and which, at the same time, are crucial for exhaustion.

Working Hours Flexibility and Timing of Retirement: Findings from Europe.

This study investigates how flexibility in working hours affects retirement timing. It tests the assumption that decreasing weekly working hours delays retirement and extends working life. Using data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we analyze whether a shift from full-time to part-time work delays retirement. Results show that older workers who reduce their working hours retire earlier than those who stay in full-time employment. The effect is stronger in Central and Eastern Europe than in Scandinavian countries. No interaction effects for gender and work strain are found. We conclude that part-time work at the end of the career, as a means to extend working life, should be reevaluated.

Differences in self-reported health between low- and high-income groups in pre-retirement age and retirement age. A cohort study based on the European Social Survey.

Using data from the European Social Survey 1 (2002) and 9 (2018) we show the development of self-rated health of older persons in 17 countries. We find a considerable increase of older persons reporting good or very good health between 2002 and 2018; this increase is similar in all groups examined. Absolute differences between income groups remained vastly stable. Further, in 2018 the high-income tercile of those between 65 and 80 years still reported better health than the low-income tercile of those between 49 and 64 years. Overall, self-rated health seems to have improved in Europe but there are still signs of a considerable gap between low-income groups and high-income groups.

Employees' Longer Working Lives in Europe: Drivers and Barriers in Companies.

This paper identifies, within companies' sectors of activity, predictors of Human Resource (HR) policies to extend working life (EWL) in light of increasing policy efforts at the European level to extend working life. Three types of EWL practices are investigated: the prevention of early retirement (i.e. encouraging employees to continue working until the legal retirement age); delay of retirement (i.e. encouraging employees to continue working beyond the legal retirement age); and, recruitment of employees who are already retired (i.e. unretirement). A sample of 4624 European organizations that was stratified by size and sector is analyzed in six countries. The main drivers for companies' EWL practices are the implementation of measures for older workers to improve their performance, their working conditions, and to reduce costs. In industry, the qualities and skills of older workers could be more valued than in other sectors, while the adoption of EWL practices might be less affected by external economic and labor market factors in the public sector. Dutch and Italian employers may be less prone than others to extend working lives. These results underline the importance of raising employers' awareness and increase their actions to extend employees' working lives by adopting age management initiatives, especially in SMEs, and in the services and public sectors.