Work matters for “older” hotel employees in the UK and Ireland: perceptions of workplace equality

The UK and Irish populations are ageing and projections suggest a considerable growth in the number of older people in both of these countries over the next 25 years. Population ageing will invariably affect hotel workplaces which have traditionally relied on younger workers. A focus on older workers’ accounts of employment in contemporary hotel workplaces is important as little is known about the attitudes, experiences and aspirations of older workers. In order to address this gap in knowledge, twenty three interviews with older employees aged fifty and above were conducted, eleven in the ROI and twelve in the UK. Findings from the interviews revealed that all older workers felt they were treated the same in terms of access to training in the workplace. Nevertheless, many older workers who were interviewed mentioned a lack of Information Technology skills as a barrier to promotion and this may represent a challenge to the future prospects of older workers. There was evidence to suggest that certain jobs, especially housekeeping, were age-typed as typically belonging to “younger workers” and departmental job segmentation was evident in that certain departments were composed of jobs deemed to be more suitable for a person of a certain age