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Working and ageing
196 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

Box 10.1. Choosers, survivors and jugglers

Choosers
• highly qualified (mostly graduates);
• professional/managerial;
• positive reasons for job change and retirement;
• high incomes;
• home owners;
• stay or retire from choice and for interest;
• two-thirds male.
Survivors
• unqualified (50% have no qualifications);
• routine/semi-routine work;
• most likely group to be divorced/separated;
• negative reasons for change and retirement;
• poor health;
• if home owners – working; if renting – retired;
• two-thirds male.

Jugglers
• qualified (below degree);
• spread across socioeconomic range;
• home owners;
• working part-time;
• work in SMEs;
• after retirement may take up voluntary work;
• almost all are married women.

Source: Adapted from McNair, 2004.

Generativity links with work adjustment for older people. It gives a
continuing sense of momentum in the later stages of career, and contributes
to a sense of personal growth and self-worth (Clark and Arnold, 2010).
Conversely, ambition in the sense of gaining promotion and ʻclimbing the
ladderʼ wanes, for most people, with passing years. Again, generalisation is a
mistake. Clark (2007) finds that ambition and work centrality remain high for
about one in seven of older male workers. But for six in seven, motivation
moves with age from a competitive achievement focus to a more affiliative