O valor do experiente : etarismo e sentidos do trabalho para trabalhadores acima de 45 anos
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| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Format: | Master thesis |
| Sprog: | por |
| Source: | Repositório Institucional da UPF |
| Download full: | https://repositorio.upf.br/handle/123456789/9727 |
Summary: | This study aims to analyze the relationships between ageism and work meanings for aging workers, considering professionals over 45 years old in an industry and a higher education institution. The research seeks not only to identify whether work meanings are perceived positively or negatively, but also to deepen the analysis of the multiple dimensions that compose these meanings, such as personal fulfillment, recognition, belonging, autonomy, and social contribution. Through Ricardo Antunes' theoretical lens, the study adopts a critical perspective that understands work as a central and ontological element of human existence, whose meaning is profoundly influenced by historical, social, and economic conditions, especially under the logic of contemporary capitalism, which accentuates processes of alienation and precarization. For this purpose, an analytical conceptual framework is developed that articulates contemporary capitalist system with ageism manifestations in the workplace through stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory practices, and their impacts on work meanings, considering dimensions of recognition, valorization, and personal and professional fulfillment. These results manifest at three interconnected levels: individual (well-being or suffering, engagement or alienation, mental and physical health, permanence or departure from work), organizational (utilization of accumulated experience by older workers), and social (cultural reproduction or transformation in work relations). The methodological procedures of this research follow a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach, characterized as a multiple case study with thematic analysis. Data collection is performed using four techniques: individual interviews with semi-structured scripts, structured interviews, document analysis, and non-participant observation, all based on the developed analytical conceptual framework. The main research findings reveal that ageism negatively impacts work meanings through manifestations differentiated by gender and sector. Aging women face double discrimination (age and gender), confronting questioning about technical competence, aesthetic pressures, and expectations of docility that intensify with advancing age. Men, although maintaining greater symbolic legitimacy in leadership positions, report anxieties related to technological obsolescence. In industry, discriminatory practices predominate through normalized microaggressions and veiled jokes that compromise recognition. In higher education institutions, specific precarization is observed that affects women through structural instability and demand fluctuation. The articulation between ageism and work meanings evidences that age-related discriminatory practices systematically compromise dimensions of recognition, valorization, and professional fulfillment, forcing workers to develop individual resistance strategies such as knowledge brokering, cognitive crafting, and specific occupational adaptation. The study offers theoretical and practical insights for developing more inclusive organizations and for effectively valorizing the experience of mature workers in the Brazilian context, demonstrating the urgent need for anti-ageist organizational policies that recognize the ontological value of work for human dignity. However, it concludes that although specific interventions are necessary - such as implementing policies that combat microaggressions, developing awareness programs about ageism, establishing systematic dialogue channels between management and aging workers, and ergonomic adaptations - they prove insufficient in the face of a system that subordinates human value to profit, with ageism being functional to capitalism itself. |