Aging & Social Change: Twelfth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This paper discusses the implications of work-family spillover for nurses in Ireland, in the context of policies designed to extend working life. Such policies are promoted as beneficial for older workers and as contributing to sustaining state pension systems. One of the most common policies is to increase state pension age. While such policies may appear beneficial or at least benign for all workers, a lifecourse of family care – caring for children and/or older adults – can impact on work-family spillover, career interruption, gendered pension provision, and the need to work longer. Work-family spillover involves the transmission of stress or emotion between work and home roles (Cottingham, Chapman & Erikson, 2020). This paper sets out the policy context in terms of government and employer policy in Ireland. Findings from the analysis of qualitative data from the DAISIE project in Ireland – lifecourse interviews with 40 nurses, including 24 women and 16 men, and follow-up interviews with 25 of these nurses, 16 women and nine men – are presented. The interviews focus on participants’ work-life trajectories, caring roles, working conditions, and financial and health outcomes as they approach retirement. A lifecourse approach to analysis of transitions to retirement/extending working lives is deployed (Giele and Elder, 1998). Gendered differences are evident in experiences of caring work and work-life spillover, with women observing more negative effects. More women than men plan to retire early, particularly during COVID-19. Implications for employer policies and national employment/pension policies are considered.