Whether we like to admit it or not, we’re all growing older. However, the experience of growing older at work remains surprisingly overlooked and under theorised in management and organisation studies.

In this Transforming Business podcast, Martin Parker speaks with Kathleen Riach, author of ‘Working through Ageing’, about her groundbreaking 10-year longitudinal study that offers fresh theoretical and empirical insights into how ageing is experienced in the workplace.

They discuss how this fascinating study grew from a conversation in a pub, the way ageing is both universal and unique, and the importance of providing, if not answers then, alternative paths when presenting research. 

Kathleen Riach is Professor of Organizational Studies at University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation at Monash University.

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/working-through-ageing

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/12/11/podcast-growing-up-and-older-at-work/

Timestamps:

00:33 - Why are you interested in ageing and work?

03:03 - Do you think ageing at work is a more important topic than it used to be?

08:14 - Can you talk about your study and how it came about?

14:08 - Can you talk about how ageing is universal, but also unique?

16:17 - What is the relationship between your work, Simone de Beauvoir and the idea of phenomenology?

20:36 - Did this research make you think differently about your own ageing?

23:13 - What effect does talking about bodies at work have on policies in organisations?

27:55 - Is it difficult to move from critique into a place of action?

30:29 - What are your plans next?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com 

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