I'm sure you've seen the clothing catalogues that accompany the Sunday newspapers, featuring drip-dry slacks and shoes that look like Cornish pasties And I'm also sure, like me, you've occasionally flicked through them. Well, be warned. Feel free to look - but never let the words, 'those look comfy', pass your lips in the presence of teenage children.
With a birthday this month that places me firmly in my forties, and - if my kids are to be believed - an overnight conversion to elastic-waisted trousers, my family have concluded that I've hit that arbitrary milestone called 'middle-age'. And they're making fun of me.
But what about those who are currently reaching 'retirement age'. In the current economic climate, many of these individuals are facing a future that is somewhat more daunting than a bit of good-natured leg-pulling.
Over the past five years the annual number of personal bankruptcies in England and Wales has risen by 89%. Over the same period, however, the number of personal insolvencies filed by pensioners has increased by 164% - a situation that suggests older members of our society are being disproportionately affected by the downturn.
Now the reality is that the majority of people choose to retire before reaching state retirement age. And it can be argued - persuasively I think - that nobody in a developed economy such as ours should be obliged to work simply because they cannot afford to retire. But when people are fit enough to continue working - shouldn't they have the right to do so?
Of course they currently have the right to request that their contract of employment be extended. And research by the CBI shows 81% of those requests are granted. But this also means one in five have their contracts terminated against their wishes - and with the recession placing a downward pressure on the headcounts of many organisations, I would suggest this number is likely to rise.
When I hear anything that sounds like a short-term expediency, I am immediately suspicious. So I called Paul Sparrow at Lancaster University Management School and asked whether his team could analyse the performance data for a number of our company-owned restaurants. In particular, I wanted to compare the performance of those restaurants where we employ the over-60s with those where our staff are all under 50.
Now, most readers will know that the vast majority of the people who apply to work in McDonald's restaurants are a long way off middle age, let alone retirement age. But of the 417 restaurants the Lancaster team studied, just over two-fifths employed one or more 'later life' workers. This came as no surprise because qualitatively the inter-generational fit between today's youngsters who are attracted to an opportunity that offers supportive personal development, and later life workers who are looking for opportunities to coach and mentor others, is a close one.
However, when the Lancaster team analysed the quantitative performance data the differences were startling. For example, in the restaurants employing later life workers customer satisfaction levels were more than 20% higher.
And that got me thinking. If a relatively small number of later life workers can, as the statistics suggest, create such a significant uplift in performance, why are so many other employers willing to let them go? And the only conclusion I could come to is that they don't appreciate the contribution the over-60s are making.
So as I enter my fifth decade, my birthday gift to this column's loyal readers is a statistically significant insight into the value created by later life workers which, I hope, will have an impact on your organisation's performance.
As for the comfy polyester trousers, I'm afraid middle age will have to wait a little longer for me to catch up.
- David Fairhurst is senior vice-president/chief people officer, McDonald's Restaurants Northern Europe.
