Earlier this summer, while picking up my sister-in-law at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, I rounded a corner and saw one worker pushing an impossibly long line of luggage carts. I expected to see a young, physically fit worker piloting such a large load and was surprised to see that in reality it was an older worker. Based on grey hair and other physical characteristics, I would guess his age to be approximately in the early 60’s. It was then that it struck me that this was a vision of the future of our society.
The vast majority of our population falls into the age category known as the “Baby Boomer” generation, those born in the decade following the Second World War. For the last 60 years, our country has been defined largely by the wants and needs of that segment of the population simply because it has been the largest. As this segment ages it will continue to exert its effect and that effect has consequences for the economy as well.
Traditional economic theory holds that prosperity is dependant on a growing economy. An economy that stagnates is one that is not prosperous. Many economists link the underwhelming performance of Japan’s economy with the advanced age of its population. It has been estimated that by 2030, fully one third of its population will be older than 65 years of age. In Canada we are attempting to head off such a problem by a more welcoming immigration policy; but the fact remains that in the future, we will face many of the same problems and employers will have to accommodate the workplace for an increasingly older workforce. This leads me back to the older airport luggage attendant.
There is no way a sixty something year old could have managed such a long and heavy load of luggage carts without some assistance. The assist he had, was a kind of “power pusher” that did all of the forceful pushing and all the operator had to deal with was controlling the direction of his charges, which he did with the aid of a power directional controller. This was a perfect example of the kind of forward thinking employers will have to do more of, in the future. I am sure that this piece of equipment was quite expensive; however if the employer did not have the equipment, the worker would not have been able to do the task. Even a younger worker might be subjected to a back strain injury performing such work.
The vision of the future is for employers to spend more resources on assistive devices that will enable older workers to work at their jobs longer and with less risk of ergonomic injury. The coming dearth of younger, stronger employees will force employers to accommodate the workers they have or face the prospect of not being able to provide the required services at all. Employers will also have to understand that spending money up front is an investment. Especially in light of the fact that ergonomic injuries are the most expensive injuries to recover from and result in more lost days of work than any other kind of occupational injury.
This is the future, employers take note!
Related page - Office Ergonomics Training.
