Learning and competence development in later working life: Stories of acceleration and resonance

The extension of working life has become a key policy agenda in Western societies. Studies have shown that purpose and competence development are important factors for the extension of working life. Hence, this article provides a theoretical and critical lens for understanding older workers' perceptions of meaningful competence development. It is based on qualitative fieldwork conducted with older workers and their managers in Denmark, with Hartmut Rosa's theory of acceleration, alienation, and resonance as its analytical standpoint. We demonstrate that current labor market dynamics and paradigms of accelerating, continuous competence development risk alienating older workers and shortening their working lives instead of extending them. Furthermore, these dynamics disregard that later working lives are already full of competences, experience, and wisdom. Therefore, we encourage meaningful competence development that blossoms in slow, informal, and mutual encounters and a different logic to counterbalance the current push for acceleration and growth, as older workers can mediate and enable resonance in the workplace. We apply Donna Haraway and Ursula K. Le Guin's theories of swords and carrier bags to problematize dominant stories promoting self-development and a competence orientation for the sake of competition and discuss alternative stories of later working lives that recognize the importance in caring, storing, creating, and sustaining relations. In sum, we contribute with a story that emphasizes the value in consolidating, employing, and nurturing existing skills and relationships in the workplace and recommend a broader repertoire of being in later working life. • Acceleration conditions competence development in later working life. • Dead-end learning can lead to feelings of alienation and erosion of work engagement. • Labor market paradigms of competence development risk shortening working lives. • Older workers can mediate and enable resonance and well-being in the workplace. • Older workers are alternative heroines in the labor market.