MID-CAREER CRISIS HITS MANAGERS AND OFFICES - BUT NOT MANUAL WORKERS?

A mid-life crisis - be it wistfully ambling around sports car showrooms or stretching Lycra up and across an ever-expanding torso and hopping on a pricey new racing bike - can have many symptoms and manifestations, not least boredom at work.

But according to the University of Surrey, the perception that many men in their 40s and 50s undergo or inflict upon themselves a "mid-career crisis" is overblown, at least among workers outside management and the professions.

"Our findings reveal a distinct u-shaped trajectory of job satisfaction among workers in managerial, professional and associate professional occupations," the Surrey team said in a research paper published by the journal Socio-Economic Review.

But while such angst is indeed prevalent among better-paid workers with what are perceived as more prestigious jobs, it appears that men in what were once known as blue-collar jobs or trades are for the most part getting on with life.

"This is pattern is not evident among workers in intermediate or lower occupational classes," they said, after analysing what they described as "four nationally representative datasets" reflecting more than 108,000 workers across "all industries, occupations and geographical areas" in the UK.

"While dissatisfaction is common among many middle-aged workers, it is crucial to acknowledge that this is not a universal experience," said the university's Ying Zhou, who said that even if job satisfaction dips in middle age it "often rebounds later in life" as workers get closer to retirement and develop a more rounded perspective on life and their achievements.

And while middle-aged plumbers and drivers and construction workers appear to be more resilient, shrugging off any notions of a mid-life crisis, those a generation younger and with higher levels of formal education, are prematurely stepping in.

A survey published in December found almost 4 in 10 people in their 20s - sometimes referred to Zoomers or Generation Z - reported themselves as going through a mid-life crisis, with almost as many millennials, some of whom are middle-aged, coming to the same conclusion about themselves.

2025-01-20T12:26:42Z