Flexible forms of employment have been presented in the book as one of key instruments in fighting unemployment. Although negative voices are raised about objective treatment of an employee, the lack of social security, uncertainty of employment, etc. many of these opinions are just myths and stereotypes. Similarly, general characteristics of the socio-professional activation of people over fifty is also connected with a number of common beliefs about how people in late adulthood function. Unfortunately, these convictions emphasise their worse psycho-social and intellectual functioning, which firstly, does not have any psychological justification, secondly, prevents the over 50's from benefitting from different forms of flexible employment. What is even worse, aid institutions are discouraged from creating adaptation programmes in non-standard employment and other socio-professional initiatives. Despite an exploratory nature of the research and a new focus on the functioning of people in "alternative" working conditions, its findings contributed to better understanding of regulatory mechanisms of people at work. An attempt was made to answer the question: to what extent can flexible forms of employment be an employment alternative for the over 50's? In the explanatory research one of the most important variables were the reasons of people over 50 for searching for work and the role of social support in unemployment. Another important issue was the contents of a psychological contract characterising the population in-question. The potential professional activity of people 50+ in flexible forms of employment was analysed with reference to the satisfaction scale, psychological costs of the job, perception of personal resources, psychological dimension of flexibility and a sense of self-efficacy. |