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Hannes Schwandt
April 20, 2015
A mid-career crisis can happen to anyone. It can hit even those who objectively
have the most fulfilling jobs. When it does, it inflicts pain on the individual
suffering it and causes productivity losses for employers. Yet, the phenomenon
remains stigmatized and under-researched, leaving crucial questions unanswered.
What are the causes? Why does this malaise seem to strike in mid-life? And how
can those who are stuck in its grips shake themselves loose?
An emerging literature in economics has started to investigate what s happening
during midlife, providing insights that might help people and firms to better
handle these painful and costly episodes. Analyzing a nation-wide survey from
the UK, a group of economists working with professor Andrew Oswald of The
University of Warwick found that the job satisfaction of the average employee
deteriorates dramatically in midlife. Mid-career crises are, in fact, a
widespread regularity, rather than the misfortune of a few individuals. But
here s the good news: In the second half of people s working lives, job
satisfaction increases again, in many cases reaching even higher levels than
earlier in the career essentially forming a U-shaped curve.
Subsequent research discovered that this age-related U-shape in job
satisfaction is part of a much broader phenomenon. A similar midlife nadir is
detectable in measures of people s overall life satisfaction and has been found
in more than 50 countries. On average, life satisfaction is high when people
are young, then starts to decline in the early 30s, bottoming out between the
mid-40s and mid-50s before increasing again to levels as high as during young
adulthood. And this U-curve occurs across the entire socio-economic spectrum,
hitting senior-level executives as well as blue-collar workers and stay-at-home
parents. It affects childless couples as well as single people or parents of
four. In short, a mid-career crisis does not discriminate.
So what s driving the midlife nadir in job and life satisfaction if it s
independent of people s life circumstances? And if it s such a widespread
phenomenon, why does it seem to catch us by surprise? To answer these
questions, I analyzed a unique longitudinal German survey that followed 23,000
individuals from 1991 to 2004, where people reported their current life
satisfaction as well as their expected satisfaction in five years time. Since
the same individuals are interviewed each year, it s possible to see if people
accurately predicted their future life satisfaction.
Young people, it turns out, are overly optimistic, expecting significant
increases in life satisfaction, rather than anticipating the slide down the
U-curve. Young adults typically believe that they ll beat the average that
they ll be the lucky ones who end up with a top job, a happy marriage, and
healthy children. Neuroscientists believe that overoptimism is based on biased
information processing in the brain, which makes it difficult to correct overly
rosy expectations in the young (this bias might actually be evolutionary
efficient, as a powerful driver for seeking progress).
As we age, things often don t turn out as nicely as we planned. We may not
climb up the career ladder as quickly as we wished. Or we do, only to find that
prestige and a high income are not as satisfying as we expected them to be. At
the same time, high expectations about the future adjust downwards. Midlife
essentially becomes a time of double misery, made up of disappointments and
evaporating aspirations. Paradoxically, those who objectively have the least
reason to complain (e.g. if they have a desirable job) often suffer most. They
feel ungrateful and disappointed with themselves particularly because their
discontent seems so unjustified which creates a potentially vicious circle.
The Atlantic s contributing editor Jonathan Rauch described several such cases
(including his own) in his cover story on mid-life crisis, for which he
interviewed me about my research.
It s at the bottom of the U-curve (the mid-50s, according to the German data)
when expected life satisfaction aligns with current satisfaction levels. People
come to terms with how their life is playing out. At the same time, the aging
brain learns to feel less regret about missed chances, as brain studies have
shown. This combination of accepting life and feeling less regret about the
past is what makes life satisfaction increase again. And since people over 50
tend to underestimate their future satisfaction, these increases come as an
unexpected pleasant surprise, which further raises satisfaction levels.
As a whole, these findings tell a story in which the age U-shape in job (and
overall life) satisfaction is driven by unmet aspirations that are painfully
felt in midlife, but beneficially abandoned and felt with less regret during
old age. Importantly, in the German study, I found this pattern regardless of
people s socio-economic status, their gender, or whether they lived in East or
West Germany, despite the cultural differences in the decade right after
unification. Periods of mid-career crisis seem to be part of a natural
developmental process, driven by biology rather than the specifics of a
particular job. Hence, drastic career changes are unlikely to make you better
off. If the burned out Wall Street lawyer and the dissatisfied NGO activist
were to change seats, perhaps neither would end up more content.
The data seems to suggest that if you re in the throes of a mid-career crisis,
maybe you should just wait it out until the U-curve s upward slope is reached.
But there is more we can do in the face of mid-career malaise:
At the individual level, acknowledging mid-career dissatisfaction as a normal
and temporary stage in your work life provides a light at the end of the tunnel
when you feel like there s no hope. Moreover, hearing that it s OK to feel
regret from unmet aspirations helps you break the vicious circle of
disappointment about feeling discontent.
At the firm level, HR could create mid-career mentoring programs. Mentoring is
usually directed at early career stages and continues only informally through
the rest of the career. My findings suggest that those in a mid-career low can
learn from their older colleagues who already went through the valley and have
emerged feeling less regret, having adapted to life s circumstances. A
corporate culture that openly addresses mid-career discontent could support
employees in this reorientation process, helping them explore new opportunities
within the firm.
While a mid-career crisis can be a painful time in life, it can also be an
opportunity to reflect and to reevaluate personal strengths and weaknesses.
Whether you choose to wait out the discontent, or make a drastic change in the
hopes of a brighter tomorrow, rest assured that this too shall pass. Take heart
if you find yourself in the depths of this U-shaped curve, because things can
only look up from here.
Hannes Schwandt is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton
University s Center for Health and Wellbeing after completing his PhD in
Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and the London School of
Economics. He will join the University of Zurich as assistant professor of
Economics in August 2015.