An accident, an illness, a traumatic experience. There are countless reasons why an employee drops out and can sometimes no longer do the work he once did. Everyone can imagine something about that. It sounds strange that it is increasingly the younger employees who drop out these days, but it is true. Labor expert Tom Verleijsdonk increasingly sees young people who can no longer cope with work.
Occupational health expert Tom comes into the picture when someone is absent for a long period of time and may not even be able to return to the work he was doing. Tom looks at what is possible. “I am convinced that everyone who wants to work and can still work will also find work,” says labor expert Tom Verleijsdonk.
“Young people are constantly on, older people can dose better.”
In the podcast ‘Am I still counting?’, three colleagues from Omroep Brabant put it to the test. They started applying for jobs. Hans Janssen and René van Hoof are over 60. Colleague Femke de Jong has had MS for 23 years, which entails some limitations. In the fourth and final episode, labor expert Tom talks about his work and solutions for employees who drop out. You will also hear whether the three colleagues still count in the current labor market.
Tom is looking for the reason why young people drop out these days in the 24-hour society. “Young people, in particular, are always on. They don’t want to miss anything and participate in everything. Thanks to their mobile phone, they are always available. Work and private life therefore overlap. The difference with the elderly is that they often have a stable environment with a home, relationship, permanent job and experience do not invalidate. Older people have already been through a lot and are better able to put things into perspective and dose.”
“Employers often think along and try to support their employees.”
“My biggest achievement is that I had an office chair made for an employee that can easily be moved to a reclining position with a desk and computer,” says Tom. “This employee could not sit for more than 20 minutes and will now do his work lying down.”
Tom notices in practice that most employers are quite willing to think about solutions. In this case it was also nice that a furniture maker helped think about how something like this could be made. “It is really not the case that employers think ‘I will look for a new employee without restrictions’.”
“There is no standard solution, no one is the same, everything is tailor-made.”
Some limitations are easy to solve. “Then someone no longer works eight hours a day, but four,” says Tom. “Every employee with a disability requires a tailor-made solution. So I cannot say what the most commonly used solution is.
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