Life Stages and Transitions

Life stages (childhood, teenage, young adult, middle age etc.) are easily recognised and carry implications for our work. Less is known about the transitions from one stage to the next. Each transition represents a shedding of previously held views and changes in our beliefs and needs. At a cellular level, the body renews itself constantly. We identify with the entity called ‘my body’ but there is hardly a cell that hasn’t been replaced multiple times during our lives and it should not surprise us when emotional and attitudinal changes affect us. The fundamental question is how we adapt to these changes. We can adapt, go with the flow and use the developmental opportunities on offer, or we can resist or deny the changes. Major surveys in the 1970s revealed common patterns between people, irrespective of background, as they worked through life stages. In Gail Sheehy’s research, it became clear that our ‘inner system’ knows when it is time to move on, as a child loses interest in a toy or a snake sheds its skin. Employers (having experienced their own transitions) need to be sensitive to this universal condition, anticipating and taking account of changes in individual staff members.