Why do aged care employees leave? Two explanations compared.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to compare the explanatory power of the dissatisfaction-based account of aged care employee turnover against that of Lee and Mitchell's (1994) unfolding theory of turnover.

Design/methodology/approach: Mixed method prospective cohort study with three waves of employee survey data and an exit interview drawn from employees of a large Australian not-for-profit aged care provider. Independent tests and mediated logistic regression analyses were conducted.

The importance of external social support for workplace-related stress as we grow older.

Objectives: For older employees, a mismatch between work and nonwork roles can lead to work-family conflict (WFC) and stress. This paper examines whether the availability of social support from outside the workplace can assist these employees in coping with the stress-related consequences of WFC.

Methods: This study used data from Waves 16 (Time 1) and 17 (Time 2) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (N = 2867).