Interrupted Transitions: Bridge Employment between Digital Inclusion, Active Ageing and Emerging Organisational Vulnerabilities

This study examines how population ageing and digitalisation are reshaping later-life work, focusing on bridge employment between the end of a main career and full retirement. It argues that the spread of non-standard and platform-based work, accelerated by COVID-19, creates new vulnerabilities behind narratives of flexibility. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with workers aged 60+, the analysis explores motivations for post-retirement work, perceived digital barriers, and coping strategies. Findings show retirement is increasingly experienced as a transition in which autonomy, social usefulness, and professional identity are renegotiated. Digitalisation is a major source of exclusion, driven not only by skill gaps but also by stereotypes and organisational cultures that devalue older workers. A clear mismatch emerges between inclusion-oriented discourse and workplace practice, with bridge workers often confined to peripheral roles and limited development. The study contributes to Italian debates on post-retirement employment by linking active ageing, digital transformation, and organisational change. It calls for age-sensitive policies and HR strategies that prioritise digital literacy, intergenerational knowledge exchange, and genuine inclusion in hybrid labour markets.