While there is a growing tendency among present day retirees to engage in bridge jobs before their final exit from the labour force, limited academic attention is directed towards understanding the expectations and experiences of bridge employees. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted 26 semi‐structured interviews with bridge employees. After collecting and analysing the data, we found the lens of socio‐emotional selectivity theory helpful in better understanding the experiences and expectations of bridge employees. Bridge employees generally expressed preference for intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. In addition, bridge employees tended to favour part‐time work. However, even though bridge employees were satisfied with their work, benefits, and social interactions, some of them faced social disapproval for re‐entering workforce. To our knowledge, this paper is among the first exploratory qualitative studies in the human resource management field to investigate the expectations and experiences of bridge employees.

中文翻译：

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过渡员工：了解过渡员工的期望和经验

尽管当今退休人员在最终离开劳动力之前从事桥梁工作的趋势越来越大，但有限的学术注意力却集中在理解桥梁员工的期望和经验上。为了弥补文献中的这一空白，我们对桥梁员工进行了26次半结构化访谈。在收集和分析数据之后，我们发现社会情感选择性理论有助于更好地理解桥梁员工的经验和期望。过渡员工通常表示倾向于内在而非外在的奖励。此外，桥梁员工倾向于偏爱兼职工作。但是，即使过渡员工对他们的工作，福利和社交互动感到满意，他们中的一些人因重新进入劳动力市场而遭到社会的反对。据我们所知，本文是人力资源管理领域首批探索性定性研究之一，旨在调查桥梁员工的期望和经验。