It is supposedly your most dynamic decade, when you leap up the career ladder as older colleagues count down the days to receiving their carriage clock. But a new study explodes that office stereotype, finding angst-ridden thirtysomething employees are desperate to quit their jobs while sixtysomethings are happiest at work.

A survey by the Employers' Forum on Age, a body campaigning on age issues in the workplace, found that 93% of the over 60s like work, the highest percentage of any age group, compared with just 54% of thirtysomethings.

The results of the survey of 1,600 workers aged 16 to 69 appear to confirm growing perceptions that the traditional model of career progression no longer suits many employees.

While workers in their thirties are much less likely than other age groups to be bored at work, they are simply less willing to work at all.

The pressures for workers in their 30s juggling paid work often taking up more than 40 hours a week and, frequently, the demands of young families, lead to stress and a strong desire to cut down on working hours, according to the study, Age at Work.

The study concludes: "People of all ages are motivated to change and develop, but are being held back by an outdated idea of careers where young people start at the bottom and retirement is a cliff edge at the peak."

Far from rushing to retire, 30% of those in their 50s and 60s are happy to work until they are 70.

Brian Thorne, 67, managing director of Norwich Centre Projects and emeritus professor at the University of East Anglia, has found his work more fulfilling and his skills in greater demand now he can offer "the wisdom of accumulated decades". Like many of his sixtysomething professional peers, he has found it liberating to be freed from institutions - and from ambition. "When you are off the competitive conveyor belt, when you no longer have to impress somebody or look over your shoulder, there is an unexpected freedom. The number of people who discover their whole life has been riddled with anxiety is enormous."

Teenagers were the most likely of any group to say they experienced ageism at work, with a quarter of school leavers reporting discrimination compared with 21% of those over 50 and 18% of over 60s.