Despite the explorative nature of the research and its focus on a new subject which is the functioning of the unemployed in “alternative” working conditions, the results contributed to a better understanding of regulatory mechanisms of people's functioning in these conditions. The research conducted on a group of a hundred unemployed registered in district job centres in one of the regions of Poland was aimed at answering the question if flexible forms can be an employment alternative for people over 50.

There was used an explanatory research model in which one of the most important variable were the reasons for searching for a job of the over 50's with respect to the role of social support in unemployment and the contents of a psychological contract characterising the population in-question. For the analysis of the potential professional activity of people over 50 in flexible forms of employment there were used a satisfaction scale and a psychological costs scale of a so-far performed job, the perception of personal resources, the psychological dimension of flexibility and attitudes towards work. The research model also included two other variables: assertiveness, which is a basic social competence, and a sense of self-efficacy.

Considering a large research model, multiple hypotheses and the amount of results, there were chosen only the most important findings, necessary to understand the functioning of people over 50. The analysed correlations were aimed at answering the above mentioned question about the possibilities of the over 50's of undertaking employment in flexible forms.