Ageism and age stereotypes alive and well in movie The Intern

It was the last day of my vacation in Seattle and I suggested to a friend that it might be fun to go see a movie, something light and fun. And since I have a career blog and am concerned with issues of ageism, The Intern seemed a perfect choice.

Well, The Intern is light and does have some funny moments. But mostly the movie recycles one stereotype after another.

The writers needed a premise to get Robert DeNiro into this start up tech company as an intern. So instead of having him apply for a position based on skills, they had the company create special senior intern positions to raise their image; the Robert DeNiro character gets assigned to the Anne Hathaway character for the unlikely purpose of softening her edges.

When Robert DeNiro read his application letter, I whispered to my friend (I rarely talk in movies but this was a horror show), “This guy needs a career coach.” His letter was all about him: he was lonely and isolated and wanted to work. His forty-plus years of business experience? Irrelevant to him … and sadly, to the company as well.

The stereotypes continue when Robert DeNiro wears a suit and carries a briefcase, reinforcing the notion that seniors prefer traditional formality and refuse to adapt to corporate culture. The stereotype confuses aging effects with cohort effects.  Today’s sixty-year-olds grew up with a casual culture. They’re just as likely to wear jeans or leggings. I wear some version of sneakers everywhere.

And almost nobody carries a briefcase anymore, unless they’re lawyers or accountants or high-end consultants. Most people arrive at work with backpacks.

Of course Robert’s character doesn’t know how to use Facebook. What a stereotype! Lots of 70-year-olds are not only active on social media but also setting up WordPress blogs and editing movies. And some thirty-year-olds can barely handle their emails.

The Robert DeNiro character knows how to make himself useful in a new corporate setting, even if he’s ignored at first. He’s got business savvy, although the analyses he performs are pretty simplistic and the Hathaway character should be getting automated reports with fairly simple software. His people skills are so strong I’m afraid a new stereotype has emerged: the over-60 set now has to be wise and kind as well as humble, heroic and good with children. He even hops into an unfamiliar car and drives easily all over New York, something most people can’t do whether they’re twenty or ninety.

Meanwhile the Hathaway character has turned into a helpless, whiny stereotypical old-style female. Her life is out of control. She shares personal information inappropriately. But she’s got the main qualification to be taken seriously and run a company. She’s young and attractive.

The movie’s ending reinforces the worst stereotype of aging. Robert DeNiro began his internship eager to work. Like many people, he derived his life’s purpose from meaningful paid work, not volunteering or “leaving a legacy.” In our society, you don’t get taken seriously till you get paid for what you do.

Unlike other interns, DeNiro won’t be rewarded with a paid position in this company or anywhere else. Older adults – and “older” starts at forty-something in most places – just aren’t wanted. Employers might complain about their lack of technology skills, but they find reasons not to hire “mature” graduates of boot camp tech courses.

SPOILER ALERT (but it’s not a big deal and you probably won’t be surprised):

At the end, we see DeNiro heading back to retirement, relieved to re-join his morning tai chi class. He fits the stereotype. If he were a real person? Give him about 2 weeks and he’ll be wishing his internship had turned out to be a real job.

Imagine a movie with a gay hero who swishes onto the basketball court wearing makeup and discovering he can indeed make three-point shots … although he was brought onto the team as a gesture to diversity and a way to get livelier press coverage.

Imagine a movie with an African-American heroine who’s hired as an office temp, then uses her house cleaning skills (honed by years as a maid) to make the boss look good, serves watermelon on coffee break, introduces an office hip-hop competition (“got rhythm”) and insists on wearing African dress to work.

Ludicrous? Offensive? Yes. But so are movies about older people who can’t use computers and hang on to a 90s wardrobe.

Just a few years earlier,  ABC News ran an article, “And Now, the 50-year old intern,” by Alan Farnham. Read it here.

This article seems disturbing because it seems to reinforce norms supporting age discrimination.

The author refers to people 50 years and older as “aged newbies.”

ifty is hardly “aged.” Today’s 50-year-old was born in 1962. He or she can’t collect full retirement social security benefits for another 17 years. That’s hardly retirement age. This “aged newbie” can expect to live another 20 to 30 years, probably working the whole time.

Conley’s book actually reinforces the very thing he’s trying to attack – ageism. Conley defines himself and his relationship with AirBnB entirely in terms of age. He writes about taking on a new role in a youth-oriented company and getting a performance review from someone who’s thirty years younger. I winced when he reports asking someone, “Aren’t you old for an engineer?”

As an aside, Conley conveniently ignores the controversy surrounding AirBnB and its offerings. Millions of people have been displaced in urban areas as residential apartments become high-priced touristic AirBnBs. Just one AIrBnB can disrupt the community of a condo building or a block of single-family homes. There’s a reason hotels have trained managers and security forces. To be sure, some folks benefit from AIrBnB but we need to realize it’s a mixed bag.

The truth is, companies of all sizes have always brought in experienced advisors of all ages to serve as consultants and sometimes as managers. His role could be described without reference to age: he’ll be a consultant and his contribution is so great that the company will help him fill his knowledge gaps.

Conley’s not familiar with the nuts and bolts of tech because, in his previous job, he had people working for him to do those things. He doesn’t need to reach for a silly term like “mentern” to describe this role. In reality, today’s businesses are collaborative. If you don’t know something, you find someone who does. They might be older or younger; they just have to know what they’re doing.

Similarly, Conley’s tips on learning, counseling, and collaborating would apply to people at all ages. The founder of my coworking space, barely 35, would make many of the same observations.
Performance review? That’s a joke. If they don’t like his performance, he’ll gracefully bow out; it’s not like he needs the money or the status.

Anyway, Conley began his journey into elder hood at the age of fifty-two — an age where discrimination has begun to appear. It’s an age that’s not uncommon among senior executives or many kinds of professionals. Calling a fifty-something an “elder” seems a little silly.

In fact, the book seems to fall into the a new sub-genre of highly successful older people joining a millennial-dominated company. We saw this pattern, complete with stereotypes, in the movie The Intern and the book Disrupted. In all these narratives the senior male was the condescending sage and change agent, brought in my senior management solely because of his previous career status.

Conley references Meredith Maran’s book, The New Old Me. But Maran’s attitude is completely different. She wasn’t hired as a change agent and she attempted to fit in with the younger employees in her company. Her sardonic comments on her former coworkers seem based less on age than on the LA culture. As someone who’s lived all over North America, I can say that I had more trouble as a New Yorker adjusting to southern culture than as an “older” person adjusting to younger groups.

We will be truly age-agnostic when someone can apply for a position without having to be a sage or a wise old elder…just an ordinary person who will do the job. In any company, you’ll find people who like to socialize with each other and others — even the same age — who have different values and interests. They’ll get along on the job and who cares what they do on their own time? In any company you’ll find people who need extra consideration, whether they’re young parents, caretakers of relatives, or going through tough times.

I did find some good things. I love the quote from Eric Schmidt, the COO who told Sheryl Sandberg to “get on a rocket ship” and her career will take care of itself. The chapter on “counsel” is good for people of all ages. And some of the resources are quite good. Ironically, the selection of movies shows that people of different ages have teamed up for a long time.

Willie Nelson once said, “ I’ve known straight and gay people all my life. I can’t tell the difference,” We need more people to say, “I’ve worked with young and old people all my life. I can’t tell the difference.”

The article goes on to say, “some employers are happy hire to hire them–not just because they work cheap, but because they bring with them mature judgement and valuable experience.”

Translation: They’re working DOUBLE cheap. These companies recognize value but aren’t willing to pay for it.

Worst of all, the article doesn’t talk about what happens to these workers post-internships. Do internships really lead to new jobs? Or do employers take the cheap labor and say, “Thank you very much. Now we’ll hire another intern or a younger worker.”

What’s better: Try to find a way to create your own business. I recently talked to a neighbor who created a business of dog walking and cat sitting. She earns more now than she did as a teacher, even with extra taxes and expenses … and her work clothes consist of old jeans and sweatshirts.