She: “Are you on Facebook?” He: “I’ve been on Facebook for ten minutes.” She: “Better late than never.” This dialogue takes place in the film “You Never Stop Learning” with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. She plays Jules Ostin, CEO and founder of a successful online fashion company, while he plays Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widowed retiree who is bored. Jules hires Ben as an intern. But she has neither the time nor the inclination to take care of him, and Ben has to manage on his own in the modern digital working world. He gets help from the young employees, who initiate him into the secrets of computers and social media, among other things.
What happens there is called “reverse mentoring”. In “normal” mentoring, an experienced person – the mentor – passes on their specialist knowledge or experience to an inexperienced, usually younger person – the mentee. In reverse mentoring, young employees help their older colleagues in areas in which they have more knowledge and experience. On the one hand, this applies to digital technologies: How do certain computer programs and apps work, how do you put files in the cloud, how do you keep order in the e-mail and file jungle or how do you post on Facebook, Instagram and Co? On the other hand, corporate strategy or social issues: What does the younger generation want? How do I keep young colleagues in my company, how do I make my workplace attractive? What does the customer of tomorrow want? Why is a work-life balance important?