It's a sunny weekday lunchtime at a city cafe and two women are sitting together. They're a shade too professional to be ladies who lunch, and despite an age gap of about 20 years they don't look like mother and daughter. So what's the occasion? It's a working lunch, of sorts.
For close to two years Ainslie van Onselenand Amy Zancanaro have met to talk about everything from gender politics and ambition to managing change and juggling work and family. Both at Westpac, the pair are part of a mentoring program but they stress that the knowledge and support doesn't flow one way. Van Onselen, a senior executive, is convinced she learns just as much from Zancanaro, a recent graduate, as the other way around.
Just as the newly released movie, The Intern, shows Anne Hathaway's digital savvy character learning some broader life skills from a much older Robert De Niro, van Onselen says the scope of the mentoring has been much wider than she had expected.
The key messages van Onselen has tried to bring to the table include the importance of connections and networking and how to channel your ambition.
"Also the importance of being open minded. I was probably a bit fixated with my career early on and in hindsight I could have been more flexible."
She also emphasises the importance of "bringing your whole self to work". "If you have kids, you have kids, you don't have to hide it. If you have a parent-teacher interview, put it in your diary, let your team see that. Sometimes there are challenges in your life, you might have a sick mum … It's great to role model that to people too. "
As well as seeing each other in the workplace, the two women meet once a month, either for lunch or coffee, or often for a power walk in a scenic spot.
Van Onselen, a career lawyer for 20 years, now holds the global position of director of women's markets, inclusion and diversity at Westpac.
Confidence with technology and social media is perhaps the most obvious thing that GenYs can teach their baby boomer workmates, but van Onselen and Zancanaro's experience has shown there's a lot more to it than tips on Facebooking.
"One of the things Amy's taught me is the courage to talk about the future, to plan. When I was her age I didn't really think about how I would juggle work life, she has shown me that actually thinking about that and talking about it is so important. For me now it might be planning for that transition to how I want things to be when I'm 60."
Westpac was last year recognised by the federal government for its programs that champion older workers. These include the ambassadorial program, which brings back retired senior staff as mentors, and the Prime of Life Action group, providing training, education and networking for older workers. There is a parallel program for younger workers, the Youth Employment Action Group.
Another employer to back more mature, experienced workers is Dental Health Services Victoria. In the public dental sector, several schemes use older workers to train graduates in specialist clinical skills, as well as general leadership and broader topics such as working with patients and other health practitioners.
Dr Paula Bacchia, executive director of oral health leadership at dental services , said there was a strong culture in public dentistry of more experienced people providing leadership and support. The Clinical Oral Health Leadership program, to begin next year, will match dentists and dental specialists with senior mentors.
And at Bunnings, seeing younger people alongside much older workmates is not new. Willem Pruys, general manager of human relations, says in its early days the company quickly realised that no matter how much training they gave staff on products and services, there was no substitute for experience and knowledge gained over many years working in trades such as building.
About 35 per cent of the Bunnings workforce is over 50, many of them former builders, carpenters and plumbers, with the oldest worker aged 88.
"It's an exchange, 'you teach me about these weird gadgets that I'm frightened I might break if I push a button, at the same time I'm teaching you about how to be a decent person, how to deal with a difficult customer and some basic knowledge about how, say, to fix leaky toilets'."
