Camilo Salcedo Roa

Organizational Psychology
The Intern

Ben Whittaker is a hard working individual that is always ready to help in any way
he can, for him work was a way of getting out of the same routine that he had since his wife
passed away. He wanted to feel like was actually doing something different than playing
golf, doing yoga, and going to Starbucks. I thought that his identity was one of a man that
wants to make a change even if is a tiny one, like as soon as he started to work, Jules didn’t
gave him any work for a while because she felted that she didn’t need Ben, and he noticed
that that but his identity took him to keep helping the people around him, helping Davis
with his house situation, Giving advice to Jason about his relationship with Becky,
organizing the desk that was always messy, and making Becky feel that she was very
important for the company. Although he had to adapt in some ways to the culture of the
new generation like changing he’s flip phone, and even start an account on Facebook, he
managed to always help when help was needed.

Jules is a very inspiring women that built her company form the ground and took it
to a very successful place, even though she is hard working and is always searching for
ways to keep improving her company, I think that the meaning of work and identity are on
the same page for her and that is to save her personal relationship with her husband.
Throughout the movie she realizes that she can do both and manage a healthy and balanced
life. She also realizes it with the help of Ben because he always said the best advice to Jules
and she took that advice so that she could improve. Work had a lot of influence in Jule’s
life and not in a good way, with all the hours that she spent in the office and working, her
marriage was falling apart but fortunately she was able to make it work at the end. She also
had a bad relationship with her mother, but the movie doesn’t tell us more about that. For
Ben work had a huge influence in his life, he had already work for 40 years before he
retired. Work was freedom to him, he loved to work, and he loved to be surrounded by
people. He met Fiona during the internship; he met new friends like Davis, Lewis and
Jason, and met his new best friend, Jules.

For Ben was tough, he had already worked for 40 years before retiring and since his
wife passed away he felt alone. I think is totally normal for him to feel alone and that he is
stuck in that routine but it might be a good thing because when he saw the paper for the
internship he was eager to work again. Work was important to him, he started a new life,
new friends, he was dating again, he felt like he belonged and that was what matter to him,
I think his eager to work and help is the best part of his identity. For Jules work was as
important or a bit more important than her personal life so and its clear throughout the
movie how she tries to find a balance between both of them and that changes her identity in
a way that she could balance both aspect of her life in the correct way. Even though Jules’s
and Ben´s story are great, Becky’s story really caught my eye. She was always working,
she had little time for herself, and she was working for 14 hours straight every day.
Although she was doing so much, she felt that no one noticed that. Finally Ben tells Jules
how Becky is always working and that she did a great job with some research and people
started to acknowledge what Becky did for the company.

I think that these programs are great, they offer so much for both parties, and they
can exchange knowledge, work ethics and life experiences. Senior employees can help
young professionals by teaching them how to do a good job, share strategies, and the young
professionals can help senior employees by helping them to adapt into the newer culture
and to new technology. As Ben did, other senior interns could get that same experience,
where they can work again, help a company and feel like they belong there. I think that
another program that can be helpful is a program that includes young kids that could go to
companies and that there they can learn about the relation between work and personal
health so they can balanced both successfully.

References

Ardichvili, A., & Kuchinke, K. P. (2009). International Perspectives on the Meanings of

Work and Working: Current Research and Theory. Advances in Developing Human
Resources, 11(2), 155-167

Meyers, N., Farwell, S., Hathaway, A., De, N. R., Lavin, L., Russo, R., Warner Bros.
Pictures (2016). The intern.