# I had to send my intern home today **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856 "2016-04-01T18:26:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/61 "2016-04-07T18:51:37Z")
Because a “real business” would never accommodate a serious medical disability, even that of an intern? ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/62 "2016-04-07T18:59:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Enjoy your well-earned hail and farewell party. The margarita was the size of my head. It was a good farewell. > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Does this guy have some kind of internship coordinator or liaison at the school/college he is attending? In other words, did he set up this internship all by himself, or is there a relationship between your company and the educational institution? > If there is a business/educational institution relationship, I would urge you to connect with this student’s program to let them know what has transpired. It’s important for them to be in the loop on this. It’s done through the school, and every semester there’s a end-of-semester review that the employer is supposed to fill out. I’ve written up my comments and left them with my boss to enter, since the form isn’t available until the last week of the semester. > [@bucketybuck](#): > > Do you work for a real business, or some sort of charity? I work for a business populated by human beings and not robots. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/63 "2016-04-07T19:38:15Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Then I mentioned the sleeping. Especially after how being warning about it multiple times and being sent home last week he was zonked out right before his review. This is when he decided to drop the bombshell that he’d be diagnosed with some disorder and was only getting 3 hours of sleep a night. That’s hard, but I reminded him that the professional thing to would be to let us know you have a medical issue (don’t have to tell us what it is), and we would have been fine with letting him come in late, leave early, hell he could even clock out and take a nap in his car if that’s what he needed, but just deciding to pass out in his cube while on the clock is totally unacceptable. My boss chimed in to say that while we want to work with any issues an employee might have, it’s a two-way street and you have to let us know there’s an issue and that you’re not just blowing us off. > [@bucketybuck](#): > > Do you work for a real business, or some sort of charity? > [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > I work for a business populated by human beings and not robots. The way you stated it made it sound like you would be OK with the guy showing up at the crack of 10, taking a two hour nap at noon, and going home at 4… Did you mean to include an “or” in your lost of possible accommodations? E.g., you could give flexible hours to accommodate health issues, including arriving late OR leaving early OR taking a long break in the middle of the day (OR working part time.) ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/64 "2016-04-07T20:20:37Z")
Obviously there’s some kind of limit. If he was only going to put in 7 hours a week that wouldn’t be ok. If he was scaling back to 30-35 hours or adjusting his work schedule that would probably be fine. Somewhere in between we might have to run past legal since I’m not sure where the “reasonable accomodation” line would be in this situation. It’s something we’d work with my boss and HR (by HR, I mean, the person that happens to do HR-type stuff in addition to other duties - it’s a small company). We would have tried to accommodate as possible, as long as we weren’t being taken advantage of. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/65 "2016-04-07T20:39:40Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > The way you stated it made it sound like you would be OK with the guy showing up at the crack of 10, taking a two hour nap at noon, and going home at 4… > > Did you mean to include an “or” in your lost of possible accommodations? E.g., you could give flexible hours to accommodate health issues, including arriving late OR leaving early OR taking a long break in the middle of the day (OR working part time.) This is why I love working for one of the “best places to work in America.” We have several massage chairs and a “meditation” room which is basically a nap room. Not two hours, but 20 minutes can be very refreshing. I was recently (within the last year) diagnosed with a medical condition, and in a bit of defense of the intern… I don’t know why but I was hesitant to tell anyone about it. One major symptom is major fatigue. It took me a while even though I knew it was hereditary, but I finally fessed up and let everyone know that I wasn’t out partying the night before (quite the opposite). I also have to go in for a treatment each week that requires me to leave three hours early. It is basically a modern day leaching. My work has no problem with the accommodation… I can VPN from home and as long as I get my work done they don’t mind if I come in a bit late, leave early, or go to the “meditation” room. ETA: one difference though is I’ve been there 28 years. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/66 "2016-04-07T20:45:12Z")
> [@](#): > > We would have tried to accommodate as possible, as long as we weren’t being taken advantage of. You tiptoed around the guy putting his feet up and going to sleep when he was supposed to be working, you accommodated your employee as he didn’t do his work and didn’t complete his projects. You were taken advantage of. There is helping your employees and then there is the reality that most businesses would not accept that behavior for one second, what must your other staff think to see somebody sleeping at work without any real censure? By your own words, any employee could just claim to have a disorder and without having to explain what it is would be allowed to duck out for a nap whenever they felt like it. Thats why I ask do you work for a business, because no business I know would tolerate that. It is good practice to help your employees and keep them happy, but it is possible to go too far and hurt your business by allowing unacceptable behaviors. As a manager, I genuinely think you could perhaps evaluate your own performance here and whether you were far, far too soft in dealing with this employee, to the detriment of everybody. It certainly didn’t help him in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/67 "2016-04-07T20:58:10Z")
> [@](#): > > but I reminded him that the professional thing to would be to let us know you have a medical issue (don’t have to tell us what it is), and we would have been fine Really? Back when I worked in the rat race, you DID NOT tell your boss about any medical issues unless you needed to file for medical leave. They would find some way to get rid of you if you had a medical condition that interfered with your work. They wouldn’t say it was because of the condition, but they’d come up with something. They’d even get rid of people who actually used all of their allotted sick days every year. The said you had 14 days, but not really. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/68 "2016-04-07T22:50:31Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > You tiptoed around the guy putting his feet up and going to sleep when he was supposed to be working, you accommodated your employee as he didn’t do his work and didn’t complete his projects. You were taken advantage of. > > There is helping your employees and then there is the reality that most businesses would not accept that behavior for one second, what must your other staff think to see somebody sleeping at work without any real censure? > > By your own words, any employee could just claim to have a disorder and without having to explain what it is would be allowed to duck out for a nap whenever they felt like it. Thats why I ask do you work for a business, because no business I know would tolerate that. > > It is good practice to help your employees and keep them happy, but it is possible to go too far and hurt your business by allowing unacceptable behaviors. As a manager, I genuinely think you could perhaps evaluate your own performance here and whether you were far, far too soft in dealing with this employee, to the detriment of everybody. It certainly didn’t help him in the long run. You know this guy was an intern right? I have never seen a situation in which an employer has exactly the same expectation of an intern as for a regular employee. Part of the assumption usually is that: 1. this person is just being introduced to professional life for the first time and won’t necessarily understand what behavior is expected without being told 2. The employer will make an effort to guide the intern when he or she goes wrong, but no one expect genuine disciplinary action except in dire circumstances, such as actual criminal activity 3. If, in the end, all the guy wants to do is good off then why go through the anguish of disciplining him like an employee? He’ll be gone by the end of the term anyway. It’s up to him to make the most of the opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/69 "2016-04-07T22:54:09Z")
We just fired someone (not an intern) for similar behaviors as you’re describing. He was an alcoholic and was coming in hungover, leaving in mid-day and never coming back, sleeping at his desk all afternoon, etc. Similar pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/70 "2016-04-07T23:11:55Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Thats why I ask do you work for a business, because no business I know would tolerate that. It is like the 1950’s is scolding us and telling us to get off or their lawn. I work for a Fortune 500 company. I can at any time if I feel like I need to on one of the three days I go into the office… play Foosball, play ping pong, take a yoga class, work out in the fitness center with a personal trainer, play video games, relax in a massage chair, “meditate” for 20 minutes, watch a bit of whatever is on one of the many big screen TV’s while sipping a latte, play basketball, attend a presentation often on cultural awareness or woman’s issues, etc., or enjoy a nice meal prepared by professional chefs, or visit the Nurse Practitioner if I’m not feeling well. Every few weeks I can enjoy a band, and in the summer there are cookouts and farmer’s markets. This doesn’t include the “big” celebrations. Our productivity has never been better. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/71 "2016-04-08T00:35:37Z")
There are lots of evil sweatshops in America. But if you have anything on the ball in your industry you’re a goof to stay at a sweatshop. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/72 "2016-04-08T01:52:09Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > It is like the 1950’s is scolding us and telling us to get off or their lawn. > > I work for a Fortune 500 company. I can at any time if I feel like I need to on one of the three days I go into the office… play Foosball, play ping pong, take a yoga class, work out in the fitness center with a personal trainer, play video games, relax in a massage chair, “meditate” for 20 minutes, watch a bit of whatever is on one of the many big screen TV’s while sipping a latte, play basketball, attend a presentation often on cultural awareness or woman’s issues, etc., or enjoy a nice meal prepared by professional chefs, or visit the Nurse Practitioner if I’m not feeling well. Every few weeks I can enjoy a band, and in the summer there are cookouts and farmer’s markets. > > This doesn’t include the “big” celebrations. > > Our productivity has never been better. uh huh. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856/73 "2016-04-08T03:45:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > uh huh. Not quite sure what this means, but I guess my response is “yup.” Google “best places to work” or SAS working conditions, or Google Work benefits. These are just a few of the examples. Also try a search on Nap Rooms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-to-send-my-intern-home-today/750856.md?page=3)