Should I leave my unpaid internship now?

LegacyUser

Basically I'm in a situation at work where I don't know what to do and I'm stressed out. I am a college student who has been interning at a company since the start of summer unpaid. It was explained initially when I went for the interview that I was going to be paid for my work, which I was okay with me as I assumed I wouldn't have to work any over time. The company involves travelling to different parts of the city and working long hours. The first event I had to get a taxi to over the 2 days and I worked long hours from 7am to 9pm. Over the course of the next couple of months I became extremely stressed out and found myself not liking the work. At one point I was given the task which took me a while to complete. My boss was extremely frustrated and told me "This is utterly ridiculous, why are you spending so much time on this?" The boss was stressed out when this was said but given that I am an anxious person, this placed a huge amount of pressure on me as I was desperate to do a good job.

Eventually I was fed up of being treated like a real employee but with no reward and started missing days. I was reprimanded and warned that I was being issued a strike warning and the college was contacted. I have not missed a day since August. Since August, things improved immensely however we travelled to another part of the city in October to work. I worked well over 70 hours that Week, which more than made up my absent hours. My internship required me to do 24 hours a week however my employers said I could do 20 and make up the extra 4 in outside office hours.

The last few weeks have been tough as I feel there's a lot of pressure on me to do s good job. There's been times
When I feel like crying in work as I feel mentally and physically exhausted and it's now gotten to a stage where I can barely afford bus money. It hasn't been all bad and I've really enjoyed some of the work I've done and it's fantastic experience. I've also been told I'm very good st certain tasks and and that I've impressed them.


My boss told me yesterday that they expected to stop until the day before Christmas Eve. We are really busy at the moment so I am working 7 days in s row including Saturday's and Sundays without a break. I've also been averaging over 30 hours the last 3 weeks. My internship stipulated that I should work just over 450 hours over the 6 months which I have now worked up. I have been mulling over whether to bring this up with my boss. I am working for free and i could also really use the time to spend on my disserstion. I am nervous to broach the subject with my
employers as they fully expect me to commit until the 23rd of December, although I am technically
finished.

I don't mind staying on but I would need to be paid as it's just unsustainable for me now. Many thanks in advance

woodchuck

Is the internship a requirement for the college course you're doing? If so, I'd go speak to whoever is in charge of this at your college. They should be able to clarify things for you.

If you've committed to being there until the 23rd though, it's likely you'll have to see that out. Your main aim here should be to walk away with a good reference. It's already looking bad that they issued a strike warning, so personally I wouldn't give them any more reasons to get further into their bad books. While I agree that you were being taken advantage of, it was a very poor move on your part to just not show up. I know it's too late now, but that's when you should have gone to your college for support.

All you can do now is focus on the time that you have left and your college will be in the best position to advise. If you do have to stay until the 23rd, maybe it can be arranged that you do reduced hours or just focus on completing specific tasks. You've only a couple of weeks left, so I'd stick your head down, get the work done, and look forward to when it'll be over.

Also you mentioned having to pay for taxis as part of the job. Can you claim back expenses for that? I'd be surprised if you can't, but you'd need to see what kind of policy they have in place where you're doing the internship. To be honest I wouldn't hold out hope of getting paid - even if this was possible, by the time they make a decision and sort out the paperwork you'd be finished anyway.

Mr. Incognito

Speak to the college.

They are taking the piss.

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This post has been deleted.

I Am_Not_Ice

Definitely raise this with the college. Your "employers" are exploiting you plain and simple, and it sounds like they've become quite adept at it - they've probably been getting away with this craic for quite some time. This is another example of why unpaid internships should be banned - they're often nothing more than slave labour masquerading as work experience; it is nothing short of immoral.

LegacyUser

Echoing what others have said OP. If this is something needed for college then there should be very clear guidelines on what is expected of you set down by the college. At the very least your costs ie transport and food should be covered. Usually for college courses internships are meant to be short placements (12 weeks normally) and you should be mentored by someone as after all you are there learn and you shouldn't be put under the sort of pressure you are describing and be solely responsible for jobs. My company takes on interns and we have very strict rules on what they should and shouldn't be doing. We would never put them in charge of projects or give them tasks to do that impact the work full employees are doing. They never work more than 20 hours a week, are here for 12 weeks and are paid. Yes they get coffee etc but we make sure they get time to shadow people and learn which is the whole reason they are there.

You need to speak to someone at your college about this. If they require you to do this then they have a responsibility to monitor what is going on to make sure students aren't being exploited

Sephiroth_dude

Surely the way they have treated you is illegal?

uck51js9zml2yt

If you are obliges to do 24 hours a week and they are expecting you to do 70, then you need to contact the college.
The company is breaking the rules.,
Most of these internships need o be completed to pass that module of the course.
Dont give it up but talk to the college....soon

Tenigate

Op, I had to leave a job before, simply because I worked too many hours, didn't set proper work/life boundaries, and my workplace just kept piling on the work. They had a hiring freeze and had decided to cut staff numbers. It was nothing to them if my health suffered in the meantime.

I think short-term thinking will be your downfall too. You busted yourself by working long hours. You feel like there's a lot of pressure on you and you're probably wrong - you're an intern. I'd bet most of the pressure is in your mind. Your obligation is to work a 24 hr week until 23rd December, and you're trying to get out of it early because you can't cope. Please don't take that as criticism. Take it as an opportunity to step back and do some serious reflection on what went right in your internship and what went wrong. You want to learn from this experience so you don't repeat the same mistakes when you begin a paid job in your professional career. Learn to be calmer, have reasonable expectations, and establish boundaries when dealing with people & managing your time.