Boss Shuts Intern Into An Office When She Tried To Quit After Being Asked To Do 3 People's Jobs—'Was I Too Aggressive?'
He told her she was too inexperienced to know what job was right for her.
creativepriyanka via CanvaPro, Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels Internships used to be a great way of getting your foot in the door of your prospective career, but over time, morphed into employers taking advantage of naïve workers. Recently, there has been a big push to make internships paid and equitable for students seeking their first post-college position. But that hasn’t stopped some companies from squeezing maximum work out of minimum salaries.
One woman took to the r/jobs subreddit to ask for advice on how to handle a workplace situation that occurred after she dared to end her internship. She shared her wild and scary experience in a post entitled, “Manager aggressively confronted me about my resignation.”
As an intern, she was covering three people's jobs.
She is employed by a small business and has been doing the equivalent of three full-time positions thus far. According to her, she was recently told she would need to add administrative/reception duties to her plate.
Thus far, the internship has been a bit of a nightmare. They've been late with her pay, they exclude her from important meetings and they do not value her. So, as you can imagine, the demand that she does even more work was a step too far and prompted her to draft a resignation letter that she submitted to her direct supervisor. Though disappointed, they “respected my position.”
Next, however, her supervisor's boss caught wind of her resignation and tried convincing her to stay, claiming he “was just about to discuss with everyone that I needed a permanent position with a higher wage.”
She didn't buy that and stood her ground. "Overall he was confused, despite knowing how they have messed up with me in the past, but accepted my decision and gave me well wishes," she says of that boss.
However, that wasn't the end of it. Instead of letting her leave in peace, the intern was faced with a final awkward run-in with a payroll manager at the company.
The two have no working relationship so, naturally, she was put off when he burst into her office, shut the door, and said "What the f-ck was that?"
He ranted about how her reason for leaving didn’t add up and accused her of being less than intelligent because she didn’t try to negotiate for more pay.
After the man accused her of being too inexperienced to know if a job was right for her, she told him, “I beg to differ” which prompted him to ball his fists up and grit his teeth in anger. The intern said his face reddened and she tried to calm him down by telling him the decision is not personal.
She said that, eventually, he noticed how uncomfortable she was and asked, “Was I too aggressive?” When she said he was, the out-of-line manager responded “Good” before walking out of her office.
If she was on the fence about leaving the company before, she was certain that it was time to go at that point. The experience left her shaken and afraid to get another job. But she was grateful for other Redditors who sent encouraging messages assuring her that the man’s behavior was not normal and should be reported.
In a subsequent post, the young lady gave an update, letting readers know she had emailed the supervisor, CEO, and HR department to let them know what had happened.
She said she was very respectful and honest, letting them know that she would be rescinding her notice period due to the circumstances. She received no response but found her access had been revoked when she attempted to check her email.
When payday came around, the woman did not receive her paycheck, despite waiting all day for it to be deposited into her account. Now she is in the process of filing a claim for unpaid wages with her state’s labor board. But she is still hurt by the dismissiveness of a company she had done so much for.
The woman did the right thing by being a hard worker and reporting the man's behavior and was rewarded with disregard. The experience has left her scarred and traumatized and she has vowed not to join the traditional workforce and instead will build her portfolio and work for herself.
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and author of seven books. She covers lifestyle and entertainment and news, as well as navigating the workplace and social issues.