Is my boss right?

Sounds like your boss's boss walked by you and saw you weren't doing anything so he ripped your boss a new one for not using the intern.

If this is all life is about, paperwork from 9 to 5 at a job you hate where the best part of your day is clocking out and going home, corporate jobs seem like a 1 way ticket to a mediocre couple of decades riddled with boredom and depression

I'm assuming you're an intern. You are there a relatively short amount of time. It takes a year or more in most industries for an employee to become somewhat self directed. So dealing with an intern becomes difficult for your boss.

You really should be checking in with him multiple times a day asking for more work if you run out of tasks to do. Your boss is busy with all his normal work, plus has this kid he has do think about now. In a perfect world, he would remember to make time for you without prompting. But in the real world, you need to keep reminding him.

If he is struggling to come up with with for you to do, ask him if any of his other team members have something you can help them with. Or ask him if one of the other supervisors that he works along side have some filler projects that you could work on in the mean time.

The worst thing you could do is sit an wait for a project without asking every few hours for something to do.

Also, if you see something that could be done, bring it up, even if it seems trivial and like busy work. It is better that you spend an hour of an otherwise empty day organizing the printer room layout or something than doing nothing. He is more likely to remember to give you a meaningful assignment if he sees you doing something positive.

If he gets the impression that you don't care enough to look for work for yourself, he is going to let you go to the bottom of his priority list and may never find something for you to do.

collegefreshmanrunner wrote:

If this is all life is about, paperwork from 9 to 5 at a job you hate where the best part of your day is clocking out and going home, corporate jobs seem like a 1 way ticket to a mediocre couple of decades riddled with boredom and depression

yep, thats life. get used to it. find a good hobby, like running, to enjoy.

collegefreshmanrunner wrote:

If this is all life is about, paperwork from 9 to 5 at a job you hate where the best part of your day is clocking out and going home, corporate jobs seem like a 1 way ticket to a mediocre couple of decades riddled with boredom and depression

Well, if that's your expectation, that's what you'll get.

You are in control of yourself - so choose what you want to do, and set your expectations on that. For instance, if you want to work the "traditional" route of business, and move up through the ranks, then yes, some of what you'll do is mundane - and YOU will have to seek out other things to make it better.

Sure, you can sit in your cube and draw a paycheck; but if you really want to move up the ladder, you do actually have to go seek for more interesting stuff.

When I was in your position, I asked my boss - when I had some extra time - what was something he always wanted changed, but didn't have time...or asked him what keeps him up at night (figuratively of course). Then, see if you can work on something there. When you consistently seek to improve things, eventually people will notice and you'll get the better assignments than your peers who just sit and wait.

Just showing up and expecting to wait for something good to be thrown your way isn't much of an existence.

If you're seeking a more non-traditional route through business, you may want to take a look at something more small business related where you have to do a multitude of tasks, some fun, some scary, and some mundane.

If you already hate "clocking in" as you say, you may want to stay away from larger corporate life; because that usually comes with some kind of time commitment where you do need to actually come in at a certain time, and put in a good 9-12 hours.

If you want to work 9-5, especially early in your career where you're low man on the totem pole, I'd expect that you won't like your job much because others will get the better assignments; because they're known for putting in the time to do a quality job, vs. the person who just wants to get by and puts in the minimal effort.

You were right, I am an intern, and duly noted. Thanks for the advice, my supervisor knows I am a college student and I only have 1 more month at the company before I have to focus on college completely and pick the internship back up in the summer. I really want to just get more experience and I have to take it into my own hands to get it. Heading to his office as soon as he is back from his lunch break.

Update: just went to his office and asked if he had anything for me to do. After all that he says, "he'll get back to me." Ridiculous.

Well, guess it's time to look through random threads created by the430miler and jamin

collegefreshmanrunner wrote:

If this is all life is about, paperwork from 9 to 5 at a job you hate where the best part of your day is clocking out and going home, corporate jobs seem like a 1 way ticket to a mediocre couple of decades riddled with boredom and depression

The best part of the day at any job is clocking out and going home. Its just orders of magnitude better at corporate office jobs. Figure out what you want from life - an interesting job, money, or to be challenged. Any kind of corporate office work is not going to be enjoyable except for the first couple months of your career.

Yes, your boss was right. You shouldn't be doing school work at your job. If you don't have something to work on, email your boss so there is record of it. Then spend your time learning something that is directly related to your job.

It sounds like your company is overstaffed and they don't really need you. That is not fun for a boss either because he has to constantly be looking for work to give out.

Kvothe wrote:

The best part of the day at any job is clocking out and going home. Its just orders of magnitude better at corporate office jobs. Figure out what you want from life - an interesting job, money, or to be challenged. Any kind of corporate office work is not going to be enjoyable except for the first couple months of your career.

Wow...that's not the way I'd want to go through life. Those three things are not mutually exclusive.

I enjoy my job; the product we design and develop is pretty cool, saves lives, and the people I work around I actually like to be around. We all work hard to make the company successful.

It's definitely within a "corporate" culture; but we make it fun, so we actually do enjoy working together, making good money on challenging and interesting projects. It's up to us to make it that way though; as we could certainly "settle" and make ok money doing less interesting stuff. We just choose not to.

Take some responsibility for where you are in your career and change it if you need to.

collegefreshmanrunner wrote:

Update: just went to his office and asked if he had anything for me to do. After all that he says, "he'll get back to me." Ridiculous.

Well, guess it's time to look through random threads created by the430miler and jamin

Start taking initiative. If he doesn’t have anything, ask others in the area if they need some help. Follow up with your boss to let him know what you are up to and who you are helping.

Don’t just rely on your boss to assign you a task to complete.

Hi guys, OP here. Another day at the office (I get here before my boss, as usual) I finish up my most recent assignment. I wait until I see the light on in his office before I stop by to drop the papers off. When I speak with him he says "Thanks" and that he will give me more work in a few minutes. That was over an hour ago. Last time I did personal work I was basically told not to let that happen again, so how do I keep busy if I can't do company nor personal work?

P.S. Helping others in the office is out of the question as they're busy with their own work and do not want to be interrupted. (This building is notoriously quiet and everyone keeps to themselves).

You said it yourself earlier:

what should I do then wrote:The third assignment I was having a bit of trouble on since I never used the program before, and this time didn't have anyone to help me. My boss had someone else complete it last week.

Go learn that program. Be resourceful. You have the internet. Unless it is some completely home grown system, someone out there has used it and created a user's guide. Or the company has one for it. Or better yet, if they don't have one, work on creating one with the help of a current user at the company.

First of all chill the hell out. You're an intern. Don't worry about it. interns aren't supposed to be doing high level work unless it's a semester long project directly related to your major while at work. This is something you could ask for....the ability to do a research project at this place that would impact your studies. This would give you alot of freedom.

Example: I'm a City Planner. When I interned for County Planning agencies, if there was nothing to do i would ask them If I could explore an issue not covered in their comprehensive plan like sustainable infrastructure ideas for parks....I then took this project and used it in one of my environmental planning courses to show real world experience. This turned into a semester long project at the internship and I presented it to the staff at the end.

Also, ask to go to meetings! I constantly shadowed and went to public/internal meetings. People actually like taking interns along to introduce them to people. It makes them seem more important/prestigious.

Don't just make copies all day. You're an intern with a bright future.

I'll add to this. I don't know your major. Please tell me. If your internship is like crazy black and white Office Space culture then find another one. Use this intern time to see how meetings work agendas etc. Find a government related agency they have the best intern friendly experiences. If your major is Comp Sci then you can find plenty of Google style cultures that would love inters. If your major is business and your currently working for like Deer Park's corporate office or w/e and don't like it then change your major.

Thanks for the replies, I will definitely be doing those things to become more and more efficient.

I'll add even further. If my interns wanted to work on college work at an internship I wouldn't give two shits, I'd actually be happy they were working on college work if there was nothing to do. Hell I used to do the same thing. Now if it's paid and has strict duties that's different. Tell your boss to screw off. Sounds like he doesnt value education.

collegefreshmanrunner wrote:

If this is all life is about, paperwork from 9 to 5 at a job you hate where the best part of your day is clocking out and going home, corporate jobs seem like a 1 way ticket to a mediocre couple of decades riddled with boredom and depression

"Before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood. After enlightenment, carry water, chop wood." Congratulations Grasshopper. You have grasped what it takes many a lifetime to understand.

what should I do then wrote:

Hi guys, OP here. Another day at the office (I get here before my boss, as usual) I finish up my most recent assignment. I wait until I see the light on in his office before I stop by to drop the papers off. When I speak with him he says "Thanks" and that he will give me more work in a few minutes. That was over an hour ago. Last time I did personal work I was basically told not to let that happen again, so how do I keep busy if I can't do company nor personal work?

P.S. Helping others in the office is out of the question as they're busy with their own work and do not want to be interrupted. (This building is notoriously quiet and everyone keeps to themselves).

My dad told me to look busy at work. If you're doing personal work you'll look busy. But you can't acknowledge that's what you're doing so have some line ready to go that will make you seem busy, e.g., "I was going over that report I sent you yesterday again."