Fall 2012 Internships:
Seminar 2 Make-up Assignment
During our second seminar, each student was asked to introduce himself/herself and tell us their internship employer location. Then, we explored unexpected challenges students have faced this semester and participated in case study discussions.The first few comments answered situation 1, which I've left at the end of this post. For upcoming responses, let's explore another potential workplace issue.
Please introduce yourself and your employer location, then share your thoughts on ways you think an employee might handle the following challenging situation:
SITUATION 1 - NEW COMMENTS NOT NEEDED ON THIS ONE - Great job everyone!
Marsha is excited about her first week in her new internship with Allen Inc., CPA firm. She is getting the opportunity to have hands-on work with preparation of client reports and learning a lot about client-firm privacy regulations. One challenge, though, has been that she has no idea when she is supposed to take a lunch break. She never sees a group going out to lunch or notices the office closing for lunch. She wonders if they all bring lunch or eat when out on calls to clients. A couple of the office staff do take a break, but not her direct supervisor or the other professional staff. She doesn't know whether to ask her supervisor, one of the clerical staff, or simply start taking a short break each day. For three straight days, she has skipped lunch entirely...after all, nobody else seems to take a set break, and they work from morning until evening. She thinks perhaps she isn't entitled to a break since her hours are only from 10:30-4:30 three days a week.
Is it realistic for Marsha to expect a break during her six-hour day as an intern? What can she do to resolve this question? Whom should she ask?
