search email community favorite this article chev-right latest posts article list comments tags video article login twitter facebook menu pinterest whatsapp

Manager realizes their "spoiled intern" is a nepo-baby: 'My boss wasn't defending an intern's performance. He was pleasing our client'

Advertisement
  • 01
    Boss talking to employee leans in and looks irritated.
  • Advertisement
  • 02

    Today I ****ed up by giving my intern a “shape up or you’re out” talk… and finding out he’s our biggest client’s kid

    I was new to a company. Our team got a new intern assigned to me. On paper he seemed fine. Smart school, decent LinkedIn, the usual. But his attitude was super casual.
  • 03
    I'd give him straightforward tasks. Clean up a comp sheet. Pull press releases and summarize key numbers. Fix formatting in a deck. But he would miss deadlines, send sloppy work, or disappear for half a day and pop back up with a vague excuse.
  • 04
    Once he just didn't show up for a morning call and later said he overslept. Meanwhile I'm covering for him, redoing his work, and looking incompetent by association.
  • Advertisement
  • 05
    After about a month of this, I hit my limit. I scheduled a serious one one. I kept it professional and firm. I told him the quality wasn't acceptable, the reliability was a problem, and if it continued I'd recommend ending the internship early. He nodded, acted
  • 06
    like he understood, said he'd do better. Just that night my boss. pings me to "hop on a quick call." The quick call turned into me getting absolutely cooked. He was furious and said I was impatient, emotional, not "mentor material,"
  • Advertisement
  • 07
    and that I made the work difficult. I was not the type of good cooperation. I was sitting there thinking: What?????? The next day the intern didn't come in. And my boss still looked very angry. When I greeted him, he ignored me. I was
  • 08
    so confused and frustrated. Later I was venting to a friend at another firm and I pulled up the intern's LinkedIn like "look at this guy." My friend went quiet for a second and goes, "Wait.
  • Advertisement
  • 09
    That's him." I was confused and asked, "What? Who?" And I know this spoiled intern is the child of an industry exec. My friend said the kid interned at their company before and everyone basically handled him with oven mitts.
  • 10
    Suddenly the whole month made sense in the worst way. My boss wasn't defending an intern's performance. He was pleasing our client. I also felt bad that he didn't told me about the truth. Now I'm stuck doing damage control
  • 11
    with a person who has zero reason to respect me, and I'm also trying to look "calm and coachable" while my brain is screaming. I genuinely thought I was managing performance.
  • Advertisement
  • 12
    Turns out I was accidentally kicking a hornet's nest with a client logo on it.
  • 13
    TL;DR: I didn't know the intern I was mentoring was our big client's kid. He had a bad attitude and missed deadlines, so I gave him a serious warning that we could end his internship early.
  • 14
    He ghosted the next day, my boss ripped into me for being impatient, and I only found out later through a friend that the intern is an exec's child and other offices basically babysat him.
  • Advertisement
  • 15
    Cheezburger Image 10606313728

Tags

Scroll Down For The Next Article
Show Comments
Next Article