Interns: Helpful or Not Worth the Trouble?

Confession: I love to eavesdrop and be nosey.  It started when I was a young girl sitting outside of my parent's bedroom listening to my mom talk on the phone with her friends. The neighborhood gossip, while completely over my head, intrigued my young mind.

Lately, I have been intrigued by our interns. I want to know what is going on in their unexperienced heads. I want to know why they aren't thrilled at the opportunity they have. I want to know why they don't follow instructions. Basically, I want to know why they suck. And they do, with the exception of one, suck. 

The interns have generic e-mails and sit at shared computers in closets, I mean workrooms. While looking for something in one of the said workrooms, I looked at the computer screen and noticed several e-mails from Intern 1 to Intern 3. Yes, I read them. They discussed how bored they were, complained that all they did was make copies and just couldn't wait to go home and sleep. Granted, I hadn't given them much to do that day, but they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. As an intern, there will be times you are bored and when this happens you have to be proactive. Ask if there is anything you can help with, do research on the company or industry, sit down with a coworker to find out more about their job. 

I was fairly pissed after reading the e-mails but I held in my anger. I couldn't go to my coworker who I manage the interns with and just tell her I read their e-mails. The next day, my coworker had a confession: She read the e-mails too! 

We immediately decided that some manual labor was in order. Intern 1 and Intern 3 were asked to clean and organize the promotion closet, which was about a clean as New York City subway station. This, like many of their other projects, was done poorly. Intern 2, our all-star intern, had to come in and redo their project. This, unfortunately, is becoming a trend. Our entire department wants to only give projects to Intern 2 and Interns 1 and 3 are left twiddling their thumbs because no one trusts them to do a good job. I've explained to them how to do certain projects as best I can and given them tips from when I was an intern. Nothing seems to stick with them.

And to top it off, Intern 1 was sick one day last week so she did not come into the office. Do you think she called or e-mailed to let anyone know? Nope. She said she didn't have our contact information. First of all, my coworker had given Intern 1 her business card the day before. Second of all, shouldn't she have this information from an e-mail about interviewing or something. And finally, she's been working for 4 weeks, only three days a week I might add, and she's taking a sick day? I've been working for 1 year and 2 months. I've taken ZERO sick days. She was probably hungover. Even I come in when I'm hungover and let's just say I'm known for my bad hangovers. 

I'm trying my hardest to get through to these interns, teach them the ins and outs of the industry, guide them in the direction of good work etiquette, help them be good interns. But they are just not getting it.