Netizen asks if he should fire his NTU interns since they take 2 to 3-hour lunch breaks and refuse to follow work schedules set by the office

SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user who wrote that he was having a difficult time with interns from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) asked if he should fire them since he is getting complaints from his boss and colleagues that they are not responsive.

The interns are in the middle of a 10-week program that ends mid-next month. He has reminded them repeatedly and even visited NTU’s internship office, but to no avail, u/Trueplue wrote on r/askSingapore on Thursday (June 8).

Among his issues with the interns are the following: two to three-hour lunch breaks, slow response times on WhatsApp, not acknowledging assigned work, and the expectation that the employees will match their schedules instead of conforming to what the office sets.

“They do not seem to value work as being important. They have ignored work assigned to them by my boss and other department heads until I had to call them,” the post author wrote, adding, “Despite me telling off the interns on their work attitude, they have threatened me and told me to tell their school to release them early for internship if I am so unhappy.”

He added that he also has an intern from Singapore Management University (SMU), who is doing quite well, unlike the NTU students.

Should I fire my NTU interns
by u/Trueplue in askSingapore

Several commenters replied that the interns should be sacked.

Others offered alternate suggestions to discipline the students.

“Don’t let them clear the internship in this manner, it actually sets them up for failure in future,” warned another.

One said there might be repercussions if the post author comes down too hard on the interns.

Some commenters, however, seemed doubtful that the whole story was being told.

/TISG

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