A TikToker has gone viral and sparked debate after posting a video calling out interns who are given little work to do.
“POV: you’re an intern vibing bc they gave you a week to do a task which took you 30 minutes to complete,” the video’s text overlay reads, with a clip of Horace dancing in front of a laptop on a video call.
The video, posted by user Angelo (@pmgelo), has users from across the platform sharing similar stories from their time in internships, leading to a discussion about the purpose and usefulness of internships in general.
The TikTok currently has over 1.7 million views.
@pmgelo i keep seeing tiktoks from interns that have no work to do #intern #summerintern #law #finance #tech ♬ Feel No Ways – Drake
Paid interns receive an average of $20.76 per hour, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. However, not all internships are paid—creating a rift between students that are able to accept unpaid roles and those who can’t in order to financially support themselves.
Regardless of whether or not they are paid, interns sometimes lack tasks and responsibilities, which Angelo noted in his caption.
“I keep seeing tiktoks from interns that have no work to do,” Angelo claims.
Commenters seem to back up this idea, with several users chiming in to offer their tales from the workplace.
“My job is to copy and paste text for 8 hours and it’s virtual so I just nap for 4 hours,” one user wrote.
“Me sitting at my desk doing nothing because I did it last week and my boss is on vacation so there are no tasks to do,” another added.
“I used to play games on my computer bc they would say they would. check what I’ve done in a sec and then take a full day to check it,” a third recalled.
“The amount of times per week I have to ask for work I swear,” a fourth claimed.
While many users stated that they were not actually utilized during their internships, they also noted that they tried their best to appear like they were working.
“Honestly looking busy is more stressful than actually working,” one commenter offered.
“My favourite is walking round with some paper to look like in carrying an important document,” a further user detailed.
In contrast, some said their internships were grueling, requiring many hours of work.
“Where did everyone find these,” one user asked. “my internship had me working weekends to catch up.”
“My internship had me working like a full time employee,” another highly-favorited comment read.
“Bro I got the opposite issue, i’m drowning over here,” an additional user wrote.
There were even some managers who jumped into the comments to explain how interns should respond to feeling like they have little to do.
“As an intern manager I’m sorry but enjoy the free time,” a commenter shared. “We just have work to do and don’t have time to make more tasks lmao.”
We’ve reached out to Angelo via Instagram.
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