“Asked Him To Take Meeting Minutes. He Told Me It Lasted 53 Minutes”: Why Many Are Defending SG’s “Hopeless Intern”

One commenter opined: “Please be kind to these interns lah… their pay is peanuts and you didn’t end up with monkeys, literally. If we don’t give them a chance to make mistakes and learn, where is the future of Singapore going to come from?”

Another wrote: “I’m sorry OP but this is [on] you. With interns, you need to act as if they are babies who know nothing.” 

The same netizen, who also shared that they had dealt with interns who made them want to “rip their hair out”, suggested what the OP could have done instead, such as checking whether the intern was clear on the task, needed any help, or had any questions.

“I know some can really be CMI, gone case. But I think it’s also fair to give them the opportunity to learn. For some, it’s their first time in an actual working world and school can only do so much,” they added. 

Others also echoed that the intern should not be treated like someone with a few years of work experience, with one adding that “corporate lingo is not something taught in schools”. 

“How is it his fault when the instructions are vague? I mean at least he puts in the effort and performs the tasks unlike certain people who always take mc or slack off a lot?” asserted another netizen. 

One even shared that when they were new and asked to take minutes, they “straight up” asked their boss what it meant. Others suggested that the OP should have vetted the intern’s work, such as the email that needed to be sent out, and provided some basic training beforehand, even for newcomers, before assigning tasks.

In a nutshell, many agreed that working with an intern often involves a more hands-on, step-by-step guided process, where extra effort from the supervisor is required to ensure they complete tasks to the level expected of them. 

However, others believed the intern could have shown more initiative instead of taking instructions at face value.

Some joked that the intern would make a good addition to the Singapore Armed Forces, where he would excel at taking instructions word-for-word. Others said he could have asked for advice, or at the very least, Google, if he wasn’t a hundred percent certain about the task. 

“Please don’t tell him anything related to climbing the ladder at work, otherwise he will bring a literal ladder to the office,” joked one netizen. 

Some also felt that communication goes both ways, and while the OP could have checked if the intern understood the task, the intern could have also been more proactive in asking questions. 

In one of their replies on the thread, the OP also said they wished the intern had asked for clarification if they weren’t clear on the instructions.

Then there was a netizen who joked: “It’s like giving ChatGPT instructions.”

Photos: Pavel Danilyuk/ Pexels