r/internships • u/SnooTomatoes7632 • 3d ago

During the Internship Is this an absurd amount of work?

I am an intern (un-paid) and work 16 hours a week (two full days). I have class or work every other day that I don’t intern.

Today at noon I met with my supervisor and she requested that I design a brand new PowerPoint with all the information on the original PP the company has. The formatting is pretty dated.

The PowerPoint is 80 slides long. She wants me to complete this within 5 hours. I’m 4 hours in now and have taken no breaks and have been able to complete 25 pages and I’m insanely exhausted from it and can’t imagine finishing this up within the time frame she requested. Is it okay for me to message her and tell her I don’t think I can get this done by 5?

17 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

12

u/Awkward-Meeting3741 3d ago

Wait they time you!? 💀

5

u/SnooTomatoes7632 3d ago

No. Our meeting ended around noon and my “shift” ends at 5 PM since it’s a 9-5 and I can’t stand spending other hours, outside of the 16 hours I already commit per week, working on this stuff.

6

u/Awkward-Meeting3741 3d ago edited 3d ago

That’s pure slavery, If I were you I’d find another internship while working on this one.

Edit: dont forget to slap on your work experience from this internship on ur resume.

7

u/deuruim_ 3d ago

This is so weird

7

u/Main-Hunt377 3d ago

If you are an intern you should be getting paid. Otherwise it is volunteer work. Treat it as such.

5

u/Oracles_Anonymous 3d ago

80 slides for 5 hours is pretty intense. It’s reasonable to ask for more time, especially since you’re doing it unpaid. Better to be honest about your limits now than surprise her with them after the fact.

Also, depending on the country you live in and how much educational benefit you’re getting out of this, the unpaid part of this internship might be illegal.

12

u/ctierra512 Junior 3d ago

absolutely tell her you can’t finish it all lmao you don’t even get paid she should be okay with that

3

u/JamesJohnBushyTail 3d ago

Communicate. Time to step up and admit you can’t do it in the time given. Take it on the chin. You can do it.

2

u/SnooTomatoes7632 2d ago

Thank you. I’ve definitely been a push-over and that’s part of the problem.

2

u/Ya-Boi-69-420 3d ago

Holy: unpaid internship full time is crazy.

2

u/Fragrant_Stuff_9714 21h ago

absolutely it's okay. She's not paying you, and a good workplace shouldn't force you into time crunches like this anyway.

1

u/Alternative_Let8538 2d ago

this is definitely absurd, even in my paid internship I had to work just a few hours each day like 3-4 hours and there were no fixed timings also for work

1

u/Link809 2d ago

if it's unpaid then you don't need to be doing all that. Unpaid should mean shadowing. I have had better flexibility in finance internships that pay well.