Issues with company - please help

[Double J]

I've been working at an agency as a part-time intern for nearly a year now. For the most part, I've learned a lot, fairly nice people, good pay. I was trained by a young woman to do certain reports for a client team under a direct supervisor. It turns out that in a short amount of time, the woman who trained me left to a different client team, and the supervisor left to another company. This happened towards the middle part of the year.

 

That woman trained me to do a series of reports, one of which is a quarterly report for the client. I did them for the two previous quarters. Then, after I completed the last one, apparently the client told my team that they wanted changes to it because the information was too confusing or something. So they made major changes to the format. I saw the changes although no one has yet explained in detail what they are/how they did them.

 

I was told by different sources not to worry about the next report and that I would be given new responsibilities for the two guys I was assigned to after my supervisor and the lady who trained me left the team. Well it turns out that on extremely short notice on Wednesday I was told (by a girl who works in the same client account but that I have limited interactions with) that I would be responsible for it and that they want it by mid-January.. Huh???

 

First of all the report is very time consuming, and I told them straight out that on such short notice it was impossible. Also, like I mentioned, I haven't been trained for the new format. I want to mention that for the old format and reports, one of the guys I was assigned to sat down with me and explained clearly how to do everything in accordance with a template they had, etc. Unfortunately this guy is on vacation till Jan 8th, as is the girl that assigned this on such a ridiculous deadline. If I would have been told months earlier that I would be repsonsible for this report, I could have already had most of it done. So now I'm forced to do everything in two weeks because "oops we didn't tell you sooner.. sorry" ?

 

I made sure to mention that I'm a full-time student (4-5 classes each semester) and that making me do so much work on such short notice is kind of unfair, especially with the holidays upon us. I made prior arrangements for Christmas and I'm not going to drop them. It seems that this woman wanted to throw it in my face so that she could leave on vacation comfortably without having to worry about it.. How convenient. I'm also only a part-time intern in this company. It should be more about learning and helping out than giving me loads of work and imposing harsh deadlines, in my opinion. Once I'm out of school of course I wouldn't mind taking complete responsibility for this (at a full-time capacity). but I don't want to jeopardize my grades. I'm also not only responsible for this report but other tasks as well. As for the report, I'm going to do as much as I can but not going to break my back to finish it - after all I'm only an intern/assistant and the time frame is just too narrow.

 

My main point is that after my supervisor and trainer left the team, things have seemed chaotic and disorganized. I've been told different things by different people, none of these guys I work with seems to want to take direct responsibility for me, and I haven't really been trained in a long time to do anything new. Although I appreciate that this internship was been way beyond typical grunt tasks (coffee and copies) I don't feel I work for the same place I started in close to a year ago.

 

Even before this all occurred I was already contemplating possibly leaving the company in the coming months. This internship was originally a 6 month temporary thing (slated to end in the summer) but they offered me an extension until the end of the year and now another one until late March. I'm thinking of possibly leaving in February since the proposal says that I (or the employer) can terminate the relationship at any time with or without cause/notice. Of course, if I plan to leave, I will do it in a very professional manner (with thank you cards, etc) but I want to have another job/internship lined up.

 

Among the many reasons I'm thinking of leaving, one of them is that it's an advertising/media place, which is not necessarily what i'm studying (marketing). Although I've gained an appreciation for advertising i'm not sure whether I would prefer to work in the consumer products area, and whether i'd prefer to work on the client side. These are things I'll never know for sure unless I gain an exposure to different places, and I Think more than one internship would look better on the resume. I also want to leave for other reasons like not being able to put my writing skills to use, only being able to employ my second language (not as advertised on job ad), etc.

 

Any comments regarding the problems with the company/reasons for leaving welcome.

[rose2summer]

It seems like you already have made your decision based on your tone here.

 

You are overworked, unhappy in this place, it's not fully related to your long-term goals, and you want to exercise your areas of interest,

 

Although sometimes its hard to part jobs, it may be best to do so.

 

Remember though, it's a job, and you have no true obligations to them except a contract.

 

If there is no contract holding you, you should look out for your best interest.

 

I can guarantee you that they are looking out for their own interests and not yours if they are overworking you to this extent.

 

Some thoughts for you to ponder.

 

Hugs, Rose

[freedom]

if you leave before the report is completed with would be unprofessional.

Even if they did give ou an option to leave at anytime, this is an importnat report and thus leaving in the middle of it or towards the end would not be looked on very posiively.

It is a critical time and a team player never leave the game at this time. Try complete the report by informing the supervisors that you require extra help meet the deadline as you have been informed at a very late stage.

After the completion you cn leave for other projects.