5

So.. i have been doing internship with a good startup for last 2 months. It was supposed to be a 3 month internship and then maybe a job offer. I accepted this , but with a disclaimer that i will be taking leaves for exams.

They looked like they didn't liked this condition, saying "we won't be giving pay for those days" , "you will need your manager's approval", etc, but later i took 5-6 continuous leaves for my papers and my manager( aka the ceo) wouldn't even read my approval mail ( i did got deductions for those leaves tho, but i was fine with it )

Now the situation is that my final end term exams are coming up. They are supposed to go on for 15 days somewhere in December beginning, but i also need an extra 10-15 days to cover the syllabus for it. Apart from those, there are other college stuff like Second Sessionals, internal practicals ,minor project report submission , etc are also coming up, that are supposed to take anywhere from 1 to 5-6 continuous days in the first weeks of November.

So i asked my company for 2 months of leave to handle my college environment. The tasks assigned to me are incomplete , but i am well versed in those and might complete it if i had more time. I gave them an option that i will resume my work from January and complete my 3 months of internship ( i currently am about to complete 2 months , November would have been the 3rd) , but they said that they are "freeing me" in the October only ( i guess this means that my internship is being terminated and am off from company's payroll). They also asked me to contact company once all exam stuff is over, but yesterday i got suddenly removed from the company's slack group. I am not sure how to look at this.

They have also asked me to prepare a report on what i have done. Now i can send them a report like what i would have given to my college : containing more useless info and a few points on my work . Or i could provide them with a deep report on what i did each day, what are the bugs , what are the resources that i found , what are the things that need to be enhanced, links to important groups and people... Etc . I have so much of information that i fear they might hire someone else to complete all stuff that i have started and my material would give him a kickstart.
But on the other hand , it was their office that i worked in, their ideas that i built upon, so i feel a moral obligation to provide all assistance to my replacement.

What should i do?

(tldr : company asking for a report on work you did during internship that was supposed to be converted to job . wwyd?)

Comments
  • 4
    They didn't like that you had to go to school? Fucking assholes, my boss always tells me to put school first and work later
  • 3
    Not sure I understood it completely but it looks to me like you were basically asking the startup for about as much time of leave as you had been working for them.

    I know it feels bad that they don't wait for you, but to startups, time is of the essence: a month without a product they can sell (to clients or to venture capitalists) is a month of pure costs (rent, salaries, bills...).

    If I were in your CEO's shoes, I definitely wouldn't be happy about one of my team members disappearing for a month and a half while my savings an loan melt away.

    Sure, they could handle this better by actually explaining to you how they feel their relationship to you should be, but I don't think setting them back out of spite would help anyone.

    And who knows, maybe the slack kick is just them being normally careful not to have dangling accounts open, as this can really bite and eliminating dangling accounts, even if you think the people will come back IS the right thing to do.
  • 3
    Just to complete what I said earlier: they've only known you for 3 months, they don't know whether you'll come back out to somewhere else after your school time, nor do they know what you may do with the informations on slack off they'd leave you access to it. And also, maybe they're doing it so that they don't forget it by not doing it now. Many companies have been bitten by leaving (even accidental) access to former employees, even after employing them for years.

    They lack finesse, but I believe they're doing the right thing by playing things safe, as you should when you're attempting to create a new company and that your life savings and loan depend on it.

    Don't get too worked up, maybe try talking with them to try and get any explanation you feel like you deserve, or maybe just confirmation on whether or not they intend to take you back once you're done with your school :)
  • 1
    @CptFox A small update , i am still in the slack group. I had cleared slack's data last night, and added only my personal email, therby not showing my office workspace which is signed via office email.

    Also, i have come to agree with company's policies regarding leaves during internship , its just a sudden action of "freeing" that is making me worried.

    Why is their a need to terminate this internship? Its okay you won't he giving me any salary for my work, hell i dont even need to obtain October's salary for now, they can keep that as collateral for when i come and work back in January.

    But In the current proceedings ,i might be ripped off from a potential job offer just because i have to tend to my college needs. I was so relieved when i got this internship, thinking that yes i am in a good company, this would be a starting point for me but am again at a point where i am jobless and with an unsure future
  • 4
    A bit hard to judge the situation.

    So they knew you're a student, hence they should either have accepted that or not employed you. No pay for your absent days is okay as a compromise, but "you will need your manager's approval" sounds weird. So if he doesn't give his approval, he expects you to skip the exam or what?

    I think you should absolutely prepare a good report. It's in your own best interest:
    * They didn't wrong you imho and might re-employ you after exams are over. In that case your documentation will be helpful to yourself.
    * If they don't and replace you instead, you'd punish your replacement - who had nothing to do with it.

    And one more thing:
    > i have started and my material would give him a kickstart
    So what? I strive to write good code and documentation *precisely* to give "the next guy" a headstart. Life's rough enough as it is, let us devs look after each other a little.
  • 3
    @TitanLannister Really try asking about that. Maybe this is just a misunderstanding and they do still mean to take you back in as soon as you're done with college.

    The need to terminate the previous contract might be strictly legal, or might be done in order not to open themselves to X or Y legal consequence of your next contract being back to back with your internship.

    I'm about 100% sure that taking one of your pays as collateral for you coming back is illegal and just like I said previously: they've known you for 3 months, they don't know what you might do with a legal opening.

    And don't be too scared about losing this job:
    a) it's a startup, not exactly a paragon of job security by definition.
    b) you'll be an IT graduate next year, which means you're extremely likely to find a job quite easily since you're in a high demand sector with a low salary requirement due to your juniorness.

    Sure, it's an inconvenience if it happens, but just that. Just ask so you can prepare :)
  • 2
    @VaderNT @CptFox thankyou , you both gave nice advice. I am preparing a decent report , and including lots of stuff like current problems , bugs , features, resources, etc that could help either my future self or any other potential employee, it doesn't matter :D
Add Comment