Work Advice: The insolent intern
Q: I am a midlevel employee on a team of five that includes a paid intern. Our intern's primary role is to maintain our library and assist when needed. In general, she is friendly but immature and disrespectful. Several times, I had difficulty finding requested documents for my projects before learning that she had those items but didn't tell anyone. Once, she signed for documents addressed to me but left them on her desk for a week. When I brought it up, she said she didn't remember signing for anything and that I should just look on her desk if I'm expecting something. After this incident, she would give me sneering looks.
Recently, it happened again. I said that if she doesn't know what something is, she should ask one of us for help. She walked away, noticeably annoyed, then confronted me at my desk. She loudly told me what she is responsible for and said I should speak to the front desk to arrange a system for my deliveries. I was surprised and agitated by her comments, delivery and tone, and informed her calmly that the front desk gives her documents for the team because that is her role.
I wonder if I somehow disrupted a status quo or overstepped. No one else seems to bring up her mistakes. Our senior member found documents for her project in the trash, but kept quiet because she didn't want the intern to not help her. I don't know how aware our hands-off supervisor is, but when the intern ignores things that affect our projects, I think it needs to be addressed. How should I handle this?
A: I keep rereading this to see if the intern is the boss' daughter or is dating a Mafia hitman or has the only key to the bathroom. I can't imagine how else Katie Ka-Boom is getting away with being both incompetent and insubordinate.
It's past time for your boss to step in. Present the situation to him and Katie as a procedural issue that needs to be clarified. "The front desk seems to think Katie is the gatekeeper for all deliveries. When they dump things on her desk, there's no way for us to know they've arrived, but I don't want to create more work for Katie if that's not part of her responsibilities. What do you recommend?"
Ideally, your boss would then ask Katie to explain why taking a delivery to its intended recipient or sending an email is too burdensome. Maybe labeled inboxes are the compromise solution.
Lest anyone think I'm being too hard on Katie, she should also seek clarity from the boss if she's feeling overwhelmed or mistreated, in lieu of confronting senior colleagues at their desks.
• Miller has written for and edited tax publications for 16 years, most recently for the accounting firm KPMG's Washington National Tax office. You can find her on Twitter, @KarlaAtWork.