I've got nice shoes older than he is but that's not why I am annoyed.
He is the son of one of the owners friends and he will finish uni next year. This is a small firm so excellent opportunity to get some experience.
I am looking after him and to get him started I asked him to write a couple of pages of the impact a change of legislation may have on our clients. I gave him a full day to produce something. I told him that I acknowledge that at uni you may have days or weeks to write and research, but on the ground clients want answers quickly so it was an excercise in speed as well as content. At the end of the day he said he's not ready. And the next day. FFS.
Then I asked him for a list of for example dentists in a five mile radius because we are going to write to them. A whole day later he produces a handwritten list. My local dentist is not on the list. I told him that the job is not glamorous, there is a lot of admin.
Next, we are having a meeting with a big client. I said he could sit in on the presentation. As preparation please read the file and prepare a one page summary of the background, clients needs & where we are to date. He didn't do it. He just attended the meeting, no prep. Obviously he would not be presenting but come on.
He is scruffy and he mumbles instead of talking. He gives the impression he does not want to be here - forced by parents perhaps. I have looked after other interns before but none like this.
Sometimes I walk past his screen and he has some random internet page open. I ask if he has anything to do and he says no. I told him at the beginning that we can't babysit him, if he is at a loose end he can ask anyone in the team for something.
I'm not going to point out his general lack of interest and uselessness to the boss, who is his mum's friend. I am not going to stick my neck out and say 'You need to stand up straight, tuck your shirt in and look lively.' I will just memorise his name and try and avoid him in a professional context. Or just push him out the window.
AIBU?
AIBU to want to push this intern out of the window
Rosamund1 · 08/08/2016 12:47
He sounds like 14yr old on a work exp from school! Not a uni student.
Unforrunately I agree with painted 
That's really irritating - what a waste. My DD would have loved an internship this summer but despite dozens of applications didn't get a single one. She's done work experience before and always had really positive feedback, presumably because she's friendly, keen and enthusiastic, and willing to start at the bottom.
We've had some bored interns here too. All ours are DC of Director/VIP/Royalty/celebrity/whatever. If a mere mortal like myself asked for my DC to be given an opportunity, I'd be told we don't offer internships.
I've recently moved departments but the modern apprentice in my last office was like this. Constantly internetting, chatting and distracting everyone, taking days to finish work that should have taken a few hours, sitting with nothing to do and not asking for work.
He makes it clear that he's in it for the money and doesn't give a stuff about the work or the department. Having him there was actually a hindrance and he got a free ride because it was quicker and easier to do his work for him than hold his hand through it
I feel your pain.
I had similar earlier this year when I was assigned to look after a brand new, very green trainee.
Straight out of university, thought he already knew all there was to know in the field because, you know, he had degree. Er...so does everyone else in the office!
He was on time for about a week, then started swanning in at 10, 10.30. Couldn't understand what the problem was: he was tired, had been out drinking partying all night, he needed his sleep. Was never ever on time for anything. Needed two afternoons off a week as he was a kids' football coach and couldn't possibly let the club down.
He was forever munching on a banana as he needed to "keep his potassium levels up" for when he went running. There was a memorable time when he discarded the banana peel in the wastepaper basket of one of the senior partners and got the most almighty bollocking.
He didn't last very long after that, but he still had time to come into the office one day dressed in a white underwear type t-shirt and baggy shorts, as a suit and tie "felt too stuffy". He was sent home and told not to come back.
He seriously couldn't see what had gone wrong in his training, left thinking he would end up becoming hugely successful in our field 
I've had interns that aren't a bit bothered and who I would have happily thrown out the window but more often, I've found that the intern is so used to very specific instructions that they struggle to get started and then struggle again that what they have at the end of the time I've given them isn't perfect. For the couple of pages on the impact of the policy change, I'd tell them that it typically includes X, Y, Z headings and then insist they just send me what they have done by the deadline. All that's more for the start of the placement and they tend to need a less hands on approach as they progress.
Mr Handwritten Dentist List doesn't seem to be struggling for perfection though 
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