to say something to my intern

[wouldratherbebythepool]

Intern is lovely, we have never met, they are interning from their bedroom on the other side of the country due to COVID.

They have some experience and are 33 years old and living with a partner (no kids in case relevant), but recently graduated from university. I wanted to give them a chance.

I've never had anyone work for me before. I work very very fast, and it is my company so I know the ropes. I wouldn't have expected them to be as fast as me but I am very surprised at how slow they are at working in comparison to me.

They are full time, on £10 p/h yet get a quarter of the work done as I predict I would have, maybe less.

I have started wondering if they are actually working their full hours.

I try and be the best boss possible, I sent them a welcome gift, and told them their 8 hours a day are flexible as long as we have time for a daily catch up. Our catch ups are casual, fun, and I answer all their questions.

I have another job and am looking after my friends child at home (friend is single mum front line worker so I have taken in my very well behaved, immune compromised, 'niece' for 3 months.) This means I only have time for a 1 hour call a day for the intern, if that.

It's important that they feel trusted and I think as soon as someone doesn't feel trusted it can get nasty.

I am an emotional person and have anxiety so hate confrontation, but my approach of setting goals, deadlines, explaining how to reduce the time, have not improved things. They have been working on a document that would have taken me 1 week max, for four weeks and it's half done.

When I break down tasks and set deadlines my intern tells me the deadlines are unrealistic.

I check when they last edited documents and sometimes it says a couple of days ago, but before I awkwardly address this they inform me that they often work on a separate document and copy the information over, so I couldn't track the opening time.

I have no idea what to say. They are only here 12 weeks in total. I wouldn't have brought them on if I had known they would do so little work. But they also do lots of research around a subject. For example if I asked them to write a "quick description" of the company, they would create a document and spend two days researching other companies descriptions and how to write one, to write something I didn't particularly like. If your boss told you to write a "quick one paragraph description" how long would you spend on it? 16 hours?

Do I say something to my intern and what?

An intern is cheap. You said £10 p/h? Annual Salary of £19,500. Monthly take home £1,400.
That's not a lot of your business is very profitable, say £3 million turnover?

Where did the £3m turnover come from?!

Just a guess?
I didn't want to ask OP, how much her turnover and profit was?

*When I break down tasks and set deadlines my intern tells me the deadlines are unrealistic.
*

But they are the deadlines. If the intern can't meet those deadlines then the intern can't do the job

nowhere near £3 Million turnover 😂 this is a massive expense for me. I can only afford to pay myself an odd bit of pocket money on the good months. I set this up a year and a half ago is it is young.

Yes I set very clear deadlines which are written on a shared document in which we update, my intern just doesn't feel pressure to achieve them. I break down tasks into steps with mini deadlines too, but intern works on multiple tasks at the same time instead as she prefers it. There is a list of tasks and long descriptions and steps to the tasks. I really spell it out. I have just set a culture of being too casual and no pressure to meet deadlines, which is a shame because I was trying to be friendly and didn't think that it would lead to less quality work. I have been friendly and firm too, but she got upset and said she was trying her best. I have said things like 'the posts that you have created are great, but you need to keep to deadlines and you have been late with the last two tasks, how can I help you ensure you meet your deadlines?'

It's not actually just marketing and social media, she works on all aspects of the company as she wanted to develop skills in different departments.

I can only afford to pay myself an odd bit of pocket money on the good months. I set this up a year and a half ago is it is young

Whaaaat? That's not a business, it's a hobby.

Just sack her - check the contract first and take legal advice if she is an employee.

I wish you the best, op, but this thread is stressy. Mind you this is because I can't relate to the tasks, and it would be my idea of a nightmare.

Good luck

I must admit I find it a bit irritating when people say "I hate confrontation"
Nobody likes confrontation! But addressing the issues doesn't have to be "a confrontation".

I would certainly give her set working hours eg 9-5. I'd take the advice of the experienced managers on the thread who have suggested things such as giving one task at a time, etc.

Also, things like the Instagram example. You said, schedule the posts please. She said, I'll develop a strategy for you. Why didn't you just say, no thank you, just schedule the posts please.

but she got upset and said she was trying her best

And that's great, but if her best isn't working for you and your business, then you have to think again. It's not helping the Intern being in a role which isn't suited to her. Nor is it helping you. Nor is it helping your business

It's probably not anyone's fault. Just move on and find someone else

Hi OP - re the 'not liking confrontation' thing. I used to be like this, until someone basically told me 'You're not doing your job properly if you're not teaching the junior staff how to be better'.

That helped me, because it made it less personal and I felt I was helping staff/interns rather than crapping on them. Also made me less defensive, so my comments came out sounding reasonable not frustrated/upset. It also meant I was much better at setting expectations - which in turn meant I got more respect from the outset. It worked for me, your mileage may vary of course.

Ok so I can see what’s happening here. You asked for a social media strategy. A sm strategy is about going out and finding your tone of voice, setting a long term posting strategy etc. It is a research based job.
What you actually wanted was far more simple - her to start posting. Tell her that! (Or pay a proper company to do it for you - to be fair it would probably be cheaper at that rate).

It sounds like you need a virtual assistant rather than an intern - and though you will pay them more, they would get more done in the time. An intern doesn’t sound like what you need.

So at your next meeting tell her that you will expect to review work for x deadline and get her used to the fact that you’ll be looking at documents together on every call according to the deadlines you’ve set - less matey, more efficient. That may help.