why doesn't my intern know how to stfu?

I posted in another intern thread about how the interns at our paper (we have six; as usual, none in sports) are blogging.
As lame as most of them were (musing about how one was going to become an international war correspondent and was so entranced by the huge volume of "news" that was around the newsroom, made her feel so "newsy" and all, and wondering if that lame-ass demonstration she had to go cover was going to do anything for her war correspondent career ambitions - something like that), the best is now.

Kids these days; they didn't stick with it.
Sum total of one entry every 4-5 days from the entire group, as of now. :

Oh, and when one blogged about how she and a competitor were exchanging information, and that competitor being TV, got it on the air 12 hours before she got it into the paper. Some reader sent a response about how this was, uh, actually a competitive business, and what was up with that? Well, the respondent got lit into by the "design" intern, who - clearly deeply rooted in newsgathering experience - claimed the only thing an employee owed an employer was her best, golly-gee effort. Yeah, I got my ass kicked by a competitor, boss, because I gave her the information she needed. But boy, did I TRY HARD!!!! I worked until at least 10 minutes after my shift ended!!!
And how friendship was soooo much more important than the job, and that the reader who criticized clearly had his priorities out of whack.
That was good stuff. It went back and forth for awhile.



Sample of one recent entry:

My computer is a rotten piece of junk. And RedBull isn't working for me today.

Maybe it was walking to work in 100-degree weather... Maybe it was trying to sleep in 1000-degree weather last night... Whatever it is, I'm tired today, and I feel like I wasted a lot of time.

First of all, I drank a RedBull energy drink for breakfast this morning (left in my fridge Saturday night by some randomer)... And it actually made me MORE tired than I already was. Wings? No. More like goddamn weights.

Then, I had to go to City Hall to cover some exhibit on the anniversary of the Olympic Games. It was a cool idea, but a bit on the lame-o side.

It took me like, 30 hours to get there because bus service was sooo unbelievably slow, and walking to the exhibit was brutal, thanks to the heat and some creepy deranged guy who followed me (no joke.) .....


Bla, bla, bla.

 

This is SO unfair!

Not all interns act this way. You people are being completely unfair to interns. A lot of us are hard working, caring, dedicated students who are just trying to find our way in the business. Sure, some of us have different talents than you, but all we want is a chance to put our assets on display for the public to view. What's so wrong with that?

 

Hey Cowgirl,
There's putting your assets on display, and there's talking about it. ;D
If there are assets worth displaying, they'll be noticed. Don't you worry.

 

Wow. We must have really been lucky. I can't remember us ever having an intern who didn't think he/she had something to learn when he got here. And their idealism ... well, they toned it down sufficiently, at least till they got back to their college paper.

 

At one of my postings, a news intern was ... wait for it ... the publisher's daughter. She sent an e-mail to the city editor and the head desker about her copy being messed with. She CC'd the e-mail to Daddy Dearest, who hit Reply All and told her to knock it off. It was a happy moment for all but said intern.

And dear Cowgirl, in 15 years, you will be sitting in one of these chairs, bitching about interns, too. You just wait.

 

I would kill a man in his sleep for an intern. Or a full staff. Instead I will continue to question my lot in life.

 

How about if we meet in the middle and you just kill our former intern?

 

I feel bad for you, Mizzou...can't even conceive of saying things like that in my position.

Do you think there is something about this profession that makes this type of thing so (apparently) common? I can't imagine any of my friends doing internships at Ernst and Young telling their bosses, "Stop fucking with my audit."

Weird.

 

or going on a message board that is widely read by all those in the profession and talking about how much their bosses sucked...

 

reading between the lines ... so vastly underrated.

 

Any time an intern (or part-timer) would complain, I'd remind them that they were hiring at Taco Bell. They shut up pretty quickly even though most would have gotten a bigger paycheck by heading for the border.