Unforgettable Tales from the Internship Trenches: Stories of Eccentric Bosses and Unexpected Challenges

Guys, little update on the parking lot. Just saw a signposted out there earlier this morning that tomorrow, the 26th, the parking band comes back. So I think that is when the summer school starts up. So tomorrow there’ll be lots of the ripping in the Tilwin. And I’m also doing a little exchange. Thank you for everybody that donated to the Go Fund me.

So I’m gonna be giving the all the cash from that to the king tomorrow. We’ll hand off. But one other thing is it is intern season right now.

I have an intern for marketing and I wanted to share a little story about my summer internship I had probably like 10 or 12 years ago. This was what I would call from all of my friends and anybody that I’ve ever talked to, probably the worst internship experience ever had in my life. I won’t share the company name, but we’ll call the guy Bill. Sounds real name, but that was my boss. I show up on day one for this internship and he has me go in service this client of his at their house.

Like I go service, they have a system that he installed and I have to go service it. It’s my first day on the job. I, it’s like an hour drive from the office that we were at up to where I was going. I was there for probably an hour and a half. I did get a coffee on the way back and then another hour drive back.

So probably three and a/2,4 hours all in. And I was on the phone with him while I was up there cuz I had no idea what I was doing is my first day I get back and he’s already like gone for the day and I finished the rest of my work or whatever he told me to do for the rest of the day. And I leave. I think I’m like, I don’t even know how old that was, 19 or 20. So the next day I get there and he’s like, why don’t you come meet me out back?

There was like this unfinished part of the office. I figured he’s gonna like show me some random project or something to do. And we go out back and he’s like all visibly distraught. And I was like, what’s going on? He’s like, I know when people are. I know people are wasting my time.

When people are , man, I was like, what are you talking about? And he’s like, you know, yesterday, can you walk me through the timeline of going up there to that client’s house and, you know, working on their system and coming back. So I literally say, yep, I drew up their hour, was there for an hour and a half. I was on the phone with you, Bill. While I was there.

I did get a coffee in the way that may maybe five minutes for the coffee drive through and then I drove right back to the office and he’s like, no, I don’t. He’s like, I know when people are me. He’s like, I, you know, well, you sleeping in a parking lot? And I was like, are you kidding me? This is day 2 of the job.

It’s like, no, I was not sleeping in a parking lot, man. I, that’s like, Bo, why would I, the job was, it’s like day 2, my brain was in a pretzel. So then it gets even better. There was a thunderstorm a couple weeks later and he had me installing. I was doing like all sorts of random .

It was a small business. I was installing an HVAC system on the roof in a thunderstorm and he’s like, oh yeah, I’m gonna go back inside. It’s gonna start raining soon. You finish this up. I was like, thanks. I walked back inside soaking wet in this other woman that worked out.

They kind of knew this guy was nuts, was like, were you just up on the roof? And I was like, yeah, yeah. Final part was I actually, there’s two more. I was out in the back of the unfinished part of the office again, and he’s like, oh, here. Take this jackhammer and jackhammer out this old sewer pipe out of the ground, which is like 3,4 inches of Kai concrete.

I have like no idea what I’m doing. And this was like not in the job description, but I’m like, whatever, I’ll try to do whatever I can to help out. And I’m in there sweating my ass off do it’s like this tiny little bathroom trying to Jack him around this like pipe that’s coming out of the ground.

And then he’s gives me a blow torch and he’s like, start blow torch in this thing and like hitting it with a sledgehammer just trying to like knock it out of the ground. So like an hour and a half into this, I’m like, , this is definitely smelling weird with the blow torch. Like this has got to be a lead line pipe.

And he comes in and he’s like checking on my work. And he’s like, what’s that? Was that smell? What, are you smoking a cigar in here? And I was like stunned is like, no, I’m not smoking a cigar.

I think it’s the lead or actually, no, I made the mistake of making a joke first. Then I said I thought he was kidding. He’s a really smart guy. Yeah, I’m smoking a cigar in here, Bill. And he’s like, wait, there’s no smoking in here. What are you doing? And I was like, just it just a little jokey.

I was actually doing what you told me to do and use this blow torch. I think this is a headline pipe. So that’s what that gross smell is that I’m inhaling. And he’s like, oh, right, right, right. Yeah, probably shouldn’t do that. But it’s like, me, you’re the boss, man.

What have you said? And then one of the final things was this was a, it was a state funded internship. So he wasn’t even paying for this. It was like a state initiative because it was a like a mass like renewable type internship.

So he could only, I could only work a maximum of 40 hours a week. It was a small company. So like I didn’t take lunch most days. I would just work through lunch and he like kept me busy and sort of the other people in the office. So a lot of days cuz nobody took lunch, I’m not just gonna sit there solo eating lunch.

I would work through lunch. It’s an hourly job. And I was like leaving the office on a Friday cuz I hit my 40 hour Mark like early at whatever, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He’s like calls me like classic calls it like 3:30 and I’m like, oh, like, hey, I’m heading out. I hit my whatever 40 hour Mark and he’s like, what?

He’s like, what do you mean? I’ve been doing my time sheet every day. I’m thinking I looked at it once and I’m like, yeah, I hit my 40 hour Mark. Like, here’s the hours I worked. He’s like, absolute psychopath laugh. He’s like, what are you talking about? I’m like, well, this day I work these hours.

She’s like, what about lunch? I was like, well, I haven’t been taking lunch. They told me I didn’t have to. And he goes, no, you can’t do that. And I, at this point, I kind of had like lost it with this guy, even though, like, I was totally intimidated by him.

But I was like, well, actually, Bill, according to the mass labor laws, cuz I did see this in the cafeteria or like in the little lunch room that it says you don’t have to, you’re entitled to lunch or something, but you don’t have to take it. I could be butchering that, right? Ramble that off to him like a little and just cuz I, I, this, at this point, I was like, f this guy. And he was like literally freaked out in the other line of the phone and I was like trembling and he’s like, okay, have a nice weekend.

Was like so scary to go back to work on Monday. So anyway, there’s a few other things too. But anyway, this your internship. I’d like to think from that experience, I make this internship 500% better for this person than that hope you’re doing well, . JK.