Hello Reddit,
As it may not be surprising, interns also suffer countless work abuse and harassments and it is also harder for us to denounce these things because of the rarity of internships available that are professionally adequate for students. I was hired in a natural animal parc with deers and boars for 2 months and completed 4 weeks through hard work (we do a lot of physical work since it's a pretty big space to maintain) and often outside of our normal 'established' hours. It is common practice to think it is normal to exploit interns because they don't have credentials and are young and easily malleable but the environment in which I am is also toxic with constant homophobic and racist remarks by my mentor (who is also 26, my age). The managers, a husband and wife, are also constantly condescending, never say hi or bye, disregard the health of the parc and its animals, tried to fire me for being late without contacting me or telling me about it (I learned it from my school), and are giving me an ultimatum of 1 week because of my work which they thought was insufficient ( I agree that being late even if it's 5 minutes usually is my problem which I agreed to arrive on time but the work I provided was adequate and I only refused work when it was outside of my 9-5:30 which was never officially given to me). I am currently finding another internship through legitimate public establishments which also pay and have an actual schedule. I consider that my perceived lack of investment in my internship was affected by the conditions which are tough, sometimes illegal, and unequal. I agree that I was not irreproachable because of my lateness which was often really by a couple minutes, but still late, but they also reproached me for being sick twice and thought I was faking it for dubious reasons (which I clearly wasn't, since I work outside all day with temperatures shifting from +15°C in a day and the constant rain that also poured on us recently, no wonder I became ill.) I also heard many stories about them not paying their employees for months, stealing stuff from employees, my mentor drinking and driving with me onboard, and so many other stories which I will spare you. I am writing this because I believe that had they given me a bit more respect and actual communication from the get go, I would have probably stayed with them with actual commitment and just finish it but the fact that I have to live with the constant neglect and that they may also invalidate my internship even if they gave me an ultimatum is too much for me. I will not leave until I have another internship confirmed but I will be glad of the day I am leaving this place full of misplaced egos.