Hi, long time lurker, first time poster here. I've decided to share my story, even though I'm not from US.
TL;DR at the end.
For a few months now, I've been working as an intern for a company, let's call them company X. As a rule, they hire interns as contractors, not as employees. That means interns get 3 months contracts, with an option to sign for another 3 months once the time is up.
Now, a little background info: due to legal regulations in my country, contractors have no paid leave, no vacation days, no sick days, no employee rights that are guaranteed by labor law, they aren't even legally required to have set working hours or a set place of work (it all depends how the contract itself is constructed – if it inclines both parties agree to certain working hours and certain places of work, it's fine, but if it's phrased in a way that suggests the company is making the contractor agree to these conditions and the contractor has no say in it, that would be grounds for the contractor to sue the company and reclassify this situation as official employment). This particular company, as many other companies, also decided that additional benefits such as private health insurance, gym memberships, lunch cards etc. are only for employees. You also can't have a detailed job description with scope of responsibilities written into your contract, because again – grounds for reclassification as employment – so these contracts usually have some general stuff written in, like “administrative responsibilities in department Y of company X”.
There are some upsides to being a contractor though – legally, you're only required to give your best effort to achieve all set tasks, as only employees can be judged on the actual results of their jobs. And, as both parties have to agree to the time schedule and place of work, it's technically a great loophole in times of WFH, especially in companies that decide on hybrid work and only allow a certain amount of days spent on home office. This means you have quite a lot of flexibility as a contractor, compared to employees, which means a lot when you can't really take a sick day or PTO to take care of your private matters. For tax reasons, it's also a better idea to work as contractor as long as you're a student (until you reach a certain age – then having a student status doesn't matter anymore, the full amount of taxes is taken out of your paycheck anyway). It's also worth mentioning that this particular contract was for barely over 5% of minimum hourly wage, which quickly became unreasonable due to inflation, and once the taxes kicked in, the money I was making was barely enough to make it from paycheck to paycheck.
Seeing as I've been working as a contractor for many years in different companies, I've come to learn quite well how to use the loopholes mentioned above to my benefit. As it turns out, that doesn't really go so well with some people who spent most of their work lives as emoloyees.
Getting back to the main story – my internship consisted mostly of taking over some responsibilities of senior employees that can be considered as mundane busy work that no one wants to do, but it still has to be done. Seeing as I was the youngest and the most tech-savvy in my team, I've managed to quickly adjust those processes to maximise my productivity and take on more tasks. Meanwhile, the more work I took on, my colleagues began to slack off more and more (although the amount of complaining to the boss about how busy they are also rose – coincidence 🤔?). One of the reasons I had more and more work was a new project that was in it's final stages – it consisted of a new process for a key part my division is responsible for in this company, which meant someone had to take over the old process until the new one can be fully deployed and implemented.
After a couple of months, the amount of work I had started weighing me down and took a toll on my health – both physical and mental – which meant I had to take several hours or days off for medical reasons (illness, doctor appointments, tests etc.) and I took more WFH days than the employees were allotted by X.
Before the end of my first 3 months, I asked my boss if it would be possible for me to transition from being a contractor to being an employee, seeing as my tax-free period was almost over. My boss said he doesn't have enough justification for his superiors to ask for a new employee opening yet, seeing as the new project wasn't advanced enough. Because of this, I agreed to stay as a contractor for the next 3 months, during which the project has developed significantly. Besides taking over the old process, I also took on some parts necessary for the project deployment. I was tasked with preparing and creating some functionalities without which the project team (consisting of members of other divisions, as well as some higher ups and corporate people) would never let the project be deployed. Needless to say, the results of my work were judged, not the effort. Before the next 3 months were up, I again asked my boss for a transition to employment. That's were things got interesting.
At first, my boss told me that due to X's management decision, all internships are indefinitely suspended and I wouldn't be able to continue for the next 3 months. He also said he put in a request for a new employment opening, but due to unusual circumstances and company policy, he needs to have management's permission, which will be very hard to obtain.
Meanwhile, some of my “colleagues” (the ones whose responsibilities I've been taking over) started becoming cold towards me. They would complain to my boss about the WFH and off days I took, saying it disrupted their work and that it was unfair, because I took more WFH days than they were allowed to take. They'd ignore me whenever I'd try to start or join a conversation, and even though our social interactions outside of work were fine before, they became practically non-existent at this point. Some of them would keep separate windows open with conversations with each other on the work-related chat app we use, only to minimise those windows as soon as they noticed I was within sight.
My then-current contract was almost over, yet there was still no response about employment. Few days before the contract was up, my boss called me and said management needs more time for a decision, so they made an exception and decided to extend my internship by one more month. Still hoping for the employment and needing the money, I agreed and stayed. Later, boss said he'll offer me employment on a trial period, but we'll talk details once he's back from vacation (meanwhile, he hasn't been in the office for a few days – WFH).
All hell broke loose when he was at home office. I got even more tasks dumped on me since my boss wasn't there to see, and some members of the team would either slack off even more, come in late or go home earlier. Second day of his WFH one of my team members screamed at me – in an open space office, for a couple of other divisions to hear – because I said the instructions they gave me were unclear. Next day, I called my boss and told him I'll be on home office for the rest of the week, and for the first time ever, decided to tell him about the team members' attitude towards me. His response? “Everyone should judge themselves and mind their own business, don't judge others, they had a lot to say about you too”.
At this point, I started wondering – wtf am I even still doing here and why have I not been looking for another job? This isn't really an internship in any part other than it's name (seeing as internships are usually meant to introduce people to company's processes and work and should come with growth and potential), and all my efforts to help my team are either downplayed or not acknowledged at all. I work my ass off and struggle, while other members of my team slack off and treat me like shit for using any means necessary for managing the situation I'm in. These same team members also decided to be some kind of self-appointed HR department and dictate what conditions I should work in, just so it would be fair to their own conditions, even though it's none of their business, I have none of the privileges they have and my compensation is most likely less than half of theirs.
Boss comes back from vacation. Even though he's told me he'll employ me, he never actually got the management's permission. I guess he realised that even though his team is falling apart (due to it's own stupidity), he still needs me, and hiring a new “intern” will take a lot of time which he doesn't have since there's a shitload of work to be done and he's still convinced his team is overworked already. He offered me a 1-year contract with ~10% increase of the hourly wage (which didn't even begin to cover the hit my compensation took once the taxes kicked in, not to mention inflation which tripled since I started the internship), told me to think about it. I declined right away.
My current contract ends with the last day of June. I haven't felt so free in a long time.
TL;DR: never believe your boss or two-faced people in you team, know what you're worth, benefit from the rights and privileges of your contract, exploit loopholes if you have to, never settle for barely getting through – physically, emotionally and financially.