Frustrated Interns

During an MBA course, it is compulsory for a student to undergo a two month internship after the end of the first year. I also had to undergo an internship from the middle of April to the middle of June as part of the course requirement. This post is about a group that was formed during the course of our internship called Frustrated Interns.

Having undergone an internship in the final semester of engineering, I had a slight inkling of what I could expect in the two months when I would be working in an organisation. However, as I was supposed to get a stipend this time around, I wasn’t quite sure what I could expect and felt that I would probably have enough work at hand to keep me occupied during office hours. Fortunately or unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and as it turned out I had plenty of time to kill at work and Frustrated Interns was born as a result of the boredom, or rather a means to prevent extreme boredom.

One of the first things that I had done after being assigned a desk and a computer was to check whether I could access my email account. After which, I had tried to discover what alternatives would be available for me at work in order to help pass time. Email access was one of the most important requirements as I felt that if I could contact my friends then I would be able to survive the two months with relative ease.

Frustrated Interns was not just a group, it was more of a social experiment conducted in order to prevent a group of MBA students from ripping their hair out during their summer internships. For some, it was a refuge, a quantum of solace if you may, which dragged them out of the monotony of staring blankly at a computer screen for hours while waiting for the office hours to end and return home. It was a group whose members were students from my batch who had access to their personal email addresses at work and who were far from happy with the tasks they had to perform during their two month stint. One common factor that connected all the members was that every single one was male. This was to ensure that there was free flow of communication and any sort of language would be acceptable. There was an incident when a female wanted to join the group but her request had to be denied in order to ensure that the communication remain unhindered and informal.

The topics that were discussed in the group were very diverse and uncensored. From complaining about the project and the company to politics and current affairs, almost everything was covered here. The most common trend though was people getting together and ridiculing one of the interns. Dilbert comic strips became a rage as everyone could associate their office culture with what happened in the strip, hence anyone who liked any comic would send it to across to the entire group. Some people also used this forum to ask others to provide data or files that were restricted from their connections. There were of course some members who didn’t really belong to this group as they were happy with their internships, and left comments which sparked an array of curses from the other frustrated parties. The interns were spread across the geography of the country, and came from different communities.

On a normal day, once the first mail was sent out, around 100 emails were exchanged during work hours. I don’t know about the others, but I used to look forward to each reply as it gave me an excuse to take a break from work and reply or read the thread that was being discussed. Our moment of glory was on the 24^th of April, which coincidentally was also the Birthday of our very own Cricketing God, Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. On that one day, over 250 emails were exchanged and this huge volume actually overwhelmed some of the new members, who became slightly inactive after this day.

At the end of our internships, the group slowly lost its utility as everyone was busy with their final reports and presentations, and one by one people started to return home as their internships ended. The group had a short lifecycle of a little over a month but it was an integral and important part of our internship. The total number of emails exchanged was a little over 2650, with the top three contributors making accounting for over 50% of the traffic. Sadly, I wasn’t the highest contributor, and I truly regret that fact. At the end of the internship, there was a so called award ceremony where individuals who made their priceless contributions were recognised.

I would have provided the link to the group, but unfortunately it is moderated and without the explicit authorisation of the moderator, none of the sections would be accessible for general viewing.

The two month internship seemed to drag on endlessly and had it not been for this group, would have been extremely torturous. The group has lost its utility for the time being as everyone is back in college attending the dull lectures, but our frustrations still exist and will probably remain for a long time to come. I am sure the group would be resurrected with renowned vigour once we graduate from college and begin working full time. The only difference will be that the group will no longer continue to be called Frustrated Interns. It shall be known as “FRUSTRATED EMPLOYEES”.

frus⋅tra⋅tion [fruh-strey-shuhn]

–noun

1.	act of frustrating; state of being frustrated: the frustration of the president's efforts.

2.	an instance of being frustrated: to experience a series of frustrations before completing a project.

3.	something that frustrates, as an unresolved problem.

4.	a feeling of dissatisfaction, often accompanied by anxiety or depression, resulting from unfulfilled needs or unresolved problems.