Interns Get Fired En Masse After Protesting Dress Code at Work

It was explained to them. Multiple times in fact, and yet they persisted.

It is possible that dress policy does actually affect the bottom line. Most people aren't going to want a doctor that is wearing jeans, or a lawyer in spandex. Do we know what the business was?

Also as someone with a skillset, you actually have value to the company you work for....which means they're going to be more generous with you. An intern has no skills. When an intern can't follow simple instructions and policies without constantly questioning them, they have less than zero value.

They asked. More than one asked, multiple times. That's not questioning a policy and letting it go when an answer is given.

If an intern can't observe company policy that they AGREED with before they got the job, and can't follow simple instructions, there's a million more of them out there that will.

 

The company in question didn't seem to have a problem accommodating people with medical problems.

 

Employers don't care about your feelings. You're there to contribute to the companies goals, and you are thanked with a pay check. If you don't want to wear suits, then don't apply for a job that requires them.

Every interview I have ever had covered these things, and if they weren't, I asked.

The medical condition is valid though. Much like the one-legged employee in the story, you have a solid reason....and any employer can, should, and will observe that medical issue.

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Then obviously the interns in the story weren't good enough to get a paying internship, or that's where they would have been.

 

But then I'd be the only one dressing different and people would wonder why. I don't want the whole office to know that I have a colostomy bag.

 

That's why I said earlier that the interns were unprofessional for pointing out to someone they thought was unfairly breaking the dress code, and then dragging that person into their crusade.

There is no shame in having a condition, and if other people don't like it then **** them, they're not worth knowing anyway if that's how they act.

 

That's a positive way of thinking sure but does me no good when people are grossed out by me which I find is what happens half the time someone finds out. Before my last boss found out I was on my way to a raise and then it's like I hit a brick wall. people treat me differently. Yes like the interns treated that person differently. It was the wrong thing to do. So you can see being treated differently is not what we want. We don't want to bring attention to ourselves and the way that can happen is a change in the dress code or else we just have a big target on our back.

 

Not anecdotal at all, it's the truth. The people dealing with urine samples are either the nurses asking for or receiving them, the medical lab technician running the actual sample thru the analyzer, and the medical supply staff assigned to keeping the hospital facility stocked. In all three cases the jobs are in the medical field.

None of which applies to the OP. Adhering to a dress code, even one that is overly strict - although we really don't have much info as to what exactly he meant by that, is hardly intern abuse.

The intentions were good up until the point that it wasn't, which would have been somewhere around the time the kids started organizing themselves into some kind of hypocrisy police, starting a petition, and going off the deep end. They'd been told several times that the dress code wasn't going to change, but they had to start their own conspiratorial group and try to force the issue that management assumed had been dealt with. I doubt they were acting out of malice, but they were acting out of absolute stupidity bordering on, if not crossing over onto insubordination and maybe even trying to bully management "Hey, maybe if we ALL gang up on them and let them know what we want, that'll show 'em!" Well - no. And see below.

Employees don't have carte blanche to disrupt a workplace without consequences, and these kids were interns, who ALSO don't have the same rights, responsibilities, or perks as a full employee. Look: Much has been said about how they don't get paid. Well, they DO get paid, just not monetarily. They get paid free training, free job experience, free use of the company inventory (unless they're teachers, then they buy their own stuff) free work-related connections they can use later, and a free couple of lines on their resume. The whole point of being an intern is that you ultimately get job experience that get you a foot in the door when you start applying for a paid job, and it's a good way to train. It's supposed to be a win-win for both sides.

Put yourself in place of management here: You've got a class of kids you've volunteered to help because you're professional enough to realize that the next generation of people in your business has to come from somewhere. You're volunteering your time, your staff, your workplace, your experience, and your knowledge of the rules and regulations, all for free. You don't need to have interns, and in fact taking the time to train these kids could be better spent doing your own job faster without holding the hands of these kids, but you decide that it's needed and necessary. The kids you take in start questioning your dress code, and you politely tell them no. You're already wondering where this came from because dollars to donuts the dress code was discussed during orientation, and if they didn't like it they could have just refused to work right then and there. Next thing you know, they're getting on the case of a wounded veteran, they're organizing a petition, they're very likely doing this on company time and even more likely discussing this with the actual employees there, lowering productivity and morale. At this point they HAVE crossed over into insubordination. It just isn't worth it to keep these kids here.

Pollycy's sig line is instructive: "What you tolerate, you will get more of!" No way would management, who have bigger fish to fry, want to deal with a bunch of kids deigning to tell them how to run their own company and they certainly wouldn't want to see what else these kids would come up with if this mini-rebellion had been tolerated.

Federal law states that any work shift over 4 hours requires one break, and I think anything over six hours requires a break and a lunch. But interns don't have job security, it isn't even really a job, it's a class far more often than not.

Bottom line is that these kids deserved what they got.

 

Can you point to where they asked multiple times for the policy to be changed, because I didn't see that in the article. Looking at the article I see one instance where they all signed a paper proposing a change. The article also mentions that this was not a client facing job. It's the companies loss IMO. They are unwilling to change an old policy that has no real effect on people and get with the times. That's fine, but expect this to hurt more than help.

EDIT:

You also say interns have no skill set. I've been programming on and off since I was 10 and messing around on an Apple IIe. By 14 I'd written a small game on a TI-82 calculator. My degree is more of a $60k piece of paper that causes people to take me seriously rather than a representation of education, and I'm not alone in this. It's field dependent but if you think your interns have no skills you may very well be underestimating them. This is especially true in the tech industry when anyone with a computer and the internet can learn to code.

If you want to start, get the community edition. Tutorials abound on the internet.
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/visual-studio-homepage-vs.aspx

 

So the OP asked his manager about it, and "many" of the other interns did the same with their "managerS" We have at least three - but who knows how many in total, asking about it.

That's when they should have stopped, because different managers were giving them the same answer. Too late to help, but perhaps they should have recalled Chesterson's Fence

 

And you know this exactly how?

 

I can see this. Then it does fall on the interns to take it or leave it if they were already talking to people and being told no. I still think it's a bad policy, and it sounds selectively enforced, but whatever it's their right to enforce it.

 

This. When I was an intern one of my jobs was to get the director's bourbon at the state store on Monday morning on the way to work, which I did without complaint.

 

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Thank you for your opinion.

 

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The strange thing about making a claim something is a fact, you have the "burden of proof" to verify it. You have yet to do that. So all you are doing is giving me your opinions, which are entertaining but not realistic.

 

The bottom line here is, with exceptions for mitigating, medical and/or safety reasons, the employer has an unfettered right to determine the dress code for their employees.

On the other hand, the employees have a right to, as a group challenge the company dress code if they so choose; the company likewise has the right to reject their challenge. But they cannot retaliate, terminate nor coerce the employees because it is protected under the NLRA of 1934.

In this case all the company had to do was to reject their petition/request and instruct them to return to work which is legal; however terminating them is a violation of the act. I hope other companies learn from this to avoid similar situations.

 

You're welcome.

 

When you are an intern you do what you are told to do or you get out or get fired. Is it any more complicated than that? People complain because they can't get decent jobs or even have a chance to get one and then they (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) about something like a dress code? Let them suck their thumbs and stay at home with Mommy, and good riddance.

 

See that's the problem as to why I would not hire people like yourself, or them. Just because you think something is pointless does not mean you can just come in and change it just because. That's no different than a spoiled brat who simply doesn't want to follow rules and throws a fit.

Me personally I wouldn't have an uptight dress code for workers under me, I just ask that they keep it clean and not look like bums or wear something too revealing or offensive bullcrap. But that's my rules, I can't change the rules of my employer just because I may not do things his way. If this company wants a certain image then that is just their way, and again nobody forced the little self entitled spoiled brats to take that internship.

You walk into someone's house or place of business you respectfully adhere to their wishes, you don't act like a 5 year old and try to defy it.

Again if some new person who hasn't even shown their worth dare come to me demanding I do things their way, he or she will find their self entitled ass out the front door never to even be considered for a second chance. But then again, that is something only adults could understand.

 

What exactly was not realistic about who deals with urine samples?

You're trolling, right? Yeah. You're trolling.

 

Everything you sday here can be said about immigrants determined to rock the boat in their favor as well.

 

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It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

 

Here's the thing: Can interns, who are not really employees but are rather student volunteers taking a class, actually get "fired" from a job they technically never really had in the first place, if you see what I mean? I don't think the NLRA actually covers these guys under these conditions.

 

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When confronted with propositions that a person cannot possibly prove, always call your opponent a troll.

 

Honestly, it was a dick move to fire the interns. If they purposely showed up in improper attire I would have fired them too, because that's showing a complete lack of respect for authority. However, they wrote a letter requesting if they could dress a little more casually. That seems like a professional way to ask (but not necessarily receive) a change. However, they should be warned never to use the "but they can" argument in the future.

 

If the Interns are unpaid, the the NLRA laws do not apply to them; If they are compensated, i.e. paid by the hour, then they are employees and the laws would apply. I got the impression from the link supplied (and I could be wrong), that they were paid interns.