Comment on TikTok owner ByteDance sacks intern for sabotaging AI project
BertramDitore@lemm.ee 4 weeks agoI work at a small tech company, by no means big tech. I know it’s common for interns to be treated as employees, but it’s usually in violation of labor law. It’s one of those things that is extremely common, but no less illegal.
The US Department of Labor has a 7 part test to help determine if an intern is classified properly. #6 is particularly relevant to this.
monkeyman512@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I think an important detail is likely missing. My experience as a software engineer intern included getting paid well and full benefits as an employee. So legally I was an hourly employee and I think the label of “intern” was to set expectations work/performance/responsibility.
BertramDitore@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Yeah totally, that’s an important distinction. Paid interns are definitely different than unpaid interns, and can legally do essentially the same work as a paid employee.
The way the distinction was explained to me is that an unpaid intern is essentially a student of the company, they are there to learn. They often get university credit for the internship. A paid internship is essentially an entry-level job with the expectation that you might get more on-the-job training than a ‘normal’ employee.
This article doesn’t say if the intern was paid, but it does say the company reported the behavior to the intern’s university, so I’d guess it was unpaid.
Infynis@midwest.social 4 weeks ago
The university I went to told us not to bother with unpaid internships, because it’s just a sign the company doesn’t care about you. Paid internships pretty much always still give college credit.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Yup, we only do paid internships, but they don’t get full-time benefits, only whatever is required for part-time employees (because they are part-time, we only have them for 20-ish hours/week).
dan@upvote.au 4 weeks ago
Yeah, same at the company I work at - interns are paid and have benefits, including housing provided by the company.