First week in and JR1s are already exploiting us with daily 12-hour shifts and no roster. How do I deal with this?
I just started my internship, and it’s only been a few days but my co-interns and I are already being heavily exploited by our JR1s.
They flat-out refused to let us make a proper roster. Instead, they told us we have a mandatory 12-hour duty every single day until we "learn how to do sampling alone." It's blatantly obvious they are just saying this so they get free time while we do all the grunt work for 12 hours daily(YES, ALL 7 DAYS A WEEK WE HAVE TO WORK FOR 12 HOURS) .
To make matters worse, one JR finally gave us a single day off for tomorrow. But just now, they called back and revoked it, telling my co-intern and me that we have to come in and split the day into two 6-hour shifts.
What do I do? Who can I complain to without painting a massive target on my back for the rest of the year? How do I establish boundaries so they stop treating us like free labor? Any advice on handling toxic JRs would be highly appreciated.