Advice on rude boss saying I’ve wasted his time and should find something else
I am an undergrad student and currently working as a CRM Intern at a Mid Size firm. When this internship was offered to me, I was told I’d be working directly under the CEO of the company which, in retrospect, is a great perk and valuable for my CV.
It’s only been a month since I started working. But as someone who’s still in college, I had given them a clear heads up that I would need frequent leaves when exams are around the corner. With this, I took about a week’s worth of leaves - 6 for exams , 1 leave because someone from my family was hospitalised.
My boss is generally quite irritable; he’s a busy man and doesn’t like people who ask him too many questions. After working with him closely and taking advice from HR and coworkers on late replies from him and ghosting when I need an answer, I’d started asking the HR Director for certain workplace decisions that needed immediate answers but werent important enough for the CEO.
There have been MULTIPLE incidents where my boss as in the CEO has made me cry, all of which I’d already discussed with the HR Director.
• During a company trip, there was a lot of miscommunication during planning and he wa was quite rude and ignorant throughout. He continued to stay angry for some reason and that ruined the whole trip for me.
• He’s previously mentioned twice that I waste a lot of time, ask too many questions and ‘confuse’ him on ‘obvious’ decisions.
• He’s never given me guidance on how to research gifts and what he previously used to gift so I could search accordingly. Neither does he like me asking too many specific questions.
• Once, he said, “Are you serious? You need to use basic logic,” to a question abt a gift worth 20k loss if I would’ve done it on my own.
Note that he’s the CEO of the company and he still chose to have an intern directly work under him which makes him my reporting manager as well. I’d like to think he’s also accountable to mentor me or atleast, guide me if I’m doing something wrong. Although, the hierarchy is quite lost along the way.
My JD requires me to handle the company’s money and even though I know I ask a lot of questions, I’m new to this category of work and I don’t want to end up overpaying or ending up with a waste of gifts.
Here’s the deal :
Yesterday after two consecutive days of really good work with compliments from my boss, I texted the HR Director and requested if I could leave work 15 minutes early since my work was done for the day and I needed to reach the hospital.
She told me informally that I need to speak to my reporting manager instead (WHICH IN THIS CASE IMPLIES THE CEO HIMSELF), and so I did. I even offered to stay back in case there was work still left to do.
I’m guessing he must’ve been in a situation himself but instead of saying NO or OKAY, he ended up being angry at me, saying he didn’t have time to ‘handle my requests’ and that I needed to talk to my ‘REPORTING HR’ for this.
I replied saying I already asked the Director and she asked me to ask him instead.
This enraged him and he said it’s ’better if i find a place nearby’ and ‘i have been wasting his time more than saving it.’
If this statement implies that I have lost my internship, it’s because there’s no patience and hierarchy established in my internship period. i don’t have an established reporting manager who oversees my timings and work and the miscommunication of this between the director and ceo have put me at risk of losing my internship.
It’s a vague but implied statement that he doesn’t need me to work for him anymore although I’m currently awaiting a reply for clarification on the messages exchanged.
I understand that too many leaves and too many questions could make it feel like work wasn’t being done but there’s not a single day where I haven’t fulfilled his requests and needs. The whole point of being an intern is I get to learn things I don’t know about. I even worked overtime on the days building up to the trip, procuring new gifts and completely new vendors on my own with little to no replies.
I don’t know if I’m at fault, but I would like to know if a disorganised workplace environment is still I suitable to work in. My term ends in 4 months.
Edit: I’ve been terminated and they blamed it on me. They won’t be granting anything with respect to Certificate or even a Leaving Letter since I didn’t complete my internship according to agreement. 🥲🥲 how I wish Corporate was kinder 😭